Bees are one of the most industrious insects and produce the most beloved, delicious and sweet liquid called honey. They gather nectar from flowering plants and transform it into a beautiful golden liquid that humans love to consume.
Aside from its sweet taste, honey is known to be very nutritious. It contains fructose, glucose, maltose and sucrose. Honey also has tons of antioxidants that the body needs to protect your cells from free radicals which may play a role in heart disease, cancer and others.
Honeybee’s delicious honey: behind the scenes
Before it became a sumptuous golden liquid called honey, it is made from flowering plants. Elizabeth Palermo, a writer from Live Science, wrote about how nectar is extracted and turned into honey. According to Palermo, “nectar — a sugary liquid — is extracted from flowers using a bee’s long, tube-shaped tongue and stored in its extra stomach, or “crop.” While sloshing around in the crop, the nectar mixes with enzymes that transform its chemical composition and pH, making it more suitable for long-term storage.”
After extracting nectar from the flower, honeybees will go back to the hive and pass it to another bee by regurgitating it into another bee’s mouth. Palermo added that the regurgitation process is repeated until the partially digested nectar is finally deposited into the honeycomb.
To thicken the texture of the liquid, the bees will then fan the honeycomb with their wings. When the water from the honeycomb has evaporated, they will then seal the honeycomb through secreting a liquid from the bee’s abdomen until it hardens and turns into a beeswax. This way, the honey will be kept until they use it for the winter season. The kind of the flower that the honeybees got the nectar from will greatly affect the taste of the honey.
The healthiest of them all
The healthiest honey out there is the Manuka honey. It has stronger antimicrobial properties. It can also be used to treat wounds of all kinds. It came from a flowering shrub in New Zealand also called manuka plant. This is also the most expensive honey since it is only cultured in New Zealand and some parts of Australia. Manuka honey has a higher concentration of methylglyoxal that is responsible for its antibacterial effects.
Manuka honey is most commonly used to treat sore throats, help heal cuts, clear infections, ease stomach aches, improve digestion and boost the immune system. It is also said that manuka honey is used to provide energy.
It also prides itself of its strong antiviral properties. Manuka honey is said to have hydrogen peroxide that is produced from the bee enzyme. It also aids in attacking bacterial infections and helps prevent bacteria from attacking the body.
Natural versus cured honey
Eversince the demand for good quality honey grew, many manufacturers saw this as an opportunity to tweak the process of making honey. There is raw honey, which has undergone the natural process of gathering nectar to bees regurgitating the nectar to produce honey, and there is the pasteurized version where some manufacturers pasteurize the honey and have additional sugar in them.
Raw honey benefits
Raw honey came straight from the comb inside the hive. According to a website called Medical News Today,”the beekeeper will usually just filter the honey to remove small bits of debris, including pollen, beeswax, and parts of dead bees. They do not pasteurize the honey. Raw honey appears cloudy or opaque because it contains these extra elements.”
Raw honey contains different kinds of nutrients which pasteurization might remove. Honey is rich in antioxidants and antibacterial properties which was developed during the process of regurgitation. It also has pain relieving properties. Raw honey is also healthier for diabetes patients rather than processed sugar.
Pasteurized honey
Some people believe that pasteurization may remove the vitamins and nutrients present in natural honey. Manufacturers pasteurize honey in order to extend shelf life and to make the texture smoother. Pasteurization will destroy the yeast found in honey and apply heat.
Although it hasn’t been confirmed that pasteurization actually destroys some of the beneficial properties of honey, the downside of it is that some manufacturers would increase the amount of sugar present in the honey to make it sweeter. Some would add products sweeteners such as fructose corn syrup.
Common Questions
What is better light or dark honey?
The color and texture of the honey will depend on the nectar source. However, light colored honey has a milder taste compared to the darker ones. Darker colored honey has more flavor and also has more nutrients. It is important to check the source of the nectar to identify the health benefits of that kind of honey.
Is Manuka honey better than regular honey?
Manuka honey is special, manuka plants have stronger antibacterial and antioxidant properties thus manuka is better than regular honey. Manuka honey has a darker color and thicker texture. It also has a non peroxide antibacterial activity meaning it can easily relieve sore throats, mouth ulcers, sore gums and quite possibly indigestion.
What health problems can honey cure?
According to a research conducted by Saeed Samarghandian, Tahereh Farkondeh and Fariborz Samini, “according to modern scientific literature, honey may be useful and has protective effects for the treatment of various disease conditions such as diabetes mellitus, respiratory, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, and nervous systems, even it is useful in cancer treatment because many types of antioxidant are present in honey.”