Myths and Facts about Honey;
Honey can be stored forever,
Yes and No
Honey will only spoil.. ferment.. with moisture
But over a period of months color darkens, flavor changes, enzymes break down. Usual time for most foods is 12 months. Mineral content normally is not lost. So keep dry and it will keep for a long time.
Yes it will get cloudy and crystallize. Real honey should do that, Just warm it up and melt it, much like butter can be solid or liquid.
Local honey is the only one that will help seasonal allergies.
Not true.
The short answer is that raw pure unfiltered honey helps the immune system.
Local pollen will help with your allergies only if you are reacting to the plants the bees are gathering pollen and nectar from. The important thing is honey you like enough to eat enough of it to do some good. Eating some in the morning and again at night, at least, would be good.
One of the ways honey betters health is that it helps the body avoid metabolic stress.
Ok ,so I can just buy the cheapest honey in the grocery store?
Please don't.
Here's why:
The most useful to the body is honey that is Raw.. that means it has not been heated enough to kill enzymes, which is about 115 F.
The honey also has to be actual honey.. if the pollen has been filtered out that what is left is a sugar syrup. This does keep it from crystallizing on the shelf, as does pasteurizing.
Speaking of sugar syrup, honey should be only honey, not corn syrup ,too.
Recently the USDA has said that products with added syrups or sugar must be labeled as “blends”. I have yet to see that on a “honey” product.
Look for raw, unfiltered honey.
What is big deal about Imported honey?
The US imported about 2 ½ times as much honey as was produced here (2022). Of that 415 million pounds of honey, only 144 samples were taken. The problem has been that the honey has added brown rice syrup or corn syrup.. and those are the two most edible additions. Imported honey has to be labeled with certified origin but China got around that by sending first to India or somewhere else before it is sent to us.
Oh, but shouldn't we buy honey labeled “organic”?
US beekeepers cannot claim their own honey is organic, but the USDA allows foreign honey to be labeled organic, according to the standards of the country. A perfect example of this can be seen on Amazon's Choice honey. The front label says it's organic and has the USDA stamp on it, but is not USDA organic standards.
