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From: Rick Kennerly (no email)
Date: Sat Mar 02 2002 - 08:59:00 EST
We kept bees for about 5 years down in south Texas, until the killer bee
scare came and our insurance company insisted we get rid of the hive (it was
in our backyard, inside the city limits of San Antonio).
Commercial honey from the grocery story is both pasteurized, which destroys
enzymes, and usually cut with corn syrup (like Karo). Some decades back
commercial processors got the USDA to agree that honey cut with corn syrup
can still be labeled 100% pure (up to a certain percentage, of course--maple
growers got the same deal, BTW). Their reasoning to USDA was that the corn
syrup makes honey sweeter, thus more people would buy it. Of course, the
real reason is that corn syrup is a lot less expensive than real honey, so
they can increase their profits.
The best raw honey is going to come directly from your local bee keepers.
Your local county agriculture extension service can put you in contact with
some local folks or there is usually a honey growers co-op around. We
actually kept bees inside the city limits of San Antonio and even in big
cities like New York a lot of people have rooftop hives. What you want is
locally grown honey that has been strained with cheese cloth (to get the
insect legs and wings out) but not pasteurized or cut with syrup. The
reason local honey is important is that it contains local pollens, which
work a lot like allergy shots by helping your system adjust to the local
flowering plants. Many folks take a teaspoon of raw honey a day for that
purpose.
The second best source for raw honey is health food stores, farmers markets,
and such.
You can tell you're getting the real stuff if it's slightly cloudy and is
not as sweet as grocery store honey. Color - light honey color to dark
amber--and thickness is a function of local rainfall that year, what kinds
of plants the bees are feeding on, and the temperature, not purity. There
are some slight heath risks associated with eating raw honey, but, frankly,
incidents are extremely rare. If you're concerned, check with your county
agriculture extension agent for any outbreaks (usually salmonella). The
risk are much less than eating farm fresh eggs.
Here's a statistical oddity - beekeepers suffer remarkably fewer cancers
than the general population. The theory is that the occasional bee sting
(which inserts a foreign protein into the body) stimulates the immune system
and somehow prompts it to keep cancers in check.
There is also a malady called Bee Flu. I had it once when I dropped a large
box full of bees and was rewarded by 25-30 stings for my clumsiness. All
that extra foreign protein entering my system gave me mild flu-like symptoms
for a couple of days.
More than you ever wanted to know about honey, I'm sure.
Rick
----------------------------------------------------------
Rick the Mouseherder - nh2f
Westsail 32 Xapic, Hull #438
Cabo San Juan, Puerto Rico
A small boat and a suitcase full of money
beats a 40 footer tied to the Bank.
Visit our Westsail 32 Xapic
http://www.mouseherder.com/xapic
The Westsail Owners Assn. Homepage
http://www.westsail.org
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