Don't let claims on honey labels dupe you; If it's made in America, it's likely not organic

Seattle P-I ^ | December 30, 2008 | ANDREW SCHNEIDER

[kbennkc]

Warm your honey can in a pan of water on your stove at low heat and it will be just right again .

[o_zarkman44]

Honey has a lot of good restorative qualities. In addition, the naturally occurring sugar is much healthier than the processed varietys. I have heard the allergy relationship, but don’t know if it’s real or not. but it makes sense.

Also, supposedly locally produced honey, and other food items indiginous to an area within a longitude and latitude are supposed to be healthier than imported foods. Something about Ying and Yang beliefs of harmonious nature.

[brytlea]

You can just heat the honey (in a pan of hot water) to uncrystalize it. BTW they found honey in some Egyptian tombs and it was still edible after thousands of years. At least they said it was...they didn't share any with me!

[brytlea]

While a lot of the organic craze is silly, to compare it to bear crap and poison ivy has to be one of the silliest things I’ve read! Thanks for the laugh.

[JACKRUSSELL]

Honey brokers and scientists say that not only is Chinese honey being laundered in other countries to avoid stiff U.S. tariffs and inspections, but also it's being sold as "malt sweetener," "blended syrup" and "rice syrup."

Florida's inspectors say some honey exported from China and India is put through an ultra-filtration process that is meant to remove contaminants. Honey is heavily diluted with water, then repeatedly boiled and filtered until it returns to a more natural consistency. Those who have tested and tasted the filtered brew said the process can completely remove all traces of contaminants, "including the color."

...The label on Heins Organic Trail Honey, packaged by Pure Foods, errs on the side of overdisclosure, listing five countries of origin: U.S., Canada, China, Argentina and Australia. Ingalls, however, said that, too, isn't exactly right: He no longer imports from China and is just using up old labels.



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[kimmie7]

I get my honey from a couple of different friends who have their own hives. yuuuummmm

[Cold Heart]

I can’t keep the commercial stuff from crystalizing either. I figure they must be watering it down or something. I never filtered the honey either, possibly a wax content may have helped preserve it. I am considering starting some hives again. Oh yeah, it was mostly from black berry blossoms.

[metmom]

I asked my allergist if there was any truth to the claim that honey helped with allergies and he said yes.

I was more than a little surprised, coming from a medical professional.

He said it’s not as good as allergy shots, but for some people, it can help.

It helped mr. mm. He had such bad reactions to the shots that he had to quit them. Once we started eating local honey, his allergies improved DRAMATICALLY.

[fightinJAG]

Wow, how long can you store honey?

I have some honey that crystallizes over time. I was wondering if that meant it was mixed with sugar and wasn’t pure honey.

[Cold Heart]

Not necessarily, crystallizing is a normal process. Higher pollen content also makes it crystallize faster. However, the quick rate in which the normal off the shelf honey crystallizes gives rise to suspicion as to question what they are doing to the honey. Gentle heating dissolves the crystals.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

Seems that if you want organic honey, you don’t want it to come from bees that forage crops that are sometimes sprayed. As the article notes, there can be no guarantee that the bees were monogamous towards their organic orchard.

A solution for those of us who prefer to limit our second-hand pesticide intake would seem to be to purchase desert honey, such as mesquite. Less or no spraying of desert crops like that. Tasty, full-flavored honey, too!

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"I asked my allergist if there was any truth to the claim that honey helped with allergies and he said yes."

Yes. It is a similar principle to allergy shots, which are injections of small, calibrated quantities of the allergens the patient is sensitive to, and which gradually desensitize the patient. But since honey is administered orally, its desensitizing effect is kind of a crapshoot. There's a reason that allergy shots are shots and not pills. But, can't hurt. Shouldn't be fed to infants, though, and keep in mind it'll rot your teeth as well as any Mounds bar.

By the same token, I knew a guy who lived in a neighborhood rife with poison oak who swore that if he ate (as in put in his mouth, chewed, swallowed) a few leaves of poison oak early each Spring, he would be rendered immune from contact with the stuff for the rest of the year. Not sure I'd recommend that, but the principle would seem to be similar.

[DariusBane]

THe average person is incapable of making a risk benefit analysis.

[JoeProBono]

[allmendream]

Bee sh*t is what comes out a bee’s butt and it isn’t honey.

[SunkenCiv]

I tried agave syrup the other day, surprisingly similar in taste to other syrups, at least when used on food (in my case, cooked oatmeal). Never heard of it prior to that.

The Truth about Agave Syrup:
Not as Healthy as You May Think
by John Kohler
http://www.living-foods.com/articles/agave.html

[Daffynition]

I’m going to Whole Foods today and am going to check it out. ;)

[SunkenCiv]

It’s probably cheap, or cheaper than maple syrup — except at the health food store, where everything is pricey. :’)

[Daffynition]

Grade A - dark amber ‘maple syruple’ is going for about $50./gallon about now. The new run should be starting soon. Yum!

[Lafayette]

There are all kinds of issues at work here. There are enough honeybee pests that beekeepers are often forced to use pesticides in their hives. These pesticides get into the wax and eventually some of it gets into the honey. There are some passionate beekeepers (mostly hobbiests like me) who are doing "integrated pest management" to avoid pesticides if at all possible. I also try not to smoke my bees as the smoke is a contaminant.

Bees do forage for miles around the hive and there is no telling what they will bring home. If a neighbor misapplies a pesticide (Sevin for example) and the bees drag it back to the hive, you can end up with a large pile of dead bees in front of your hive, and a hive that may collapse.

Raw, unprocessed honey contains enzymes and flavors that are destroyed by heat. It also can contain small amounts of salmanella which is why it shouldn't be fed to humans under one year of age (although there is debate about that, too). Those enzymes are much of what gives honey its healing properties. Raw honey is absolutely the best thing for burns. Most store-bought honey is pasteurized which destroys the enzymes and much of the flavor.

Beekeeping is a great hobby. It is not all that expensive and it is one way to guarantee the quality of your honey.