We all know that honey has amazing health benefits from consumption to beauty treatments. This little gift from nature can be found in all forms from lip balms to poured in your tea as a healthier alternative to sugar but what exactly is it and why is very little honey actually ‘pure honey’? Well dear reader, let me explain…

What is Raw Honey? 

Put simply, Raw Honey is the product that is taken as it is directly from the beehive and bottled. The beekeeper will pour the honey through a filter, usually, a mesh cloth to filter out any impurities such as bee wax and et voila! The honey is ready to go out into the world. 

This honey is darker in composition and maintains a lot more of the natural and nutritional benefits of honey as it hasn’t gone through several filtration and pasturisation processes 

What is “Regular Honey’ 

Regular honey, which the type we are most likely to see in the shops and on hotel breakfast tables is honey that has gone through several pasterian and filtration processes. These processes can remove beneficial nutrients like pollen, enzymes and antioxidants but makes the honey clearer and to many this can be more appealing to consumers. 

How sellers profit from ‘Regular Honey’ 

Now, as mentioned ‘Raw Honey’ is bottled as it is taken from the hive but with ‘Regular Honey’ once it has gone through the various filtration stages it is often further broken down and mixed with other products to make it more profitable. In man cases bee farmers will sell their raw honey to bigger companies where this extra step is then performed. 

To meet the massive demand for honey, the companies will then mix the honey with sugar syrup and other ingredients such as artificial sweeteners to make a larger batch but to not lose the flavour – but this process further delutes the nutrition benefits one can obtain from Raw Honey such as pollen. This pollen is superpowered as it contains over 250 substances, including vitamins, amino acids, essential fatty acids, micronutrients and antioxidants. Nice. 

A study in the USA showed that up to 75% of all processed “Regular Honey” contained no pollen after it had gone through treatment, which is certainly food for thought.

Raw is the way to go, honey! 

With most of the health benefits being attributed to honey in its raw format, it is highly recommended that when you are next making a honey purchase that you check the labels of the products to check for any added ingredients and the processes that it has gone through. If you use honey for health reasons it may make sense to spend a little more to get the full benefits of all that lovely honey goodness. If you want to stay away from the supermarkets and support local businesses then why not go directly to your local honey farm and get it directly from the beekeeper themselves? Get in! 

Do you love honey? If so did you know the above or have you been getting the benefits all along? Let us know below or on our social channels as we can talk about all day. 

Until next time, darlings