Dr. Mercola October 04 2007 80,246 views
Adding a dollop of honey to your daily diet may help to fight your aging process, according to researchers from the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand.
The researchers fed 2-month-old rats a diet containing 10 percent honey, 8 percent sucrose, or no sugar at all for 12 months. They were tested every three months to measure their anxiety and spatial memory.
Honey-fed rats seemed to hold up better to the effects of aging. Specifically:
Honey-fed rats spent close to double the time in open sections of an assessment maze than sucrose-fed rats, which suggests they were less anxious.
Honey-fed rats were more likely to enter novel sections of a Y-shaped maze, which suggests they knew where they had been before and had better spatial memory.
The researchers believe that a honey-sweetened diet may also decrease anxiety and improve memory in aging humans. The beneficial effects may be due to the antioxidant properties of honey.
The study was funded by Fonterra, a dairy company that’s looking to market a honey-sweetened yogurt.
Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour meeting at Newcastle University, UK September 5-7, 2007
New Scientist September 14, 2007
Honey has numerous beneficial properties, many of which I've reported on this site in the past. Unfortunately, there is still a lot of confusion when it comes to this natural sweetener.
What is honey good for? Well, it's been shown to provide natural support for a wide range of body structures and functions. For one thing, honey contains a number of good health-promoting antioxidants.
Vitamins found in honey include thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B-12, and biotin. Along with minerals and amino acids, honey also contains a number of live enzymes that help promote optimal health.
Honey is also known to help with occasional diarrhea and insomnia.
The Problem With the Majority of U.S. Honey
If you've read my book Sweet Deception, you're likely already familiar with the massive fraud going on with U.S. honey. As many VitalVotes readers have pointed out, much of the honey in the United States (perhaps up to two-thirds of the annual honey production) is made by force-feeding bees high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) or other sugars.
This is done so that the bees can produce honey year-round; however the end result is NOT pure honey, but rather a partial honey/HFCS mix.
Most honey sold is also pasteurized, which means that the beneficial enzymes have been damaged or killed off entirely.
So if you choose to use honey, either topically to soothe your skin or as a sweetener, make sure you are getting pure RAW honey. Perhaps the best way to do this is to find a local source for the raw honey, and then ask the beekeeper directly whether or not he or she supplements the bees' diet with HFCS.
If you are unable to find any reliable sources of raw honey, I recently found one I can recommend. I was also able to secure a supply for our store to make it more convenient for you. Pure Gold Raw Honey is an awesome alternative to table sugar.
Is Honey an Acceptable Sweetener?
Many feel that because honey is "natural", it is OK to use. However, this is not entirely true, particularly if you use the processed and refined varieties.
I believe that, similar to most refined foods, refined and pasteurized honey can promote disease and damage your health. Raw honey, on the other hand, can be used as a sweetener - as long as you use it in moderation.
The average American consumes far more than 150 pounds of sugar every year, primarily in the form of high-fructose corn syrup. If you restricted your use of Pure Gold Raw Honey to less than 5-10 pounds per year - and used that as your sole source of sugar - in my opinion, it would be unlikely to cause you significant health concerns.
Remember though, even raw honey is still a form of sugar, and it will cause your insulin levels to increase. This should not be a problem if you are healthy and only eat it in small amounts, but you should NOT use raw honey or any form of sweetener if you suffer from signs of elevated insulin levels, such as:
Bees are truly a gift to our society, even beyond the honey they produce. Sadly, more than one-quarter of America's 2.4 million bee colonies have recently died, and experts are still trying to figure out why. Everything from "colony collapse disorder" to genetically modified crops and cell phones have been suggested as causes.
If honeybees disappear, it could quickly eliminate much of our food supply. Why? Because the bees are a necessary part of the equation for pollination of many of our food plants. It's just one more example of how fragile and interdependent our biosystem really is.
Other than honey, natural bee products like propolis and royal jelly can also be very powerful natural healing adjuncts if used wisely and properly. Bee venom, too, has some incredibly potent neuroactive peptides that have been used by medical science to treat rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.
I recommend unpasteurized honey. I found raw honey at Whole Foods or I purchase it from a farmer. Honey is a natural sweetener and a natural source of energy for the body. Honey is rich in vitamins, amino acids, calcium, iron, magnesium and zinc-, all of which are essentials to good health. Honey contains several compounds that function as antioxidants.
I keep it in my freezer. It‘s so hard to remember to always take everything , but when I remember, my kids love the taste and eat it off the spoon. I buy the most expensive one from my healthfood store figuring it is the better quality one.
