honey

No, eating honey won't help your seasonal allergies

Christopher Labos MD, MSc — Fri, 21 Apr 2023 10:00:00 +0000

This article was originally posted in the Montreal Gazette.

Apparently, if you search the internet, you will find articles saying that eating honey will help treat your seasonal allergies. It won’t. Honey can do many things, but it can’t do that.

Does honey have any value as a preservative?

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Thu, 26 May 2022 01:43:56 +0000

Yes, in a limited way. Honey is a concentrated solution of various sugars in water. The main sugars are fructose and glucose with smaller amounts of sucrose (table sugar) also present. Of course, there are also various other compounds that are responsible for the flavour and aroma and which may also contribute to the preservative properties. The main preservative action, however, is due to the sugars’ ability to remove water from microorganisms by the process of osmosis.

Babies, Botulism and Honey

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Wed, 25 May 2022 10:00:00 +0000

The young mother was surprised by the doctor’s question. “What does your little girl eat for breakfast?” “Only hot oatmeal with milk,” she answered. “Does she put any sugar on it?” the doctor queried. Now the lady became indignant. “We eat only whole, natural foods. No meat, no processed food, no sugar. Sugar is poison. We use only natural honey on the oatmeal.” And with those words, she confirmed the doctor’s suspicion. The little girl’s baby brother who had been brought to the hospital suffering from some mysterious ailment had botulism poisoning!

You Asked: Is it true that infants should not be given honey?

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Thu, 03 Jan 2019 20:46:17 +0000

Problems can arise if infants under a year old, or patients who are immune-compromised, ingest honey that contains spores of Clostridium botulinum bacteria. These spores are ubiquitous in soil and can be transferred to beehives by bees as they accumulate dust during foraging for pollen and nectar. Under the right conditions, such as the low oxygen environment found in the digestive tract, the spores can germinate into vegetative bacteria that can grow and multiply. As they do, they produce a protein, botulin, the most toxic substance known. One microgram can be lethal to a human!

Farmer ants and their aphid herds

Ada McVean B.Sc. — Wed, 16 Aug 2017 15:35:57 +0000

Several species of ants have a special symbiotic relationship with aphids- they farm them! Aphids feed primarily on the sap from plants and secrete a liquid called honeydew. This secretion is very sugar-rich, and quite favoured by ants as a food source.

King Tut’s Sweet Tooth

OSS — Wed, 31 May 2017 14:28:18 +0000

Among the treasures discovered during the famous 1922 archaeological excavation of King Tutankhamun’s tomb was a jar of honey. Archaeologists tasted it (brave souls those archeologists), and to their amazement, found it to be as sweet as, well, honey. Due to its low water content and acidic pH, this bee regurgitation is one of the few foods that does not spoil. The sticky goo starts out as flower nectar, containing about 60% water.

Fear of Killer Bees

OSS — Thu, 25 May 2017 00:10:24 +0000

In about 1956, biologists in Brazil imported a number of queen honeybees from Tanzania, intending to crossbreed them with local honey bees to produce a strain that made more honey and was better adapted to tropical conditions. In 1957, the African bees escaped into the wild, and the original plan backfired. Not only did honey production in the region drop sharply, but according to a 1965 report, hundreds of Brazilian dogs, pigs, and chickens were stung to death. In 1986, a Costa Rican student reportedly died after an estimated 8,000 killer bees stung him. The U.S.

Honey Is More Than Just Sweet… It's also Antimicrobial

Ada McVean B.Sc. — Thu, 18 May 2017 16:42:47 +0000

Honey isn’t just useful as a topping for your toast; it’s actually a powerful antimicrobial. To the best of our knowledge, honey never spoils, as it is a supersaturated sugar solution with only 17% water content. Because of this, any bacteria that get into honey are dehydrated by it, as the water from inside the bacterial cells diffuses into the honey, meaning nothing can survive long enough to cause spoilage. When honey sits in the cupboard for a while it can start to crystalize. This is simply sugar precipitating out of the solution; it is not a sign of spoilage.

Bee Buzz

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Tue, 30 Jun 2015 14:24:27 +0000

Bees are critical to agriculture, there is no doubt about that. They fertilize various crops by spreading the pollen that they collect to meet their protein and fat needs. Recently there has been much concern about declining bee populations in some areas and speculation has focused on insecticides known as “neonicotinoids.” Many media reports have tried and convicted the “neonics” and urged that they be banned. But as is so often the case, media reports only scratch the scientific surface and deeper digging produces a different buzz. Neonics at a certain level of exposure can disorient or even kill bees, which comes as no surprise since they are insecticides, and bees are insects. The question is whether these chemicals can be used in a way that protects plants without harming bees.

