Honey Harms!

Have you ever thought about why bees make honey? Honey is the bees’ single source of food and essential nutrients! So, when we take the honey, we are actually robbing the bee of its nourishment.

Did you know that a bee visits up to 1,500 flowers in order to collect enough nectar to fill its special stomach – yes, a second one called ‘honey stomach’ in which enzymes break down the nectar into honey.

The bee then returns to the hive, vomits the honey, which is chewed by house-bees to complete the honey making process. Each bee produces only a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.

Contrary to popular belief, honey isn’t great for human health. It is full of toxins and contains fructose and glucose just as in table sugar. And most of the honey available nowadays is adulterated.

And the process by which humans obtain honey from bees is not very different from that used on factory farms. The queen bee’s wings are cut off so that she can’t leave the colony and she is even artificially inseminated.

Bees are critical pollinators and they pollinate 70 of the around 100 crop species that feed 90 per cent of the world. So, if bees don’t exist, we will lose all the plants that they pollinate and all of the animals that eat those plants, including us – human beings.

Honey can be easily substituted with home-made date and raisin pastes and fresh fruit purees. Other substitutes like agave, maple syrup, etc are not recommended.

Read on to find out why...

Stay away from the ‘Refined’

Agave
This nectar comes from the same plant that produces tequila, and that makes it addictive. Also, agave is mainly made up of fructose (higher than the fructose in high fructose corn syrup), leading to insulin resistance and other health issues. Not to mention the fact it’s highly refined and contains chemical preservatives.

Molasses
When one refines sugarcane, the first outcome is molasses. This, when cooled and dehyderated becomes jaggery, which is then processed into brown sugar and finally white sugar. However, the fibre is lost in the first process itself and anything refined is not good for our health.

Malt syrup
This is made from sprouted barley which is roasted and cooked into a syrup with a malt-like flavour. The maltose present in the syrup has a very high glycemic index. It can make you fatter and is bad for oral health just as is white sugar.

Maple Syrup
This syrup comes from the sap of maple trees and since it’s highly refined, its sugar content is exactly like sugar! It’s maybe a little less harmful than refined sugar, but is as addictive.

Coconut nectar
Although this sounds both exotic and healthy, It is made from the reduced sap of coconut palms, heated at high
temperatures. Here too all the fibre is removed.

Brown rice syrup
This is made from cooked rice starch, heated at high temperatures, leading to loss of nutrients. Brown rice syrup is actually 100 per cent glucose and leads to higher spikes in blood sugar levels than table sugar!