Don‘t forget to buy local honey due to the local pollens the bees are using to make honey help promote your immunity. Some honey has been mentioned from New Zealand as beneficial due to some homeopathic plant/flower. But it makes sense to me to consume from your local area versus from a store, even if its organic, where the bees could be from anywhere in or out of the US.
Hi Patty D - I‘ve heard that raw honey may not make the best Kombucha tea.
ITX,
I learned growing up in Key West that (Key Limes) do the same as lemons. Old Conch ditty
(We uses ‘em in juices,
we uses ‘em in pies,
and if you uses limes enough,
you‘ll never never die.)
LOL
Since then I discovered a little book called "Vermont Folk Medecine".
Anyone know the "correct" cider vinegar to buy? I was told the regular table vinegar is not good or good for you.
thanks for input
Hey Jen47 - lived in the Keys for almost 2o years and boy do I miss our key lime tree - now that I'm back in Maine and politics is as it is, coupled with all I have learned in 17 years on food = good health or food = poor health...with the outcome dependent on "what goes pass the lips" and the nasty circle of those who profess to have the nation's health in their best interest -what a crock! - because if they did - those medical professionals would scream the benefits of ORGANIC FRUITS AND VEGETABLES!!!!
AND TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT THE DAIRY - NOT PRETTY
Dr John McDougall, MD explains in easy to understand some very interesting findings in the following video
video.google.com/videoplay
I feel like a conched maniac(pronouced konked for those not familiar with Keys terms)trying to educate the world one sweet soul at a time.
Hi Bud, it's a challenge to get bees through the winter, too true. However, if you want to keep your bees healthy, keep some of the honey they produce in the growing season back. They create the food with the nourishment they most need for themselves and their young. Providing them with sugar water or corn syrup is like feeding our kids only sugars, and expecting them to grow straight and learn well. The bees need the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, antibacterials, and other honey components even more now, with the increased weather variability starting to hit us through global warming. Lots of research has been done on adding and removing stress in bee living, and less-stressed bees survive better, and produce more and better honey! Cheers, Jaiem
If you do not live near a whole foods, I have found that the Y.S. Organic Honey is awesome. It is not clear and amber colored like most honeys. It is not crystallized either, but it is a light lemon yellow color and opaque. Their website says it is this way because the bees collect it in such a cold (and remote, making it free of toxins) place they have to pack it with more nutrients in order to have a more dense source of fuel than bees that live in warm climates. www.tropicaltraditions.com also gets their private lable honey from this area and I can not tell the difference between the two, and you can get into their healthy buyers club for discounts on bulk purchases. I recently saw a great price on the Y.S. Organic honey at www.vitacost.com about $8 for 8oz. If my kids get the slightest tickle in their throats, I give them 1/2 teaspoon of raw honey and 1/2 teaspoon or raw organic coconut oil with either kombucha or green yerbamate tea.
Remember, you do not have to refrigerate or freeze raw unprocessed honey to keep it over a long period of time. For example, honey was found in an Egyptian pyramid and it was still good! It was over 5000 years old!
I didn't notice replies from many beekeepers here. I have kept bees from childhood, except for the time I was in college, and I am now retired, and have always enjoyed products of the hive. Some statements above need a bit of clarification.
1) Beekeepers in general, and especially the small operators are extremely jealous of the reputation of pure honey, which must not contain any HFCS at all. This adulterant is easily detected and when found, the unscrupulous individuals are not only charged with a crime, but made most unwelcome in the community of honey producers.
2)Yes, sugar is often fed to bees, but always after all honey has been harvested. This sugar is an aid to supplement honey the bees have produced for their own food to help them survive the winter, and is completely consumed before the spring honey flows begin. Beekeepers always remove boxes of honeycombs from which honey has been harvested, and return these same empty boxes to the hives the next year when the honey flow has begun. Beekeepers never harvest honey from combs used by bees for their own brood raising and storage of pollen and honey for their own use.
tvf's two comments about adulterated honey and feeding sugar to bees are correct. Like him, I am a long time beekeeper (>30 years) and promote beekeeping in my local community.
Find a beekeeper at your local farmer's market and ask for "coldpack" honey. This is honey that has not been pasteurized. Ask them what chemicals they use in their hives to control the various pathogens such as mites, foulbrood etc. I am a big advocate of not putting anything in a hive. Rather let bees take care of their own colony = "survival of the fittest bee".
I highly recommend that you learn the art of beekeeping. With the invasion of the corporate mentality into all aspects of agriculture, we need more backyard beekeepers in our community who will practice the true art of "organic" beekeeping and help turn the tide on CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder).
Bee well.