Read The Healing Powers of Honey Online
Authors: Cal Orey
The Healing Powers of Honey (25 page)
KEEPING IT REAL AND SWEET
Skeptical doctors aren't going to stop honey lovers, like myself, from using the ancient superfood for its healing powers, especially if it works for them. I do believe that honey is one of the most natural, accessible, and delicious foods in the world, but the fact remains it's not always a miracle worker working solo.
So yes, I do tout keeping it real and sweet can help you to stay healthyâbut I do not claim honey can heal every ailment and disease. Incorporating versatile honey into a healthful diet and lifestyle (both inside and outside your body)âin conjunction with conventional medicine if neededâmay help you to live a longer, healthier, and sweeter life, just like honey bees being fed a healthy diet and living in a healthy environment.
Healthful recipes, like this real and sweet salad, make a beeline toward good health. But caution: Keep this salad and other food and beverages away from honey bees and their hives for safety's sake of you and yours!
Honey, Mint, and Cucumber Salad
Approximately 6 ounce-
tub thick Greek yogurt
4 tablespoons blended
clear honey
2 whole cucumbers,
chopped
4 tablespoons mint, freshly
chopped
2 tablespoons lime juice
Mint leaves for decoration
tub thick Greek yogurt
4 tablespoons blended
clear honey
2 whole cucumbers,
chopped
4 tablespoons mint, freshly
chopped
2 tablespoons lime juice
Mint leaves for decoration
In a large bowl mix together all the ingredients until combined. Transfer to serving dish, sprinkle with torn mint leaves, and serve immediately. Serve with thick cut vegetables, such as pepper, celery and carrot, tortilla chips, or why not try broken pieces of spicy popadoms for a healthy midday snack or as a refreshing start to any meal.... Serves 4.
(
Source:
Courtesy The Honey Association.)
Source:
Courtesy The Honey Association.)
If you have a sensitivity to honey internally, it may work for you topicallyâfor beauty, candles, cleaners, and other uses. In the future, I sense that honeyâthe darker typesâwill be used more in kitchens and households and medical clinics and hospitals around the globe. In chapter 16: “And the Bees' Buzz Goes On . . .” you'll be reminded of how important the honey beeâour friend, not foeâis to our food chain and maybe even survival.
UN-BEE-LIEVABLE HEALING HINTS TO CATCH
The honey bee is a gentle insect, but if provoked it can sting both humans and pets.Do not startle or attract bees if you are in a region where there is a colony or a swarmâmore aggressive.Honey should never be given to infants one year old or younger due to its potential botulism effects.Bee venom and royal jelly may work for some people and may not work well for others.Further scientific research is needed in the United States to prove that honey can help heal a variety of health ailments and diseases.Honey is not a cure-all for every ailment and disease, and hype about its healing powers needs to be brought down to earth. But honey is a gift....Honey used solo and paired with a nutrient-rich diet can often be a godsend to people in a variety of ways.CHAPTER 16
And the Bees' Buzz Goes On . . .
The wild bee reels from bough to bough
With his furry coat and his gauzy wing,
Now in a lily-cup, and now
Setting a jacinth bell a-swing,
In his wandering; . . .
With his furry coat and his gauzy wing,
Now in a lily-cup, and now
Setting a jacinth bell a-swing,
In his wandering; . . .
âOscar Wilde
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In my thirties, I relocated to San Carlos on the peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area. The building I ended up finding comfort and producing articles in for more than a decade was a honey bee's dream hive. It was like a minicolony of artsy, European people living in 14 units of a Spanish-style rustic building. Garden Hacienda boasted Monet-like morning-glory bushes, plum and lemon trees, and a large fishpond full of koi and fresh well water. It was my new home.
But then it happened. The owner of the property was selling the land. Bit by bit, like the fish in Hemingway's
Old Man and the Sea
tale, the gardens were torn apart. The caretaker took a saw to the morning-glory bushesâa honey bees' hangout. The vacant area was to make way for his trailerâa prelude to what was coming next. The back house was demolished and a temporary library took its place. The grounds were being attacked by predators: mankind. Gentrification was happening. A sterile high-rise complex was in the works. And it was time for me, once again, to find a new home, like a bee swarm seeking solace for a safe haven to work.
