There’s a reason why honey was prized for both nutrition and medicine in ancient times, and even with all the advances of modern medicine, it’s still worthy of a prominent position in your medicine chest.
Given its commonality and tendency to be regarded as primarily a sweetener for tea or biscuits, it’s easy to overlook the complexity of this sticky substance. But honey is known to contain hundreds of compounds, each with its own potential role to play in your health.
Honey starts with nectar, a sweet liquid made by plants. Honey bees visit flowers and drink the nectar, which is made up of about 80% water, via their proboscis, a special straw-like tongue.
The nectar is carried in their “honey stomach” and mixed with the enzyme invertase, produced in bees’ salivary glands (bees can carry a load of nectar close to their own bodyweight — an aeronautical feat!). This catalyzes the process of changing the sucrose found in nectar into the glucose and fructose found in honey. Other enzymes are also involved in turning nectar into honey, changing its flavor and pH, for instance. Once back at the hive, forager honey bees transfer the nectar, via their mouths, to house bees, which regurgitate and re-consume the nectar repeatedly, over a period of about 20 minutes, exposing it to more enzymes, breaking down its sugars and reducing its moisture content even more, to about 20% water....<<<<Read More>>>...