Facts & Myths about Honey

Honey is one of the most misunderstood food items while it remains one of the most adulterated food items in India. I will try to place some less known facts and myths about honey.

• Color, flavor, taste, level of sweetness and consistency of raw honey can never be the same. Each and every harvest will have a different dolor, flavor, taste and consistency. It all depends on the season, the flowers in bloom and also on the type of honeybees. For example, the honey produced by the wild honeybees will be different from those produced by those kept in the boxes, even if they feed on the same set of flowers. Some honey (like that made from litchi flowers) will be thin & aromatic whereas the honey made from teak flowers will be thick and without any flavor. 
• Many people believe that if the honey gets crystalized it is adulterated, whereas some others believe in exactly the opposite of it. Both are not true. It is absolutely normal for honey to crystalize when the temperature goes below certain level which varies slightly with the type of honey. For example, honey made from mustard flowers crystallizes within days whereas the honey made from jamun flowers takes very long to crystalize. Honey can be decrystalized by putting its container in hot water for 10 minutes.
• There is a belief that thicker and non-flowing honey is of better quality. There is no truth in this because the thickness is based on the moisture and nutritional contents of the honey, which, as mentioned above varies with the season, flowers, etc. A few brands deliberately thicken the honey by processing to make its market appeal better. 
• It is said that Honey is a good substitute for sugar. It is true to a large extent due to the nutritional and medicinal value of honey compared to sugar. However it still comes with the bad things of sugar and hence shall be consumed in moderation. 
• Many people think that the conventional methods of testing honey for purity are sacrosanct. This includes methods like putting in water, fire, blot paper test, honeycomb pattern test etc. Unfortunately none of these tests is fool-proof as they only test the physical nature of honey and many adulterants can pass all of these tests. Only lab tests can confirm the purity of honey. The other alternative is to buy it from a known and reliable source. 
• Pure honey never gets spoilt. This is true a large extent. But it is true only if it is properly harvested, handled and stored (in glass containers). Otherwise honey can ferment and produce an acidic smell. Honey also can change color over time which is absolutely normal and safe. 
• Some people are under the impression that the honey extracted from the beekeeping boxes are not good. This impression is mainly because they think that the beehives in the box are man-made and the beekeeper may feed sugar syrup to the honeybees. Both the impressions are not valid. First of all, the honeycomb in the box is also made by honeybees only. And although it is true that the beekeeper may have to feed sugar to the honeybees some times (particularly when there are less number of flowers), honeybees don't store it in the comb in the form of sugar syrup. They still process it and produce honey. Additionally, most of the times, the box honey is handled and extracted in a more hygienic way.  
• Raw honey is healthier than processed honey. This is a much debated topic. Raw honey is the honey which is as extracted directly from the honeycomb whereas the processed honey goes through one or more steps of processing like pasteurization, filtration, homogenization, etc which might involve heat treatment of honey. It is true that raw honey is rich in nutrients as processing leads to the removal of beneficial nutrients like pollens, enzymes and anti-oxidants from honey, making it almost the same as sugar! However, raw honey may contain some bacteria which is harmful particularly for infants. So it is better to avoid giving raw honey to children/infants. 
• Raw honey need not be organic! Many people have the misconception that raw honey means organic too. Both are not really related but you can find honey which is both raw and organic. Rawness of honey is about its processing whereas organic is determined by where the honey is extracted from. There should not be usage of any chemical pesticides and fertilizers within a certain radius  (typically upto a kilometer) from the honeycomb to make it organic.
• Some people believe that if there is beeswax in the honey it is not pure and safe. There are few others who believe that honey should be eaten with beeswax! Both are wrong. Beeswax is edible, and healthy but it should be consumed in moderation (like anything else!), typically with honey. This means that beeswax in honey is generally safe and healthy (unless there is more beeswax and less honey).

Decoding Organic

 "Organic" has become a misused and abused word these days. Many people, including the farmers, sellers and consumers use this word without having much clarity on what it means. And there is a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding on this. On the other spectrum, there are many people who argue that there is nothing called "Organic" because scientifically everything, including our body is a mix of chemicals. They argue that even the water we drink is H2O, which is a chemical! In 2010, Royal Society of Chemistry in UK had announced a cash prize of 1Million Pounds for anybody who makes a product without any chemicals and that prize remains unclaimed till now and it will remain so forever.

So what is organic farming and organic food, when everything, including the Jeevamrutha and many other things that are used in Organic/Natural farming are chemical compounds?

Loosely speaking, organic farming is the way of farming where the farm doesn't use any synthetic chemicals. So in this case the farm inputs are sourced from the nature, including plants & animals. In science, molecules containing carbon and hydrogen bonds are called "organic"  Many people argue that there is no difference between "natural chemicals" and "synthetic chemicals" as the plants and/or human body don't care about the source of them. And at the end, all the organic food contains naturally occurring chemicals!

Then why is there so much hype about organic farming and organic food? What difference does it make to anybody? Following are some of the noteworthy aspects:

1. Organic farming, if followed properly, is environment-friendly. I am specifically mentioning "if followed properly" because simply replacing the synthetic chemicals with natural chemicals will not make a farm organic. Because organic farming is expected to support bio-diversity through multi-cropping, inter-cropping, mulching and many more techniques. If these practices are not followed and continue with mono-cropping, there is not much benefit from it either environmentally or related to the nutrition value of the food. 

2. In the long run, organic farming will (and should) increase the soil fertility instead of reducing it. Also the runoff from the synthetic chemicals can leech into the soil and water (both overground and underground) which will have a long term impact. This once again is not true if monocrop is followed in so called organic farming.

3. Another major impact from organic farming is the reduced carbon foot-print if followed properly, because all the farm inputs are expected to be sourced either on the farm or locally. This shall reduce both the manufacturing cost as well as transport cost. 

4. Research has proven that organically grown food has less residues of pesticides compared to the conventionally grown food, most probably due to the animals involved in the process eating more natural food instead of processed food. This definitely makes it more healthy.

There are also arguments that in some cases it is not good and sustainable to get the "natural chemicals" and preparing them in the labs may be the only sustainable option. I have seen the example of the production of "aspirin" pain killer synthetically, although it is there in the leaves/bark of willow trees naturally. Although I am not aware any similar examples related to organic farming, I am sure there will be a few such instances which may or may not be discovered as of now. Anyway that is a topic for another day/another blog!

In conclusion, it is advisable to understand what is the organic farming and organic food and make informed decisions on our choices both as farmers and consumers. However it is true that organic farming and organic food definitely offers lot of benefits to the health of us and our environment.