Factors Governing the Benefits of Honey

Factors Governing the Benefits of Honey


There are numerous health benefits of honey; it can be used as an antioxidant, has antimicrobial, antibacterial and antifungal properties, boosts athletic performance, and is a rich source of vitamins and minerals. Milk and honey are used by many due to its skin care benefits. However, the benefits of honey that we get greatly depend on its quality. Honey available in different honey jars are not of same quality and hence do not provide same benefits.

The high dependence of the health benefits of honey and its price on its quality have made it important for both honey manufacturers and consumers understand the various factors that affect the quality of honey. Some of these factors include the type of fowers used, the blending process, storage conditions, temperature of heatng, etc. These factors have been explained in detail below:

• Type of flowers: According to the Honey Research Center at the University of Waikato, New Zealand, there is not enough evidence to draw conclusion on the properties of honey especially the antimicrobial properties based on the type of flowers used for honey production. However, extensive research has been carried out on honeydew honey obtained from the conifer forests in central European mountains and manuka honey obtained from New Zealand. The above mentioned honeydew honey has been found to have high microbial activity while manika honey has been found to have high non-peroxide activity.
• Blending: It is also believed that polyfloral honey (honey obtained from more than one flower) provides more benefits than monofloral honey. Hence many companies sell blended honey. Blended honey offers benefits of variety of honeys and hence is considered to be healthier than non-blended honey.
• Storage: Honey when stored for a long duration becomes dark in color. It loses some of its properties and may also ferment if the water content is high. Hence prolonged storage of honey should be avoided and newly harvested honey should be preferred.
• Heating: Heating honey leads to drastic changes in its chemical composition. As a result, heating to high temperatures reduces the benefits of honey. No wonder many people prefer raw honey or organic honey or raw organic honey. While raw honey by definition signifies less process (and no heating), organic honey is prepared using stringent organic honey production and processing standards, in which heating to high temperatures is not allowed.
• Water content: Honey can also udergo fermentation occasionally. If the water content of honey is high (above 19%), the chances of it getting fermented are high. You can find the water content of honey using a refractometer. Further, freely flowing honey either contains higher water content or has been heated to disturb the natural crystallization process.
• Color of honey: Color of honey is a very useful tool to judge its quality. Light colored honey is more valued than dark colored honey as the former has a delicate flavor. Honey becomes dark upon storage and heating.

Benefits of Organic Honey

Benefits of Organic Honey


Some people have the opinion that all honey available in the market is natural honey obtained from the wild. Others feel that honey production carried out on chemically sprayed farms cannnot get contaminated with the pesticides sprayed on the crops and weeds.

However, the truth is that honey bees may also get affected by the extensive pesticide usage which goes on the chemically treated farms. Moreover, non-organic honey production involves extensive usage of antibiotics for disease control. It should be noted that so far, there is no proof that organic honey is healthier than non-organic honey.

Then why should one eat organic honey? People prefer to be cautious. Most of our decisions are based on our beliefs and conscience. Since organic honey production involves following stringent guidelines, people feel secure when they eat organic honey as compared to when they eat non-organic honey.

Given below are some of the ways in which pesticide and antibiotic contamination of honey can take place:

Contamination of Pesticides in Honey
Honey can be contaminated with the pesticides sprayed on crops through one or more of the following ways:

• In some cases, when the plants and weeds containing flowers have been sprayed with pesticides, the honey bees are poisoned with pesticides.
• At times, the pesticide gets sprayed on the honey bees directly.
• In many occasions, honey bees collect nectar and pollen that is contaminated with pesticides.
• When pesticides are sprayed, part of it gets accumulated in water on or near the plants. When honey bees drink this water, they are also contaminated.
• In few occasions, the pesticide gets sprayed on the honey bee hives or gets transported to it from the sprayed plants.

Residues of Antibiotics in Honey
Conventional honey bees are given large doses of antibiotics to help them protect from diseases. Unfortunately, the honey also gets contaminated with these antibiotics. In 2002, samples of Chinese honey were tested for the presence of antibiotics in Europe. Several samples were found to contain traces of antibiotics, which led to a ban on the imports of Chinese honey in Europe. (The ban was later removed in 2004 due to improvements in Chinese veterinary standards and imports of honey from China were resumed.)

What leads to this antibiotics contamination? Unlike organic honey production, conventional honey production does not involve stringent guidelines for the quantity and mode of transmission of antibiotics to the honey bees. As a result, apiculturists have a free hand in using these antibiotics. When farmers use excessive quantities of antibiotics the chance of contamination increases.

What is the problem with residues of antibiotics being found in honey? The antibiotics given to the honey bees are veterinary antibiotics such as chloramphenicol, streptomycin and sulfonamides. Large doses of chloramphenicol administered into the human beings may cause cancer and aplastic anaemia. Similarly, high doses of streptomycin and sulfonamides are harmful to the human body.

Many countries have not banned the usage of these harmful drugs in apiculture. The EU has banned all three while the US has banned chloramphenicol.