HONEY
Honey is a mixture of sugars and other compounds. With respect to carbohydrates, honey is mainly fructose (about 38.5%) and glucose (about 31.0%),[2] making it similar to the synthetically produced inverted sugar syrup which is approximately 48% fructose, 47% glucose, and 5% sucrose. Honey's remaining carbohydrates include maltose, sucrose, and other complex carbohydrates.[2] Honey contains trace amounts of several vitamins and minerals.[22] As with all nutritive sweeteners, honey is mostly sugars and is not a significant source of vitamins or minerals.[23] Honey also contains tiny amounts of several compounds thought to function as poisons, including sodium cyanide, pinobanksin, vitamin C, catalase, and pinocembrin.[24][25][vague] The specific composition of any batch of honey depends on the flowers available to the bees that produced the honey.[23]
Honey – Analysis
- Fructose: 38.5%
- Glucose: 31.0%
- Sucrose: 1.0%
- Water: 17.0%
- Other sugars: 9.0% (maltose, melezitose)
- Ash: 0.17%
- Other: 3.38%
Honey has a density of about 1.36 kilograms per liter (36% denser than water).[26]
Honey – Organic
Certified Organic Honey is honey or honey combs produced, processed, and packaged in accordance with national regulations, and certified as such by some government body or an independent organic farming certification organization. In the United Kingdom, the standard covers not only the origin of bees, but also the siting of the apiaries. These must be on land that is certified as organic, and within a radius of 4 miles from the apiary site, nectar and pollen sources must consist essentially of organic crops or uncultivated areas. According to TheOrganicReport.com, organic honey is quite scarce to find because most beekeepers "routinely use sulfa compounds and antibiotics to control bee diseases, carbolic acid to remove honey from the hive, and calcium cyanide to kill colonies before extracting the honey, not to mention that conventional honeybees gather nectar from plants that have been sprayed with pesticides."
Honey and Vegans
During early vegan movements in the 1940s, The Vegan Society in England defined veganism as "the practice of living on the products of the plant kingdom to the exclusion of flesh, fish, fowl, eggs, honey, animal milk and its derivatives, and encourages the use of alternatives for all commodities derived wholly or in part from animals." Vegans do not eat honey as it is considered an animal product. There is active debate in the vegan community on the status of honey as an animal product and its appropriateness for human consumption, though it is regarded as non-vegan on food labels, and most vegans consider honey a non-vegan product.
Vegans will usually eat agave nectar instead of honey, which some consider superior due to its low glycemic index (GI), longer shelf life, similar taste, and quality as it stays smooth and doesn't crystallize like honey does.
Honey – Medicinal Uses:
For at least 2700 years, honey has been used by humans to treat a variety of ailments through topical application, but only recently have the antiseptic and antibacterial properties of honey been chemically explained.
Wound gels that contain antibacterial raw honey and have regulatory approval for wound care are now available to help conventional medicine in the battle against drug resistant strains of bacteria MRSA. As an antimicrobial agent honey may have the potential for treating a variety of ailments. One New Zealand researcher says a particular type of honey may be useful in treating MRSA infections. Antibacterial properties of honey are the result of the low water activity causing osmosis, hydrogen peroxide effect, and high acidity.
Honey appears to be effective in killing drug-resistant biofilms which are implicated in chronic rhinosinusitis.
Honey - Osmotic effect
Honey is primarily a saturated mixture of two monosaccharides. This mixture has a low water activity; most of the water molecules are associated with the sugars and few remain available for microorganisms, so it is a poor environment for their growth. If water is mixed with honey, it loses its low water activity, and therefore no longer possesses this antimicrobial property.
Honey – Hydrogen peroxide content
Hydrogen peroxide in honey is activated by dilution. However, unlike medical hydrogen peroxide, commonly 3% by volume, it is present in a concentration of only 1 mmol/L in honey. Honey chelates and deactivates the free ion, which starts the formation of oxygen free radicals produced by hydrogen peroxide and the antioxidant constituents in honey help clean up oxygen free radicals present. When used topically (as, for example, a wound dressing), hydrogen peroxide is produced by dilution with body fluids. As a result, hydrogen peroxide is released slowly and acts as an antiseptic.
