I have a sweet topic this week and Winnie the Poohs favorite, honey. I’ve talked many times before about beekeeping, but honey is the reason we do it. We all know about using honey for cooking or putting in your tea. Honey was the first sweetener the world ever knew. In 1922, archaeologists discovered over two thousand jars of honey in King Tut’s tomb that was estimated to be around three thousand years old. The honey had crystallized, but it was still edible after all that time. The honey didn’t mold, degrade or breakdown in flavor. Honey has anti-fungal properties and can be used to treat fungal infections. Honey’s antimicrobial properties are due to a number of factors, including its low pH, high sugar content, and the presence of hydrogen peroxide. Other factors include the presence of antioxidants, lysozyme, and bee peptides. Honey has been used for centuries to treat all sorts of ailments. There are also many different types of honey produced by many different species of bees. 

The Maya have used Melipona honey for over three thousand years to treat a variety of conditions, including eye, ear, respiratory, and digestive issues. The Melipona bee is a small, stingless bee that is the only known pollinator of the vanilla orchid. The Melipona bee and the vanilla orchid have a symbiotic relationship that is so unique that the vanilla orchid is difficult to pollinate outside of its natural habitat in Central America and Mexico. When European explorers first brought vanilla orchids back from the new world they wanted to grow it in similar climates along the Mediterranean sea, but although the orchids would grow and bloom, no beans would form. In 1836, a scientist went to study the vanilla orchid in central America and found that only the Melipona bee had the knowledge of how to pollinate the flower. There is a trapdoor in the flower that the bee must raise to get to the pollen inside and once the scientist had this knowledge he was able to go back to Europe and artificially pollinate their vanilla orchids. But enough about vanilla, let’s get back to honey. Long before sugar was ever discovered, honey was used to sweeten everything from cakes and cookies to glazes for meats and fish. European Monks had used honey for brewing their honey mead for centuries. 

Crystallized honey is primarily used for cooking as it is easier to measure out for most recipes. It is not an even swap for sugar, so don’t just put a cup of honey in to replace a cup of sugar. As a general rule you would use two-thirds of the amount in honey that you would with sugar. So if a recipe called for a cup of sugar, use two-thirds of a cup of honey instead as honey has a higher sweetness content than sugar. If you have crystallized honey and want to liquify it again, just put the jar in a warm water bath. Do not put in boiling water as this will pasteurize the honey and you will loose some of the beneficial effects. Natural honey has many more benefits than pasteurized honey, of course when you are cooking with honey most of the benefits will be lost as well. As emphasis has been put on eating healthier later, adding more honey in your diet to replace added sugars would be a great benefit. 

We all have that little bottle in the kitchen cabinet that has probably been there for ten years or more, so why not use it. Unlike processed sugar, honey is all natural, which means your body can process it better. Take the honey challenge by replacing sugar in everything you eat with honey and see how much weight you can loose in six months without changing anything else in your lifestyle. That might sound easy, but that means you can’t buy any processed food at the grocery store as everything has sugar in it. I though I could do it until it came to bacon. Bacon is cured with sugar, and is my “Waterloo”.