It is applied to one of the nature's super foods, it can prevent cancer, heart disease, it is a powerful probiotic, and it boosts your immune system. And all of that is true, if you are eating actual honey.
The world's second largest importer of honey, America, tells a very different story of this allegedly natural product.
A study has found that over 75% of commercial honey sold in US doesn't contain any pollen. According to researchers honey has to contain pollen, otherwise it just is not honey.
So if all this honey is not actually honey, then what is it?
Well, there are many different carefully engineered cocktails of artificial ingredients that are used to replicate real honey, and each producer makes their own individual mixture. Most are mainly made up from an infamous high-fructose corn syrup. So in reality if You think You are eating healthy by swapping your pancakes syrup with honey, you are wrong, because it is basically the same thing.
So, why do large company honey producers sell billions of dollars worth of artificial sugars labeled as honey?
The answer is in simple economics, real honey is expensive, just think about what has to happen to make honey. Bees need to visit million of flowers just to make 1 jar of honey. And over it's lifetime single bee will produce just one single tea spoon of honey.
High fructose corn syrup and other similar ingredients are incredibly cheap to produce, and companies can sell fake honey for much, much cheaper to consumers. There are also almost no regulations in place in most of the countries considering the percentage of real honey required. In some countries, like in most of the Europe there are strict regulations about what can be labeled and sold as honey.
A simple rule you can apply in finding out a real honey is that real honey crystallizes very quickly. Do not wrongly consider crystallized honey as spoiled, honey can never spoil, and crystallization is a proof that it is probably a real honey.
Try to avoid buying honey in large supermarkets. Buy honey from local stores or trusted bee keeper, because in the end, our health comes from our food, and if our health doesn't matter, then, what does?
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