Honey: Nutritional Value and Medicinal Properties

Honey has been endowed down the ages through legend and lore as a source of unique nutritional value as well as being highly prized in millennia past as a source of great sweetness. The ancient Greeks and Romans believed that its medicinal properties could assist in healing wounds. It is also fascinating to learn that the nectar of approximately one and a half million flowers is required to fill a single standard sized jar.

Up until as recently as the early 17th century in England, honey was the sweetener used by the ordinary people, with sugar being the exclusive preserve of the nobility and landed gentry. This state of affairs changed by the late 17th century when sugar took over as everyone's sweetener and honey became a treat, thus, the nursery rhyme about 'the Queen in her parlour eating bread and honey'.

Honey of course is produced by bees from flower nectar along with water, fructose and glucose, the honey gains its colouring and clarity dependent upon the proportion of the fructose it contains or, to be more precise, the higher the content of fructose the lighter and clearer the honey will be.

The flavour of honey is also a direct result of the species of flowers visited by the bees. For instance the honey produced from Acacia is mild and can be used for cooking, whereas honey from the Chestnut is more distinctive with an almost bitter twist to the taste buds.

Despite honey's legendary fame, its nutritional value on a whole is actually quite negligible. It is only a slightly healthier option than white sugar, having 288 calories to 394 nutritionally free calories in white sugar per 100grams. This is due to the fact that one quarter of the honey is water. However, if you are considering using honey as a substitute for sugar in any recipe, you should take into account that one spoonful of honey weighs more than one spoonful of sugar. So if you are substituting a spoonful sugar with a spoonful of honey, you will actually end up with more calories in whatever dish you are preparing.

If it is low in nutritional value, it compensates for this with its medicinal properties. It is common knowledge that two teaspoons of honey and the juice of half a lemon in a glass of hot water, soothes an irritated throat. Manuka honey is also known to assist in preventing the growth of Helicobacter pylori and research indicates it has also been used successfully, to treat stomach ulcers.

In conclusion, honey has long ago established its value to man, having been used down the ages for a variety of purposes. It has even been used in religious festivals throughout the world and Greek mythology tells of the young god Zeus, after being rescued from his father Cronus, being brought up by Adrastei and Io the nymphs, who fed him on milk and honey. Research has also indicated that Stone Age man valued honey from wild bees, long before bee-keeping was established.

Without a doubt honey will continue to be prized and used by mankind for as long as bees continue to produce this sweet and delicious potion, regardless of its nutritional value and medicinal properties or lack of same.