Instead of exotic - herbs. How to choose honey correctly?

Anastasia Khavryuk Chairperson of the Board of the Belarusian Beekeepers NGO Honey is not just a tasty treat, but also a source of many valuable substances for our body. However, it is important to know how to choose quality honey. A BELTA correspondent talked to Chairperson of the Board of the Belarusian Beekeepers NGO Anastasia Khavryuk and found out which honey is the healthiest and what to pay attention to when buying it.



- What should you do to choose good honey?

- The most effective way to buy good honey is to find a family beekeeper you can trust. You can visit his apiary and find out how the work is going , see the condition of the hives and how the person treats the bees. Perhaps your neighbor in the village or at his dacha is engaged in beekeeping.

But still, there are several rules for choosing honey. Firstly, you do not need to look for exotic types of honey in Belarus. Fairs where cotton, acacia, and eucalyptus honey were popular used to be. It is better to buy mixed-flower honey, which is collected from various honey plants, that is, polyfloral honey. Among monofloral honeys, we can distinguish rapeseed, buckwheat, and linden. In the south of the country, you can also collect sunflower and acacia honey, but the latter is more likely to be sold with impurities. Fireweed and white clover are good honey plants.
Secondly, you should not chase unfamiliar names. Belarusian honey is useful precisely because it is collected on our land. At the same time, if summer varieties of honey are now liquid, then spring ones are already crystallized. You do not need to be afraid that they have become lighter and harder. This is a natural process.

- How to distinguish a fake?

- In fact, you cannot distinguish a fake from a real product by appearance. Today, such fakes are created that they are not always detected even in laboratories. Here, your trust in the beekeeper plays the main role. But honey can be tested for maturity. Mature honey should stretch upward in a continuous thread. True, today beekeepers rarely pump out unripe honey. Moreover, many of them have devices for measuring the humidity of the product.
It is also worth trusting your taste. Some people are more interested in delicate, light and "calm" honey, while others, on the contrary, like tart honey that scratches the throat. There are people who spread the misconception that honey must necessarily scratch, but this is not true. For example, spring honey or honey with an admixture of acacia is very delicate, but this does not mean that it is of poor quality.

In addition, the buyer can ask the beekeeper to see the honey analysis. For analysis, honey samples are submitted to the sanitary epidemiological station, where the necessary indicators are measured. Without this analysis, the beekeeper cannot sell his product.
- What is the danger of counterfeits?

- The simplest fake - sugar syrup - is not so bad. It is simply devoid of useful properties, vitamins and minerals. But there are more serious fakes with various preservatives and flavorings, which can, among other things, cause severe allergic reactions. Children are especially susceptible to chemicals .

- What honey is best for children's bodies?

- It is better to give children spring varieties of honey and, to begin with, offer it in a diluted form: in compote, cottage cheese, porridge. Getting honey into a child's body in small quantities will protect the child from a strong reaction. At the same time, it will become clear whether he has an allergy . You should not give tart summer honey. Children who try it often refuse honey altogether, because they do not like the tart taste.
- How to store honey correctly?

- Honey should not be stored in the refrigerator or in the sun. Room temperature is enough. It is necessary to keep it away from heat sources. It is also necessary to close the lid tightly, because honey absorbs odors very strongly.

- Honey is considered a healthy product that contains vitamins and minerals, but still has a high calorie content. How much honey can you eat per day so that it benefits and does not harm the body?
- Of course, everything is individual. A couple of spoons a day will not do anything bad. A person without excess weight and other health problems can eat up to 100 g of honey per day. It is better to eat a little every day than once a week, but a lot.

- Does honey help during illness?

- Yes, honey is a healthy product, but you should not attribute miraculous properties to it, after all, it is not a medicine. Beekeepers always say: honey should be eaten every day to avoid getting sick, and not eaten during illness and wait for recovery. The healing property of honey is due to the fact that honey mainly consists of carbohydrates: fructose, glucose and a little sucrose. These sugars are well absorbed by the body and help to quickly restore strength.

Honey contains vitamins, minerals and bee enzymes in small quantities. Regular consumption of honey can boost your immunity , give you more vitality and energy. Honey also has a positive effect on digestion, especially in the form of honey water, mental activity and general physical condition. But if we talk about health benefits, I would highlight not honey, but other bee products: pollen, bee bread, propolis, capping wax. Pollen and bee bread contain much more vitamins and minerals. Propolis is a natural antiseptic and antibiotic, which is useful for colds and sore throats.
During a cold, you can take honey with milk to soften a cough and relieve spasms, but even more benefit will come from the capping. It is excellent for diseases of the upper respiratory tract, effectively affects the separation of sputum. Accordingly, it helps to fight cough and runny nose, including residual cough after bronchitis. In such cases, the capping should be consumed 2-3 times a day. For sore throats, you can chew dry propolis, lubricate the affected areas of the throat with an alcohol tincture of propolis or gargle with a diluted tincture (a teaspoon perglass of water). Therefore, to combat diseases, it is worth paying attention not only to honey, although it will also have a beneficial effect on the body.

BELTA.