Would you spend over £30 on a jar of honey?

[fractionMan]

is that right? I dont eat honey anyway tbh, only occasionally buy it for guests!
will look for a link on this, sounds a bit nasty

I didn't relise corn syrup was an antibiotic. It's bollocks.

 

[Greebo]

The bad news with cheap honey is it's full of antibiotics, and the bees have been fed on corn syrup.

Over here, bees are more likely to be fed on sugar water when they need it (be it cane sugar -Tate & Lyle - or beet sugar -Silver Spoon) as that's far cheaper than corn syrup.

 

[Greebo]

I didn't relise corn syrup was an antibiotic. It's bollocks.

JC3 didn't say that corn syrup is an antibiotic. Neither does the article.

OTOH a food producer (not manufacturer - the bees make the honey, not the human) who cuts corners in one direction often finds it easier to do so in others.

 

[uk benzo]

Manuka is Arabic for your mum shags around and likes it.

Hahahaha.. very good! Technically, it is the feminine form of "you fucker". The masculine form would be manuke.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

How can you sell more of something than you produce?

You mix the real stuff with corn syrup and sell it as pure honey. It violates all kinds of food standard laws, but they're rarely prosecuted.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

The bad news with cheap honey is it's full of antibiotics, and the bees have been fed on corn syrup.

^True. Honey bees, like any other livestock these days, are heavily dosed with antibiotics. With the bee die off they're trying to do everything they can to keep them alive. They're still getting huge losses.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

Adulteration - extra virgin olive oil is often diluted with lower grades of olive oil, and sometimes even other nut or seed oils. .

n August 10, 1991, a rusty tanker called the Mazal II docked at the industrial port of Ordu, in Turkey, and pumped twenty-two hundred tons of hazelnut oil into its hold. The ship then embarked on a meandering voyage through the Mediterranean and the North Sea. By September 21st, when the Mazal II reached Barletta, a port in Puglia, in southern Italy, its cargo had become, on the ship’s official documents, Greek olive oil. It slipped through customs, possibly with the connivance of an official, was piped into tanker trucks, and was delivered to the refinery of Riolio, an Italian olive-oil producer based in Barletta. There it was sold—in some instances blended with real olive oil—to Riolio customers.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/13/070813fa_fact_mueller?currentPage=all

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

^True. Honey bees, like any other livestock these days, are heavily dosed with antibiotics. With the bee die off they're trying to do everything they can to keep them alive. They're still getting huge losses.

Some scientists and beekeepers think that the heavy use of antibiotics with bees is one of the causes of the die-off.

 

[BooBooGirl]

I doubt I would at all.... never heard of it before

 

[Greebo]

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/13/070813fa_fact_mueller?currentPage=all

Not surprised - a reporter for the Food Programme did an olive oil tasting session and deeply offended one of the olive farmers by saying that their oil had an almost nutty flavour. After finding out about the levels of adulteration in parts of that industry, enlightenment dawned.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Some scientists and beekeepers think that the heavy use of antibiotics with bees is one of the causes of the die-off.

I wouldn't be surprised by that. I tend to follow the multiple cause theory. Some is mites, some over transportation, some lack of food, some pesticides, etc. It all gangs up on their immune systems. It does seem to effect bees where there's more human input into their life-cycle more. Bees left alone do better.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

I wouldn't be surprised by that. I tend to follow the multiple cause theory. Some of is mites, some over transportation, some lack of food, some pesticides, etc. It all gangs up on their immune systems. It does seem to effect bees where there's more human input into their life-cycle more. Bees left alone do better.

I'd recommend this documentary. Parts of it are a bit on the cheesy side, but the information contained in it is a real eye-opener.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1645852/

 

[Cid]

i am not into alternative medicines (or as i like to call them "hippy shit") but...

real doctors and vets have said to put manuka honey onto wounds as it has proven antibacterial properties. it has to be the good stuff though to work properly

£30 for a jar of honey that may stop you developing septicemia/tetanus. I suspect I shall stick with antiseptic spray/wipes.

