Karen Foster reports for Permaculture News on the benefits of consuming raw honey over de-polinated, pasteurized and processed honey, using study analysis of store-bought honey samples by Prof. Vaughn Bryant of Texas A&M University. According to this report:
There are well over 30 commercial producers of honey that have no traces of pollen and lack beneficial vitamins and enzymes among a host of other natural constituents which are removed due to pasteurization and processing. Most golden honey you see at your local grocery is dead and far from the health promoting powerhouse of its raw unpasteurized counterpart. Processed honey is not honey at all and if you desire any kind of health benefits, you must stick to the real stuff.
In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration says that any product that’s been ultra-filtered and no longer contains pollen isn’t honey. However, the FDA isn’t checking honey sold in the U.S. to see if it contains pollen.
Ultra filtering is a high-tech procedure where honey is heated, sometimes watered down and then forced at high pressure through extremely small filters to remove pollen, which is the only foolproof sign identifying the source of the honey. It is a spin-off of a technique refined by the Chinese, who have illegally dumped tons of their honey — some containing illegal antibiotics — on the U.S. market for years.
Foster includes this video further distinguishing difference between raw honey and it’s processed and imported counterpart.
Foster’s article also provides tips on how to identify raw honey from that of processed or water, sugar and antibiotic containing varieties. Turns out, if suspected honey floats in water instead of sinking, it has been processed. Click here to access the full article.
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