Honey Health Benefits

Honey

Honey is a natural substance used to the sweet taste of energy properties and potential health benefits. With regards to the plant origin, and you can find a huge selection of various kinds of honey, such as clover, acacia or Manuka. This information describes how honey is produced and what's its composition, and relates to research and studies on the effects sure.

Submitting
Production process begins with honey from the nectar of flowers. Bees collect nectar and saliva enzymes break down the sugar sucrose into glucose and fructose, which will be stored in the combs from cell to cell feeding throughout the winter. In honeycombs, excess water evaporates through the continuous production of bee wings ventilation. The resulting thick, viscous liquid is what we know honey (see Table 1 to configure) 1.

The European Union is the next largest producer of honey in the world. It is obtained by the largest group in Spain, Denmark, Romania and Hungary2. However, since access to quality honey production should be abundant populations of honey bees, it is just a matter of concern that Europe is experiencing a significant decline in bee colonies (16% reduction between 1985 and 2005) 3.

Bees produce honey not just, but play an important role in crop pollination. Given that 84% of the crop of the European Union depends on pollination, the European Commission is promoting a technique to guarantee the health abejas4. Several factors subscribe to the reduced amount of the preparation of the bees. One of them will be the utilization of pesticides, which resulted in the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to issue guidelines on the potential of pesticides abejas5 risk assessment.

Installation
Can season, environmental conditions, processing techniques and types of nectar flowers affect the composition of honey, but mainly food ingredients are the key carbohydrates (simple sugars: fructose and glucose). Along with water and honey it has really small amounts of protein, vitamins, minerals and trace elements, enzymes and polyphenols, including flavonoids of pollen, that may help identify the foundation of miel6.

Table 1. nutritional composition of honey * 7

At 100 grams in a meal of 20 g
Energy 288 kcal / 1229 kJ 58 kcal / 246 kJ
Fat (g) 0 0
Carbohydrates (g) 76.4 15.3
- Fructose (g) 41.8 8.4
- Glucose (g) 34.6 6.9
Protein (g) 0:40:08
Other ingredients
Water (g) 17.5 3.5
* According to the analysis of samples from eight different types.

Typically, the liquid honey is soft contain small imperceptible to a person's eye crystals. However, some factors such as its origin, low temperature storage, long storage time and higher glucose content, can produce crystallization, any form larger crystals and becomes crisp texture. The procedure can temporarily reverse a little honey heating. However, heating and filtering honey (purification) may adversely affect its properties, like, darkening along with, and the destruction and elimination of flavonoids enzymes.

Honey and health
Honey has been employed for thousands of years in traditional medicine of the characteristics of potential anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant. Medical grade honey is used topically to heal wounds. And low humidity in the honey, hydrogen peroxide and acidity (pH 3.9 average) are anti-bacterial and give honey antibacterianas6 Properties. Furthermore, it may be that honey contains spores of Clostridium botulinum, that may cause serious infections in newborns, so it is not recommended to give honey to children under the age of 12 months old8. It is thought that the anti-inflammatory properties is a result of antioxidants, including chrysin (a type of flavonoid), vitamin C and catalase (the enzyme) 9. Honey recipes may depend on the origin, composition and dosis6.

Honey contains glycemic index (GI) of approximately 55, and is found in the upper GI foods with low to moderate, resulting in a growth in the degree of sugar in the blood less food with high GI. And a diet consisting of low GI foods may be useful in metabolic conditions such as diabetes type 212.13 disease. Response depends on blood sugar levels soluble fiber, proteins and fats (which reduce the IG), cooking and processing methods used and the sum total quantity of carbohydrates ingested.

There is new evidence that honey can affect the levels of gut hormones and enhance satiety, but should be confirmed by clinical trials on a bigger scale. If confirmed, it suggests that honey control effects peso9,10. Research also suggests that daily usage of honey might have beneficial effects on blood lipids, without that this will lead to increased bodyweight, in contrast to equivalent amounts of sucrose. However, in this study, and 70 grams of honey a day, the same of 3.5 servings (~ 200 calories), only 11 are considered. There are many other studies on the benefits of honey and also on the foundation of relatively elevadas6 sockets. The increase in the usage of food from any source of energy for the vitality needs lead to weight gain with time, unless offset by a growth of physical activity.

Although honey seems to provide certain health advantages, it's essential to conduct additional studies in humans.