Raw Honey For Your Health will you try it? What's you input on this?

HONEY AND BEAUTY

The famous queen of ancient Egypt, Cleopatra, is described as a woman of exceptional beauty. History informs us that Cleopatra used a mixture of fresh milk and honey in her bath. The legendary queen of the Nile maintained her skin soft, smooth and shiny owing to the skin-enhancing qualities of honey.
Madame du Barry, the mistress of Louis XV, used a facial mask from honey all her life. The Chinese empresses mixed ground orange seeds in honey to give their skin a white complexion and keep it spot free. Manufacturers have used honey in everything from hand lotions and moisturizers to bar soaps and bubble baths. Honey is a humectant, which means that it attracts and retains moisture. This makes honey a natural fit for a variety of moisturizing products including cleaners, creams, shampoos and conditioners. Honey also acts as an anti-irritant, making it suitable for sensitive skin and baby care products. If pure honey is used in combination with olive oil it can be quite effective in the treatment of minor wounds.

Honey is made from bee backwash. The pollen you see the bees gathering isn't the stuff for honey. The nectar is what gets that done. It is stored in a small sack that provides the enzymes that get it turned into honey. It has a lot of antibacterial properties and is pretty acidic. It is a wasteland to things trying to live in it.

The only detrimental thing about honey which is why very small children should avoid it, is that it can contain botulism spores. The spores are pretty hard to destroy.

The flavor is dramatically changed by what nectar the bee used with orange blossom honey and clover honey nearly always being available at the grocery.

As far as raw honey, the honey is removed from the comb by spinning it and then filter it. Spin it and don't filter it and you have raw honey. That honey has bee bits from dead bees, pollen bits here and there and several other things. Honey with these things is supposed to be good for allergies based on the Dirt Principle.

You can read about it here:

http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-body/human-body/allergy-misery-article.html

Good stuff in you don't mind the occasional crunchy bit in your honey. Hey, it's just additional texture, right?

Great addition Dan.  Yes, anyone that has ate honey is ingesting Bee Barf..lol the pollen "what most people see attached to the bees back legs" is collected at the entrance to the hive by means of a pollen trap. that pollen is what many including myself take daily to help with allergies, pollen comes from the plants that cause our allergic reactions during peak seasons. So, just as snake venom gave to someone for a snake bite, or rabies induced into the body for treatment. Bee pollen helps assist with many allergy seasons.

It is not known how honey becomes contaminated with botulism spores which are commonly found in the environment, maybe picked up by bees and brought to the hive.  Other microorganisms found in the environment around honey  bees, hives, pollen, soil, flowers, are also likely to occur in honey. botulism spores are present in less than 5% of honey and are typically found in very low numbers.

Orange blossom honey is one of my favorites, Blueberry honey is a great treat. Clover honey & Locus honey are more prominent around our local area. 

Collection and spinning the honey with some parts still in it with no micro filtering  allows the nutrients you speak of the "dirt theory" to pass through. The only filtering we have done in the past is with a stainless steal wire mesh screen the kind like you would strain when you are doing some canning of vegetables. This takes out any bee legs, wings, or crunchy parts.

I would say a bit of additional texture, never hurt any of us as you state..

Thank you for your additions Dan, great input.

You are most welcome. Honey is an amazing food. It is completely yummy on all levels, does amazing things when used in food, has a shelf life measured as an atomic half life, is as natural as it gets, did I mention it is totally yum?, and has some very impressive non-food properties as well.

Beyond that, I like bees. I think they are amazing little critters. I have a wildflower garden in my front yard. I tolerate yellow jackets as long as there aren't too many of them. I encourage honey bees, but not so much so that they take up residence too close....they are MEAN when they think you are disturbing their hive. I mainly leave them be though as they are pretty small to be messing with. We also have a large number of bumblebees. I encourage these by giving them a place to live.  My mailbox post is drilled with a dozen or so holes by the carpenter bees. They are ALL over the flowers and are large enough to mess with. One of my favorite things to show new people, or people I meet while gardening, is to pet them. They have a very soft upper body and if they are on a flower getting nectar then they are completely docile. They are pretty easy going anytime but especially when they are on a flower. The only thing I have found they really don't appreciate is when you pet them on coneflowers and push this into the seed spikes. That aggrevates them  a good bit. Otherwise, great bunch of garden helpers.

Bees are as fascianting as their honey is yummy!

Great addition PatriotDan Thank you.