Old Man and the Sea
tale, the gardens were torn apart. The caretaker took a saw to the morning-glory bushesâa honey bees' hangout. The vacant area was to make way for his trailerâa prelude to what was coming next. The back house was demolished and a temporary library took its place. The grounds were being attacked by predators: mankind. Gentrification was happening. A sterile high-rise complex was in the works. And it was time for me, once again, to find a new home, like a bee swarm seeking solace for a safe haven to work.
THE HONEY BEE AND OUR FOOD CHAIN
As I noted in chapter 1, bees make honey and work double shifts as key pollinators for mankind. Did you know that our crops depend on the beekeepers and small honey bee in a big way? Millions of acres of U.S. fruit, vegetable, oilseed, and legume crops depend on insect pollinationâand that includes the sacred honey bees. This little insect gives humans gifts from the hive but also helps pollinate our crops, home gardens, and wildlife habitat.
It's been estimated by the USDA that 80 percent of insect crop pollination is done by the hardworking honey bees. If you do the math, that means one-third of the total human diet comes from insect-pollinated plants, including fruits, legumes, and vegetablesâall the good, healthful stuff that you and I love and eat each day. And that's not where the honey bees' work stops, either.
The almond cropâprevalent in Californiaâalso relies on honey bee pollination. And don't forget most beef and dairy products enjoyed in the United States count on insect-pollinated legumes, such as alfalfa and clover. Fifty percent of all alfalfa seed comes from the Golden State.
“Pollination is not a tangible product of bees, but the rental of bees to pollinate a variety of crops is a major source of income for U.S. beekeepers,” says
Honey: The Gourmet Medicine
author Joe Traynor, who runs a pollination (bee rental) and agricultural consulting service in California's San Joaquin Valley. In other words, the value of bees to U.S. crops runs into billions of dollars, much more than the value of the honey produced by the honey bees.
Honey: The Gourmet Medicine
author Joe Traynor, who runs a pollination (bee rental) and agricultural consulting service in California's San Joaquin Valley. In other words, the value of bees to U.S. crops runs into billions of dollars, much more than the value of the honey produced by the honey bees.
But despite the need for the honey beeâwho works a double shift with making honey and pollinating cropsâthere is a megaglitch that is becoming a growing problem: The honey bee population is declining.
IS THE HONEYMOON OVER?
It's no secret. Beekeepers across America are witnessing the mysterious die-offs of bee colonies. Back in 2006, an apiary owner in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, made the problem known. Penn State researchers took note of the bee colony numbers' decline, due to a condition now known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). This condition causes honey bee colonies to vanish without a traceâlending to
The Happening
and
I Am Legend
images of thriller sci-fi films of human and animal extinction.
The Happening
and
I Am Legend
images of thriller sci-fi films of human and animal extinction.
So, what are busy researchers doing during the honey bee crisis? A lot. Penn State University founded a new Center for Pollinator Research, and Penn State experts' concern regarding the threats against pollinator survival led to the first International Conference on Pollinator Biology, Health and Policy, held in the summer of 2010 at Penn State. While the East Coast scientists are busy as bees working out the CCD dilemma, on the West Coast at the University of California, Davis, researchers are also at the drawing board.
UC Davis, just 100 miles south of me in Lake Tahoe, is home to honey bees. Honey Bee Haven is part of pollinator research. It is home to more than 6 million bees, thanks to Häagen-Dazs, which is behind the project. A half-acre honey bee heaven has been created to educate students and the public about our food chain's workhorses.
Bee expert Dr. Eric Mussen gets the importance of the honey bee's contribution to our health, which is through fruits, vegetables, and nuts that are considered health foods. He also knows that people like you and me use honey beeâcollected pollens, bee venom, and propolis for their healing powers.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is also trying to help get a handle on Colony Collapse Disorder. In 2010 it dished out $6 million in emergency assistance to beekeepers who had lost their bees. And scientists are busy at work trying to discover what exactly is causing the vanishing of honey bees.
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2
Theories include climate change, diet, mites, pesticides, and viruses. Also, the stress of traveling for pollination of crops and the usage of cell phones (perhaps due to the radiation) are in the mixed bag of possibilities for why the bees are MIA.
