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Its been called liquid gold! Honey is one of natures sweetest giftsliterally.

It is also one of natures purest foods. Nutritionists call it a functional food, meaning it is all natural
and has numerous health benefits. In fact, raw (unpasteurised, or never heated beyond the temperature
of the beehive) honey contains a whopping 22 amino acids, 27 minerals including calcium, iron, zinc,
potassium, calcium, magnesium, and even selenium. It is full of vitamins as well like vitamin B6,
thiamin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid and niacin.
And if you are looking for some nutritional live digestive enzymes, honey has many including diastase,
invertase, catalase, glucose oxidase, acid phosphatase and inulase. (1) Honey is also high in
antioxidants. (2)
Sounds perfect, right? Well, not really. Not all honey is the same.

In fact, most of the honey you buy at your local supermarket is not any healthier than white sugar,
especially cheap honey. And much of it is likely manufactured in China where regulations on health
and safety are lax and in many cases, non-existent.

Honeys History
Honey is an ancient delicacy. It has been around for centuries as both a sweetener and a healing agent.
There are over 4,000 years of recorded use of honey as a medicinal agent.
The ancient philosophers Aristotle (384 322 BC) and Aristoxenus (320 BC) even touted the benefits
of this golden treat. Aristoxenus claimed that anyone who eats honey, spring onions and bread for his
daily breakfast will be free from all diseases throughout his lifetime. (3)

Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, also used honey as the foundation for the majority of his
medicinals. St. Ambrose claimed that The fruit of the Bees is desired of all, and is equally sweet to
Kings and Beggars and it is not only pleasing but profitable and healthful, it sweetens their mouths,
cures their wounds and convales remedies to inward Ulcers.
As the healing properties became more widely known, the production of honey also grew in places like
ancient Greece and Sicily. It was even used on the battlefield in World War I in a medicinal wound
cleaner (Dakins Solution) invented by the chemist Henry Drysdale Dakin. (4)
The history of honey for healing is long and includes use among people of all cultures and regions, the
rich and the poor. But as the popularity of honey soared, so did the ways in which it was manufactured.
Today, after over processing and pasteurization, little, if any healing value is left in our supermarket
variety honeys.

Fake Honey
According to the FDA, the food safety divisions of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the
European Commission (EU) as well as numerous other regulating bodies, in order for honey to be
considered real, it must contain pollen.
Without the presence of pollen (and thus the flower strain it comes from) the FDA cannot determine
whether the honey is from legitimate and/or safe sources. (5)
And most, if not all, of the commercial honeys sold in supermarkets are ultra-filtered, a process that
involves heating the honey to high temperatures that kills off any beneficial nutrients and enzymes,
adding water to dilute it, and then filtering it using high pressure technology to remove any pollen.

This is a technique that mirrors the manufacturing practices of the Chinese and East Indians, who
export literally tons of tainted honey, which leaves officials unable to track its origins. (6)
Vaughn Bryant, a professor at Texas A&M University, who is also a renowned melissopalynologist (the
study of pollen contained in honey), tested 60 brands of honey from 10 states and the District of
Columbia. (7)
His findings, which were reported by Food Safety News, showed that 76 percent of the honeys from
supermarkets had all of the pollen removed, again leaving their exact origins untraceable.

Even worse, 100 percent of the honeys sold at drugstores and those packaged in the single serving
portions served at restaurants, had no pollen at all.
Bryant also determined that 77 percent of the honey tested from big-box stores like Costco and
Walmart was lacking pollen. The study did show that if you choose to buy an organic brand from your
local supermarket, only 29 percent of these are lacking pollen so it is a much safer bet, but it is still a
gamble.
According to Mark Jensen, president of the American Honey Producers Association, any ultra-filtered
honey is suspect. In my judgment, it is pretty safe to assume that any ultra-filtered honey on store
shelves is Chinese honey and its even safer to assume that it entered the country uninspected and in
violation of federal law.

The only reason to filter out the pollen is to hide where it initially comes from. And according to
reputable honey manufacturers, most of the laundered honey comes from China.
From 2009- 2011, the US alone imported 208 million pounds of honey. According to Food Safety
News 60 percent of this honey came from Asian countries that are traditional laundering points for

Chinese honey.
In fact, 45 million pounds came from India alone. They also claim that there are still websites where
companies can hire illegal brokers to transship honey and countless other banned and tariff-protected
goods from China to the US.
And often these so-called honeys are made from a concoction of cane, corn or beet sugar, rice syrup or
countless other sweetening agents because it is easier, faster and cheaper than real honey.
To get a better idea of where the fake honeys are coming from, the study also analyzed honey packaged
in Italy, Hungary, Greece, Tasmania and New Zealand. It was determined that honey from all of these
countries, excluding Greece, contained plenty of beneficial pollen.
For the average consumer, however, buying honey can be confusing because we have been led to
believe honey is good. And in the case of raw honey that still holds true but the fake honey lining the
supermarket shelves is anything but good. Luckily, there are some easy ways to avoid spending your
money on this counterfeit honey.
How to Recognize Cheap, Knock-Off Honey: (8)
Always read the label. If it contains added glucose or high fructose corn syrup, it is not real
honey.
Taste your honey. If you can taste things like flowers or herbs its real honey. Fake honey is just
sweet, with a smidgen of honey-like flavor.
Put a small drop of your honey on your thumb. If it spreads it is not pure since pure honey will
stay in one place.
Add a few drops of vinegar into a mixture of water and honey. If it foams up, your honey has
been adulterated with plaster!
If your honey does not crystallize over time, it is likely ultra-filtered since pure honey will
crystallize when you keep in your fridge or over time.
Add a few drops of iodine to a glass of water and then add some honey. If your honey turns
blue, it has been combined with corn starch and is not real honey.
Place a dab of honey on the end of a matchstick and light it. If it ignites, it is pure.
Place a spoon of honey in a glass of water. If it dissolves it is fake. Pure honey will not dissolve
in water and will sink to the bottom of the glass.
There are other ways to test honey, but the above should give you a pretty good idea of whether the
honey you have been buying is actually real. To give you a little more insight, below are the results of
honey brands that failed the pollen test and should be avoided. (9)

Honeys that Tested Positive for Ultra-Filtration


Testing on these honeys revealed they have no pollen.
American Choice Clover Honey
Archer Farms Orange Blossom Honey

Archer Farms Organic Classic Honey


Busy Bee Organic Honey
Busy Bee, Pure Clover Honey
CVS Honey
Fred Meyer Clover Honey
Full Circle Pure Honey
Giant Eagle Clover Honey
GE Clover Honey
Great Value, Clover Honey
Haggen Honey, Natural & Pure
HT Traders Tupelo Honey
Kroger Pure Clover Honey
Market Pantry Pure Honey
Mel-o 100 % Pure Honey
Natural Sue Bee Clover Honey
Naturally Preferred Fireweed Honey
Rite Aid Honey
Safeway Clover Honey
Silver Bow Pure Honey
Stop and Shop Clove Honey
Sue Bee Clover Honey
Thrifty Bee Honey
Valutime Honey
Walgreen MEL-O honey
Western Family Clover Honey
Wegman Clover Honey
Winnie the Pooh, Pure Clover

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