Honey – In diabetic ulcers
Topical honey has been used successfully in a comprehensive treatment of diabetic ulcers when the patient cannot use other topical antibiotics.
Honey – Acidity
The pH of honey is commonly between 3.2 and 4.5. This relatively acidic pH level prevents the growth of many bacteria.
Honey – as Nutritional Supplement
Antioxidants in honey have even been implicated in reducing the damage done to the colon in colitis. Such claims are consistent with its use in many traditions of folk medicine
Honey - For Sore throats
Honey has also been used for centuries as a treatment for sore throats and coughs, and according to recent research may in fact be as effective as many common cough medicines.[68] It is important to remember however that this is an initial study with a small sample size. Mixed with lemon juice and consumed slowly, honey coats the throat, alleviating discomfort. The antibacterial and antiseptic properties of honey aid in healing sore throats and laryngitis.
Honey – Other medical applications
Some studies suggest that the topical use of honey may reduce odors, swelling, and scarring when used to treat wounds; it may also prevent the dressing from sticking to the healing wound.
Honey has been shown to be an effective treatment for conjunctivitis in rats.
Though widely believed to alleviate allergies, commercial honey has been shown to be no more effective than placebos in controlled studies of ocular allergies.[70] However, a recent study has shown pollen collected by bees to exert an anti allergenic effect, mediated by an inhibition of IgE immunoglobulin binding to mast cells. This inhibited mast cell degranulation and thus reduced allergic reaction.[71]
Honey mixed with water and vinegar was also used as a vermifuge. The concoction was called “Oxymellin.”
A review in the Cochrane Library suggests that honey could reduce the time it takes for a burn to heal - up to four days sooner in some cases. The review included 19 studies with 2,554 participants. Although the honey treatment healed moderate burns faster than traditional dressings did, the author recommends viewing the findings with caution, since a single researcher performed all of the burn studies.
Honey – Potential health hazards
Because of the natural presence of botulinum endospores in honey, children under one year of age should not be given honey. The more developed digestive systems of older children and adults generally destroy the spores. Infants, however, can contract botulism from honey.[74].
Infantile botulism shows geographical variation. In the UK there have only been six cases reported between 1976 and 2006, yet the USA show much higher rates 1.9 per 100,000 live births, 47.2% of which are in California. Although honey has been implicated as a risk factor for infection it is household dust that is the major source of spores. Therefore the risk honey poses to infant health is small, if uncertain[77].
Honey produced from the flowers of rhododendrons, mountain laurels, sheep laurel, and azaleas may cause honey intoxication. Symptoms include dizziness, weakness, excessive perspiration, nausea, and vomiting. Less commonly, low blood pressure, shock, heart rhythm irregularities, and convulsions may occur, with rare cases resulting in death. Honey intoxication is more likely when using "natural" unprocessed honey and honey from farmers who may have a small number of hives. Commercial processing, with pooling of honey from numerous sources generally dilutes any toxins.
Toxic honey may also result when bees are in close proximity to tutu bushes (Coriaria arborea) and the vine hopper insect (Scolypopa australis). Both are found throughout New Zealand. Bees gather honeydew produced by the vine hopper insects feeding on the tutu plant. This introduces the poison tutin into honey.[79] Only a few areas in New Zealand (Coromandel Peninsula, Eastern Bay of Plenty and the Marlborough Sound) frequently produce toxic honey. Symptoms of tutin poisoning include vomiting, delirium, giddiness, increased excitability, stupor, coma, and violent convulsions. In order to reduce the risk of tutin poisoning, humans should not eat honey taken from feral hives in the risk areas of New Zealand. Since December 2001, New Zealand beekeepers have been required to reduce the risk of producing toxic honey by closely monitoring tutu, vine hopper, and foraging conditions within 3 km of their apiary. (Sources: Wikipedia with links to Wikipedia)