Mussen adds, “None of us know why the bees are not as vital as they used to be. In many cases this may be due to limited access to a good, varied supply of pollens.” He hopes in our lifetime scientists will discover what is killing the honey bees. “But,” he notes, “even if we find the cause, will we be able to overcome it?”
Bee Culture
magazine editor Kim Flottum is also aware that the global plague of CCD still lingers, but he remains positive: “Researchers, beekeepers and concerned citizens all over the world have come together to resolve the health issues our honey bees face.”
magazine editor Kim Flottum is also aware that the global plague of CCD still lingers, but he remains positive: “Researchers, beekeepers and concerned citizens all over the world have come together to resolve the health issues our honey bees face.”
Adds Flottum: “Researchers have uncovered many of the causes contributing to this problem, and in the process have made significant discoveries regarding honey bee nutrition, safety, genetics and habitat requirements.” But the reach-out efforts don't stop there. “Beekeepers, too, have helped by providing more diverse areas to raise and keep their bees, while shielding them from the harsher aspects of modern agriculture, most notably the limited diets monoculture crops provide.” In other words, staying clear from the chemical-laden, artificial world of modern agriculture is paying off while hardworking farmers are also trying to help the honey bee crisis in how they protect their crops from the pests and disease with agrichemicals, reducing events where honey bees and deadly pesticides collide.
Save the Honey Bee
What do ice cream and candy have in common? Both sweets have sweet companies that use honey in their products and are behind saving the honey bee. And two rescuersâwho produce sweet products using real honey that I've enjoyed like a honey bee splurging on a honeyâare supporting the honey bee research at UC Davis.
Häagen-Dazs offers Vanilla Honey Bee ice cream made with real honey and all natural ingredients. They know that the honey bees pollinate one-third of our natural foods, including many of the ingredients they use to craft their 100 percent all-natural ice cream. They are funding research and driving efforts to save these petite pollinators.
Gimbal's Fine Candies in San Francisco (
www.gimbalscandy.com
) is also aware that we need to act to save our hardworking friends. In 2010, they launched a candy dubbed Honey Lovers. These are heart-shaped fruit chews made with real honey and are rich in antioxidant vitamin C. Each serving of Honey Lovers contains 25 percent of your daily vitamin C needs. During the creation of this honey book, I snacked on 16 buzz-worthy flavors topped with honey, including Pomegranate Honey, Honey Dipped Strawberry, Honey Vanilla, and Orchard Pear 'n Honey.
www.gimbalscandy.com
) is also aware that we need to act to save our hardworking friends. In 2010, they launched a candy dubbed Honey Lovers. These are heart-shaped fruit chews made with real honey and are rich in antioxidant vitamin C. Each serving of Honey Lovers contains 25 percent of your daily vitamin C needs. During the creation of this honey book, I snacked on 16 buzz-worthy flavors topped with honey, including Pomegranate Honey, Honey Dipped Strawberry, Honey Vanilla, and Orchard Pear 'n Honey.
Here are ways we can help keep the honey bee alive and well, straight from Mussen: Devote a portion of your property to growing annual and perennial plants that bloom consecutively over the whole season that honey bees are collecting nectar and pollens for food. Reduce the use of pesticides of all kinds to a minimum. In areas with extended dry periods, supply fresh water in a way so that visiting bees don't become a nuisance. Consider donating funds to bee researchers around the country who are trying to determine the causes of CCD and what can be done to bolster the bee populations.
AWOL HONEY BEES FROM A BEEKEEPER'S PERSPECTIVE
Meet James, a caring beekeeper with 17 colonies, who admits he is not a formally educated guy but is an apt pupil of nature and human nature. He maintains bees and teaches sustainable beekeeping workshops on his 35-acre homestead in the Ozarks, which he likes to call Bee Landing (
www.beelanding.com
).
www.beelanding.com
).
He cares about bees and it shows in his words: “My breeder queen is my first love. She is mostly Russian, so she is quite dark, almost black. She is a great queen and very gentle. She has produced nine daughter queens just this year. I whisper sweet nothings in her ear and call her my beauty queen.” Here is one devoted backyard beekeeper's-eye-view of the alarming die-off of honey bees....