Neonicotinoids, first introduced in 2004, are modeled on nicotine, the natural insecticide produced by the tobacco plant. One advantage is that instead of spraying, these chemicals can be applied to the seeds of crops such as corn, soybeans and canola. They then end up distributed throughout the plant as it grows and are ready to dispatch any insect that dares to dine on the foliage. Bees don’t do that, they go for the nectar in the flowers which has only traces of neonics. Yet bee deaths have been linked with neonic-coated corn and soy seeds, mostly in Ontario. But curiously, not with canola seeds in western Canada which are also treated with the same pesticides. So what is going on?

Mechanical planters use a jet of air to blow seeds into the soil. Commonly talc or graphite are added as lubricants to reduce friction between the seeds but these can rub off and can carry insecticide contaminated dust into the air, exposing flying insects such as bees to the neonics. The concern is that the tainted bees return to the hive where they can expose fellow bees to the neonics and wreak havoc. A novel polyethylene wax lubricant that can replace talc and graphite has shown a significant reduction in airborne insecticide during planting. There are also polymers being developed to help the insecticide stick to the seeds.

The planting of canola uses different technology and doesn’t produce comparable amounts of dust. Some 20 million acres of canola are planted in Canada with neonicotinoid treated seed and there has been no impact on bee health at all. So it seems the problem may not be the neonics as much as the seeding methodology. Neonics are also commonly used on cut flowers and on plants purchased from nurseries but whether these affect pollinators is an open question.

In any case, the neonics are only part of the picture when it comes to bee health. There are mites, parasites and viruses that can infect bees, and transporting hives, which is commonly done, also stresses them, as do harsh winters and long springs. Specifically, the Varroa mite can affect bee health significantly, and it is interesting to note that in Australia, which is free of these mites, no problems have been seen with bee populations in spite of extensive use of neonicotinoid coated seeds.

So while the neonicotinoids may be a factor in the decline of bee populations in some areas, they are not the only factor. Furthermore, loss of bee colonies has been observed in places where neonicotinoids are not used at all, and history records many cases of unusual deaths of honey bee colonies long before neonics were introduced.

Still, there are some troubling developments. A recent British study showed that bees are more attracted to a sugar solution laced with neonics than to one without, implying the bees may be getting some sort of a buzz from the chemicals and may be more likely to visit plants containing them and end up contaminating hives. And a study in Sweden showed a reduced density of wild bees, but not honey bees, in a field planted with neonic-coated seeds.

Because of the cloud hanging over neonics, Europe and Ontario have decided to greatly restrict their use. It will take a while to see the effect, not only on the bees, but also on crop yields which have steadily increased since the introduction of the neonicotinoids. If yields are to be maintained, it may be back to the insecticidal sprays which come with problems of their own, not only for pollinators, but for people as well. Of course in the western world we can forego insecticides and just pay more for our locally-grown food.

Honey Hype

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 20:51:19 +0000

We have a sweet topic for today. Honey. That concentrated solution of sugars in water that was central to Winnie the Pooh's obsession. Most of us like it too. The main sugars in honey are fructose and glucose, with smaller amounts of sucrose which of course is ordinary table sugar. There various other compounds in small amounts as well which are responsible for the flavor and aroma. Honey, because of its sugar content, can act as a preservative. The preservative action of sugar is due to its ability to remove water from microorganisms by the process of osmosis. This essentially means that if the concentration of a dissolved material is higher outside the microbe than inside, water will diffuse through the cell membrane to the outside thereby dehydrating and killing the microbe.

The ancient Romans already knew about this phenomenon and preserved fruits and meats by immersing them in honey. Others made more imaginative use of the preservation property. Both Democritus and Alexander the Great were buried in honey coatings. Much later, Admiral Nelson was returned to England after the battle of Trafalgar in a barrel of honey. The Romans also discovered that wounds healed better when treated with honey and today we understand why. The honey kills microorganisms that can infect a wound. Roman soldiers actually carried honey into battle for this purpose. Modern research shows that there may be compounds in honey other than sugars which could have antibacterial activity.

The Many Many Chemicals in Honey

Joe Schwarcz — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 21:35:26 +0000

We live in a fascinating, complex chemical world. Smell that cup of coffee and you are sniffing hundreds of compounds! A whiff in the bathroom will add about three hundred, many of them such as methyl mercaptan and skatole decidedly unpleasant. A single meal will dump thousands and thousands of chemicals into your body, ranging from the proteins, sugars and fats that plants produce to allow their growth and development, to the pigments and scents they use to attract pollinators. Add to this the vast array of compounds they use to ward of predators.