No Bees, No Honey, No Life
“If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man”
There are two reasons I decided to write this blog:
1. There is a lot of concern on the sudden decline in bee numbers globally and more attention needs to be paid to the importance of bees in the environment
People think honey is just sugar, that it has no major health benefit.
According to Deakin university, honey bee pollination contributes four to six billion to the Australian economy. Some crops, like almond, are 100% reliant on honey bees for pollination. Honey bees are the most prolific pollinators of food crops with one third of what we eat relying on pollination and this includes fruit, vegetables, oils and nuts. In Australia honey bee colonies haven’t been affected but overseas honey bees are declining and fast!
According to Deakin University lecturer Dr Veenstra, one of the reasons is due to a specific mite and it is also due to the loss of flower meadows, climate change and use of pesticides.
But I digress…my point is that firstly bees are important and it is a topic we should all be concerned about.
So let’s talk about the benefits of what the honey bees produce….
Historically, one of the most valued groups of natural medicines is that of the bee pollen, propolis, royal jelly and raw honey.
Bee pollen comes from the male germ cell of flowering plants. As the honeybee travels from flower to flower, it fertilizes the female germ cell. Thus honey bees enable the reproduction of more than 80% of the world’s grains, fruits, vegetables and legumes. The pollen is brought to the hive where the bees add enzymes and nectar to the pollen. Propolis is the resinous substance collected by bees from the leaf buds and barks of trees, it is what they use to construct the hive and has antimicrobial activities. Royal jelly is a thick, milky substance produced by worker bees to feed the queen bee. Worker bees mix honey and bee pollen with enzymes to produce royal jelly and hence royal jelly is thought to be a highly nutritional supplement.
While honey is 70% fructose, glucose and maltose, Raw honey also contains minerals such as manganese, calcium, iron, sodium and even amino acids, vitamins and enzymes. Bee pollen is thought to be natures perfect food because it contains all 8 essential amino acids, B vitamins, vitamin C, carotenes, DNA, RNA and plant hormones.
As a natural medicine, there are a number of clinical applications to be Bee products. Studies have shown that bee pollen can be used to promote growth and development, protect against free radical and oxidative damage and even protect against the harmful effect of radiation. Royal jelly has been shown to help decrease total cholesterol levels in patients with severe elevated blood cholesterol levels. I recently read a study that compared the effectiveness of three types of mouthwashes manuka honey (MH), raw honey (RH), and chlorhexidine (CHX) on plaque. Gingival scores of 12-15-year-old government school children were done and Honey-based mouthwash showed a promising antimicrobial effect on dental caries and plaque and gingival scores (see reference list for this study).
Source: Murray, T. Textbook of Natural Medicine
So the benefits are great and the importance of bees significant. I decided to look into this further and talk to a local bee business, Hampson honey, who I have to say have done so much to ensure their practices in Bee keeping are at the highest standards.
So let’s look at why we should support local bee keepers and consume raw honey!
I asked Karin from Hampson honey, why start a honey business and why support local honey?
“Our decision to make it into a career has a bit of an environmental aspect to it. We were concerned about the declining bee population due to mono-cropping, spraying, and deforestation, and so really, if it wasn’t for beekeepers, the future would look very bleak for bees, and in turn, for us. So this really fuels our drive to keep doing what we are doing every day” - Hampson Honey
And how does Australian honey differ from other honey around the world?
“Australia is lucky in that it has a lot of natural bushlands filled with native Australian eucalypt trees that produces a world class honey. Overseas buyers are falling over their feet to obtain 100% Australian raw honey. Australian honey has been found to be really good for gut health as it is a great source of prebiotics when consumed in its raw form. Honey producers from other parts of the world do not have the same stringent regulations as beekeepers have in Australia so often you’ll find they get away with a lot more for example using carcinogenic antibiotics to treat bees (which is illegal in Australia)”
How do you incorporate raw honey in your diet and lifestyle?
“For starters, honey is low GI, which means your body releases the energy slowly so you don’t get the sugar highs and lows. You will find you have a lot more energy throughout the day. Just eliminating sugar alone and switching to honey, I went from a very tired mom of 5 month old twins that was always in need of a nap, to being full of energy and managing well throughout the day even with broken sleep at night. Raw honey has been found to be more effective than antibiotics at treating common ailments. This is due to its broad-spectrum antimicrobial (antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, and anti-mycobacterial) properties."
It’s also an excellent source of antioxidants so it really helps boost your immune system. We have raw honey all the time and I’m amazed at how little we get sick and if we do, how quickly we recover. It’s definitely kept my family healthy this winter and makes for an excellent cough syrup if anyone does end up getting a cold” - Hampson Honey
If I wanted to go and add raw honey in my diet, I go to the shops and I see so many honey options…it’s hard to know what to do, so I asked Karin what is the difference between raw honey and store bought honey? And even manuka,royal jelly and normal honey?
“Manuka honey has been quite the buzz lately because it has been found to have a high level of activity (which is the level of methoglyoxal present in the honey). Basically if you get a high MGO rating (I’m talking 500+), it has great healing properties. Manuka honey is just honey that has been produced by the bees while foraging from the Manuka bush (or better known in Australia as Jellybush). Royal jelly is used more as a supplement for people with specific health ailments, but it also treats a lot of the same ailments as raw honey would treat.
Normal raw honey in is what we all know and love. It can range greatly in colour, viscosity, taste and odour depending on which floral variety it is. In Australia, the most popular honeys are from the variety of eucalypt trees such as blue gum, red gum, stringy bark, paper bark, etc. We keep our bees on national park and state forest sites which are surrounded by these beautiful untouched bushlands and it produces a fantastic honey.
“Raw honey is the beautiful healthy honey that bees create. It’s just extracted, strained and bottled. That’s it. It contains all the health properties that you want like the natural enzymes, vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients such as pollen and propolis."
"Store bought honey is usually heated and filtered, which is great for packing honey in a quick timeframe, but not great at giving the customers a high quality, healthy honey. Store-bought honey is also often a blend of Australian and international honey.”
So there you have it…bees and the beautiful honey they produce is not only super healthy for us but it essential to our ecosystem! Without bees and honey perhaps we would decline as predicted by Eintein!
For the full interview with Hampson honey you can access it here:Full Interview Hampson Honey
References:
Murray & Pizzorno, 2012, Textbook of Natural Medicine.
Singhal, R., Siddibhavi, M., Sankeshwari, R., Patil, P., Jalihal, S., & Ankola, A. (2018). Effectiveness of three mouthwashes - Manuka honey, Raw honey, and Chlorhexidine on plaque and gingival scores of 12-15-year-old school children: A randomized controlled field trial. Journal Of Indian Society Of Periodontology, 22(1), 34-39. doi:10.4103/jisp.jisp_356_17
http://this.deakin.edu.au/society/what-does-the-bee-decline-mean-for-civilisation