In my opinion, it is our monoculture society and mentality. We have altered the honey bee and the bee hive to a degree that we have weakened them and made them more susceptible to diseases that they could normally fend off themselves. We have sent them out to gather pollen and nectar in a toxic environmentâlike orchards with insect disorders that need to be sprayed with pesticides, fungicides, and other cides. How have we altered the bee and hive from what nature intended? Here are my top three concerns:
Super Size Me Disorder:
In commercial beekeeping the bees are substantially larger than they are in nature. Larger cell size has allowed mites (another disorder) to run rampant through the hives of the world. Incidentally, you can guess what is used to combat this problemânot common sense or a studying of the bees but a miteicide.
In commercial beekeeping the bees are substantially larger than they are in nature. Larger cell size has allowed mites (another disorder) to run rampant through the hives of the world. Incidentally, you can guess what is used to combat this problemânot common sense or a studying of the bees but a miteicide.
Thinking Inside the Box Disorder:
The hive is designed more for the convenience of the beekeeper than for the bees. We have taken them out of their hollow log, rock crevices, and other found habitats and confined them to square, squat boxes. Which means they can no longer build their long and elegant comb, which can be measured in feet, not inches. I'm still trying to learn how confinement affects the bees.
The hive is designed more for the convenience of the beekeeper than for the bees. We have taken them out of their hollow log, rock crevices, and other found habitats and confined them to square, squat boxes. Which means they can no longer build their long and elegant comb, which can be measured in feet, not inches. I'm still trying to learn how confinement affects the bees.
Geographically Challenged Disorder:
The bees are mass bred (artificially inseminated) in the southern states and dispersed around the country. This reduces genetic diversity and creates a situation ripe for disaster. Weakened genetics, I feel, are a large part of our current bee crisis.
The bees are mass bred (artificially inseminated) in the southern states and dispersed around the country. This reduces genetic diversity and creates a situation ripe for disaster. Weakened genetics, I feel, are a large part of our current bee crisis.
So... What am I doing and what do I recommend you do about it? Stop doing things for the bees! Just stand back and watch nature. Stop all the chemical treatments, and let the bees live or die on their own. The bees that live are your breeding stock, the bees that die are no longer in your gene pool. Go local. If you are not into keeping bees, then get to know and support your local beekeeper, and if you are a beekeeper buy your bees from an existing natural beekeeper as close to you as possible.
UH-OH! CAN CCD HARM THE HONEY YOU EAT?
If Colony Collapse Disorder can wipe out a colony of bees, can it affect the honey you eat? One beekeeper told me the grueling story of how CCD wiped out 50 of his colonies. Naturally, empathy set in, since I've penned articles about dog packs dying one by one to a mystery disease and losing a cat for no known cause. Not to forget the fish I've found belly up in my aquariums for monthsâand my not knowing the cause of demise. But then, fear hit me. When I opened a jar of a company's honey, I pondered,
Is this honey safe for humans to eat?
Remember, I'm a health author with a vivid imagination and a closet hypochondriac, too.
Is this honey safe for humans to eat?
Remember, I'm a health author with a vivid imagination and a closet hypochondriac, too.
I contacted bee expert Flottum and posed the unforgettable classic
Marathon Man
's chilling question: “Is it safe?” This honey bee book author, who keeps 6 to 10 colonies in the backyard, calmed my fear (somewhat) with his words. Flottum does not believe honey itself can be affected by CCD.
Marathon Man
's chilling question: “Is it safe?” This honey bee book author, who keeps 6 to 10 colonies in the backyard, calmed my fear (somewhat) with his words. Flottum does not believe honey itself can be affected by CCD.
“Part of the CCD issue is comb contamination from beekeeper- and farmer-applied pesticides and, though not the sole cause of CCD, is suspected of being a contributor to the stress level in the hive,” he says. “To date, honey hasn't been found to have these chemicals involved because the chemicals are soluble in wax, not water (honey), so that's good.” And so it seems CCD is a mixed bag of honey bee ailments, not affecting the safety of eating nectar of the gods.
But the glitch is, notes Flottum, the amount of honey produced is affected by CCD because of the die-off in the honey bee population. And if the honey bees don't get help from man, both beekeepers and mankind will feel the pain, because extinction of this key pollinator will affect our food chain and health as we know it.
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