Honey is a product made by bees from sweet substances (nectar) secreted by plants to attract insects (bees and other pollinators) that will pollinate them, or from sweet substances secreted by aphids (honeydew), as well as from sweet substances secreted by the leaves of some plants through so-called extrafloral nectaries under suitable climatic conditions (honeydew drops).
The sugars in nectar usually consist of glucose, fructose, and sucrose (which bees primarily break down into glucose and fructose through enzymes during the honey-making process). Bees create honey from these sweet substances by first removing the water (through ventilation and physiological processes), while adding valuable secretions from their glands.
The most commonly recommended dose of honey is up to 1g per 1kg of body weight daily.
The enzymes secreted by bees and incorporated into honey alter the primary sweet substances in a way that suits the bees, allowing them to create an ideal food for winter and the rest of the year when there is no nectar intake from nature. Nature has ensured that the numerous enzymes that bees introduce into honey have a beneficial effect on the human body, and science has proven that they do so mainly by positively influencing the mechanisms that form the backbone of our immune system.
If honey is heated beyond the permissible limits (honey can be heated up to a maximum of 45°C, and for the shortest possible time), the enzymes break down, and the positive effects on the immune system disappear. There are also substances in honey that science has not yet identified.
In addition to the above, honey is rich in numerous plant-based components that come through nectar, honeydew, or honeydew drops (minerals, vitamins, flavonoids, plant “enzymes,” etc.). For instance, flavonoids are very important for the biological effects of honey on the human body, and this has been researched in such detail that even a thousand pages wouldn’t be enough to cover just this topic. Pharmacists have tried to encapsulate flavonoids and sell them, but the effect achieved is only a fraction of the effect obtained from regularly using bee products, even in the smallest amounts of just one teaspoon of their mixtures per day. The reason is that honey contains thousands of substances that act synergistically, and only then do they achieve their full effect on the human body.
Dr. med. Rodoljub Živadinović
Source:
spos.info
