Honey: How Sweet It Is! BY DARYL MOSS
As already mentioned, raw honey is an antioxidant, antibacterial and helpful for healing wounds. Honey is also antifungal, meaning that honey has all sorts of medicinal properties, used both internally and topically.
A roughly 8,000-year-old cave painting in Spain shows a person climbing a ladder to collect honey from a hive, illustrating that humans have been using this sweet treat since ancient times. Egyptian hieroglyphs even show both honey and beekeepers. Hives and honey had many uses: from culinary to healing to monetary.
Manuka honey, used topically, has been shown to be especially e-•ectiveforwounds, - ro sacea, acne, chapped lips, skin irritations, and dry skin care. Real Manuka honey comes from the bees that pollinate the Manuka bush, which grows primarily in New Zealand. New Zealand is on the other side of the world so, naturally, Manuka honey is much more expensive than local honey. Unfortunately, some of the products are also adulterated. The best way to tell if it is real is to check the label for a UMF rating.
Fast forward to the present. Although honey is no longer used as currency, it is a wonderful sweetener, and its healing properties are no longer an old wives’ tale. Science has shown honey to have antibacterial properties and the nutrients. Pasteurization does, howis also considered an antioxidant, due to ever, keep the honey in a liquid state and the amazing variety of nutrients contained prevents it from fermenting. Depending within. And research is ongoing to see on the company, some honey has added how honey may help in fighting certain ingredients, such as high fructose corn cancers and other conditions. syrup and hidden chemicals. None of these should be part of your diet. To be clear, we are not talking about honey that comes in little bear-shaped contain- For at least the past 10 years, there ers. Rather, we are referring to raw - unfil have been reports of imported honey be- Even with all these amazing properties in tered honey, ideally sourced from the bee- ing found to have dangerous chemicals. raw honey, it is still a form of sugar. We keeper. Many beekeepers sell their honey Honey is big business and, according should eat only a small amount each day. at farmers’markets and you can also tofind a recent article in Insider.com, honey raw honey, clearly labeled, in health food is the third most faked food in the world. WARNING: Anyone allergic to bee stings stores and some supermarkets. An additional problem is that many of the needs to be very cautious when using fake honey exporters put fake labels on honey, as there is a possibility of reacting At this point, it’s only fair that I disclose the jars so we, as consumers, might not to the pollen in the honey. I am a huge proponent of eating whole be able to tell what we are buying. Yet n n n foods, which are as close to their origi- another reason to support your local beeDaryl Moss, a Certified Holistic nal form as possible. The challenge here: keepersandpurchaserawhoney! Health Coach, specializes in workmost honey purchased in a grocery store ing with people who have digestive is not a whole food. It has been adulter- If you have ever had raw honey, direct disease, helping them live their ated and, in that process, lost much of its from a local beekeeper, you will know that healthiest and best lives without the nutrient value. the taste is di-•erent from what comes out pain, discomfort and embarrassof those little plastic bears. And, all raw ment that comes with those conditions. She What happens? Most of the honey found honey does not taste the same; it varies works one on one with clients over the phone or in your local supermarket has been ultra- depending on what plants the bees are via Zoom or Facetime. Visit her website at www. filtered or pasteurized, and the pollinating. heating It can be fun to do a blind taste missiontowellness.com; 914-468-4604 or Daryl@ processinpasteurizationkillso-test many • ofandfindyourfavorite. missiontowellness.com spring 2022
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