Acclaimed Benefits of Honey
Acclaimed Benefits of Honey
Honey is generally safe but
excessive consumption must be avoided. It is the one product that could be said
to be everybody's meat and nobody's poison. However, there is a lot of
'biochemical individuality' among humans, to use the term credited to famous
nutritionist late Prof. Roger Williams. He argues that there is no such a thing
as an average person: we are all genetically and biologically unique.
This might just be the reason that
the narratives about honey appear to vary from person to person. So there may
be no lies or false claims about honey but simply no generalizations. Most
microorganisms do not grow in honey, so sealed honey does not spoil, even after
thousands of years! “All honey is antibacterial, because the bees add an enzyme
that makes hydrogen peroxide,” said Peter Molan, director of the Honey Research
Unit at the University of Waikato in New Zealand. This contributes to the
incredibly long shelf-life of honey. However, honey sometimes gets contaminated
by some air-borne bacteria known as Clostridium which is very hard to kill by
heat. Therefore, it is not good to feed infants (2 years and below) with honey;
they have not developed enough immunity.
Although some evidence indicates
that honey may be effective in treating diseases and other medical conditions,
such as wounds and burns the overall evidence for its use in therapy is not
conclusive or generalized. But some individuals have claimed that applying
honey on fire burns not only helps the healing but prevents scarification of
the skin. It is speculated that the drying effect of the simple sugars in honey
and honey's anti-bacterial nature combine to create this effect. Also, honey
with warm water has helped many to be relieved of cough, catarrh and sore
throat or throat irritation. Cracked voices can be restored through licking of
honey.
The World Health Organization
recommends honey as a treatment for coughs and sore throats, including for
children, stating that no reason exists to believe it is less effective than a
commercial remedy. Honey may also help disorders such as ulcers and bacterial
gastroenteritis and there have been claims from studies that honey is
anti-cancer, possessing carcinogen-preventing and anti-tumour properties! Honey
increases athletic performance, dating to ancient Olympic athletes who ate
honey and dried figs to enhance their performance and improve energy recovery
time. This has been verified with modern studies.
Next time before you go for a
workout take a spoon of honey to enable you to go for the extra mile. Also, the
antioxidants in honey are a cholesterol fighter and have the potential to
protect against heart disease! Honey helps regulate blood sugar. Even though
honey contains simple sugars, it is not the same as white sugar or artificial
sweeteners. Its exact combination of fructose and glucose actually helps the
body regulate blood sugar levels. The live enzyme in honey, the highest in all
foods, helps to break down toxic substances in foods and drinks (acting as detoxifier).
Additionally, honey is said to be useful in slowing ageing, improving eyesight,
weight loss, curing impotence, premature ejaculation, urinary tract disorders,
bronchial asthma, diarrhoea and nausea.
Detecting Pure Honey
To reap the most benefits from your
honey, make sure it is pure and raw. And this is where the main lie about honey
is told: to claim that 'this is pure honey' when it is not! Raw honey contains
vitamins, minerals and enzymes not present in refined honey. High-quality honey
can be distinguished by fragrance, taste, and consistency. Ripe, freshly
collected, high-quality honey at 20 °C should flow in a continuous stream,
without breaking into separate drops. When you stop pouring, the honey should
return back like elastic. After falling down, the honey should form a bead.
The honey, when poured, should form
small, temporary layers that disappear fairly quickly, indicating high
viscosity. If not, it indicates excessive water content (over 20%) of the
product. Honey with excessive water content is not suitable for long-term
preservation. In jars, fresh honey should appear as a pure, consistent fluid,
and should not set in layers. Because of its unique composition and chemical
properties, honey is suitable for long-term storage. Honey and objects immersed
in it have been preserved for centuries. The key to preservation is limiting
access to humidity.
Honey is hydrophilic (attracts
moisture) and so exposure to moist air eventually dilutes it to the point that
fermentation can begin (which is increase in the yeast content). Otherwise, in
its cured state, it has sufficiently high sugar content to inhibit
fermentation.
Adulteration
of honey is the addition of glucose, dextrose, molasses, corn syrup, sugar
syrup, invert sugar, flour, starch, or any other similar product, other than
the floral nectar gathered, processed,
and stored in the comb by honey
bees. The goal is to change its flavour or viscosity, make it cheaper to
produce, or increase the fructose content to stave off crystallization (solidification).
The motive of gain by deception is the commonest reason for adulteration. Even
half-pressed honey comb can be immersed in glucose syrup and sold as original
honey comb! According to the Codex Alimentarius of the United Nations, any
product labelled as honey or pure honey must be a wholly natural product,
although different nations have their own laws concerning labelling.
Unfortunately, adulterated honey is very difficult to distinguish from the
natural product by mere looking.
Here are some known tests of purity
besides the unbroken pouring test: (1) Just put honey in a plastic container
inside the freezer. If it solidifies, it means it's adulterated; if the honey
remained sticky after you have frozen it for many hours, days or weeks, it means
it is pure honey. (2) It is believed that when pure honey is held on a thin
sheet of paper, the reverse side of the paper won't get stained, but the
adulterated product would stain. (3) Pour some honey into a clear glass or
plastic plate till it covers the base. Then pour some water over the honey (the
two will not mix). After swirling the plate, the water will remain above the
honey; after about a minute the honey will form a honeycomb pattern.
Adulterated honey will fail this test. (4) Dogs don't like honey. But if it is
adulterated (mixed with some form of sugar), then the dogs would lick it. (5) A
match stick dipped in pure honey will still catch fire but adulterated honey
will not.
Finally, let us mention that some
beekeepers use sugar syrup to boost honey production, but only as a way of
giving a newly started hive a boost to their brood production which in turn
produces more bees for quick honey build-up. This results in a stronger hive
and more bees to produce honey from the actual nectar sources available. They
claim they aren't trying to cheat anyone! Sugar syrup is also converted into
actual honey by the bees. Sugar water is also used to build the comb, where
they not only store honey but also for the Queen to lay her eggs. So sugar
water is used as a tool for the beekeeper to boost brood production. Whether
that impacts on the final quality of the honey is argument for another day.
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