Honey and its Benefits

Honey, a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers, has been a staple ingredient for thousands of years for both food and medicine, and for many is a staple food prep providing a natural source of sugar and medicinal benefits.

Honey has approximately the same relative sweetness as that of granulated sugar. Most microorganisms do not grow in honey and it can be stored safely at room temperature, making it a great prep food item to store.

Typical natural bee honey contains 80% sugar, 17% water, and minerals such as magnesium, potassium, calcium, sodium chlorine, sulphur, iron and phosphate. Depending on the quality of the nectar and pollen, the vitamins contained in honey are B1, B2, C, B6, B5 and B3.

38% Fructose (releases energy slower, needs no insulin from pancreas to be processed)
31% Glucose (immediate energy, needs insulin from the pancreas for metabolizing)
17% Water

Did you know that more than three-fourths of the honey sold in U.S. grocery stores isn’t exactly what the bees produce?

Test results show that the pollen frequently has been filtered out of products labeled “honey.”

The removal of these microscopic particles from deep within a flower would make the nectar flunk the quality standards set by most of the world’s food safety agencies.

The food safety divisions of the World Health Organization, the European Commission and dozens of others also have ruled that without pollen there is no way to determine whether the honey came from legitimate and safe sources.

In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration says that any product that’s been ultra-filtered and no longer contains pollen isn’t honey. However, the FDA isn’t checking honey sold here to see if it contains pollen.

Ultra filtering is a high-tech procedure where honey is heated, sometimes watered down and then forced at high pressure through extremely small filters to remove pollen, which is the only foolproof sign identifying the source of the honey. It is a spin-off of a technique refined by the Chinese, who have illegally dumped tons of their honey – some containing illegal antibiotics – on the U.S. market for years.

source: FoodSafetyNews.com

Benefits From Honey

Natural source of sugar, providing energy, sweetness, and is much better for you than processed table sugar.

Will store indefinitely.

Eating locally produced honey will help reduce allergy symptoms by immunizing your body against local pollen.

Antibacterial.

Antioxidant.

Cough Suppressant.

Helps insomnia.

Helps upset Stomach.

Better than white sugar for blood sugar regulation.

Wounds and burns. 

NOTE:

It is advisable NOT to feed honey to infants.

Honey is a sugar. Do not eat jars full of it.

Like any sugar, it will put you on a sugar high and low, although somewhat less so than other sugars.

High caloric content.

Next time you purchase honey, do some research and look for real honey from bees, not processed fake honey… You will pay a little more for the real thing, but it’s worth it in taste and benefits.