 

[Pingu]

£30 for a jar of honey that may stop you developing septicemia/tetanus. I suspect I shall stick with antiseptic spray/wipes.

it also forms a waxy barrier over the wound so also acts as a sort of plaster. and doesnt sting like fuck.

 

[Greebo]

it also forms a waxy barrier over the wound so also acts as a sort of plaster. and doesnt sting like fuck.

As well as that, in clinical trials, sterilised honey applied in hospital to difficult to heal wounds (eg abcesses and ulcers) noticeably reduced the time they took to heal.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

£30 for a jar of honey that may stop you developing septicemia/tetanus. I suspect I shall stick with antiseptic spray/wipes.

Honey won't help promote the growth of superbugs via overuse of antibiotics, though.

 

[Cid]

it also forms a waxy barrier over the wound so also acts as a sort of plaster. and doesnt sting like fuck.

Sensible, fair enough.

As well as that, in clinical trials, sterilised honey applied in hospital to difficult to heal wounds (eg abcesses and ulcers) noticeably reduced the time they took to heal.

Sensible, fair enough.

Honey won't help promote the growth of superbugs via overuse of antibiotics, though.

 

[el-ahrairah]

so i said to my partner "look at this, manuka honey costs like thirty quid, who the fuck would spend thirty quid on a jar of honey". she looked at me, and then very pointedly went to the kitchen and got the jar of honey out of the cupboard and placed it in front of me. i said "fucking hell woman, i was eating that with a spoon the other day, why didn't you stop me? each mouthful must have cost us about a quid." she said nothing, just rolled her eyes at me.

so now i know who spends that sort of money on manuka honey.

 

[girasol]

I have been taking Manuka Honey 15+ every day (one spoonful with coffee) for a couple of years - The diminishing of hayfever symptoms and the decrease in frequency and strength of colds is real. And I don't doubt honey's medicinal properties. Are the two related?

 

[DotCommunist]

well you never saw winnie the pooh get poorly did you? QED

 

[Mrs Miggins]

I have been taking Manuka Honey 15+ every day (one spoonful with coffee) for a couple of years - The diminishing of hayfever symptoms and the decrease in frequency and strength of colds is real. And I don't doubt honey's medicinal properties. Are the two related?

I'm not sure you really can link those two things.
I suffered terribly with hay fever for years but have not had it for the last 3 or 4.
I also don't seem to get many colds these days
I don't take Mauka honey.

 

[Cid]

I'm not sure you really can link those two things.
I suffered terribly with hay fever for years but have not had it for the last 3 or 4.
I also don't seem to get many colds these days
I don't take Mauka honey.

Same. Correlation ≠ causation. It's an anti-microbial that may be useful for some types of wound and other external conditions, a bit of reading around reveals that there's no real evidence for it doing anything else. Additionally the stuff you can buy on the shelves isn't sterile and definitely shouldn't be used for wound care. So not worth £30.

It is also probably worth noting that honey is um... sugar. Adding an extra couple of spoonfulls/day to our already sugar-heavy diets is probably not the greatest of ideas.

 

[girasol]

I'm not sure you really can link those two things.
I suffered terribly with hay fever for years but have not had it for the last 3 or 4.
I also don't seem to get many colds these days
I don't take Mauka honey.

Yep (hence the ?), but now I got into the habit, and I almost believe it helps. I will need to stop taking it and see what happens. Taking it makes me feel virtuous, this is how strong the power of suggestion can be Also, if am going to have something to sweeten my coffee, better to be honey than processed sugar.

 

[Mrs Miggins]

Yep, but now I got into the habit, and I almost believe it helps. I will need to stop taking it and see what happens. Taking it makes me feel virtuous, this is how strong the power of suggestion can be

It probably is the believing that is doing it rather than the honey!
Have you read Ben Goldacre's Bad Science? The chapter on the placebo effect is fascinating.

 

[girasol]

It probably is the believing that is doing it rather than the honey!
Have you read Ben Goldacre's Bad Science? The chapter on the placebo effect is fascinating.

Yep, have read.