May 26, 2017 • 36 mins
Humans have been eating honey since before recorded history -- and it may be the oldest medicine known to humankind, too. From ancient remedies to cutting-edge cures to rare dangers, we explore the amazing medical properties of honey.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hey there, and welcome to food Stuff. I'm Lauren Vogelbon
and I'm an Eries, and today we are still talking
about honey still forever. It's the Honey Show now Honey
Stuff because as we found when we started researching this topic,
there's so much history, and so we we decided to
(00:31):
split it into the kind of cultural history for the
first episode, and in this episode we're going to talk
about the medical history and and modern research going into
the really completely incredible things that honey can do for you. Right.
Have you ever been recommended to use honey for medicinal purpose?
(00:53):
I have a friend of mine is an aesthetician, and
she always recommends doing honey facials, um, which I have
done and forgot to tie my bangs up first. I
have I have fringe and uh it was very it
was a huge mess. Have gone wrong, but my but
my skin felt really nice afterwards. If there's that, have you? Yeah? Um.
(01:18):
When I was in Peru hiking, the people I was
with highly recommended these um lozenges. They were honey and
the coca leaves for altitude sickness and like the dry air.
And I can't say if they worked or if I
(01:39):
just was desperate for some kind of relief. But I
was like popping them one this caffeine and then it
would coat your throat. Um. That does sound fun. Yeah,
it seemed to work. And we are definitely not the
only people to use honey as some kind of medical cure,
(02:01):
curative medicine type thing. Yes, absolutely not. Yeah, this this
goes back to like Sumerian clay tablets. Yes, honey is
sometimes called the oldest medicine known to man, and the
first record of honey being used medicinally goes back to
those Sumerian clay tablets that were The dates range from
(02:22):
maybe nineteen hundred to twelve BC. Yeah, I I saw
reports going like even a hundred or two hundred years
older than that. History is hard, No one knows. Historical
numbers are fun as we say, um. But yes, of
the prescriptions on one of the tablets used honey. Um.
(02:43):
The Egyptians were all about honey. They loved honey, seriously
loved it. Um, And they primarily primarily used it to
make ointments that treated diseases of skin and eyes. But
that that was it at all. No, No, there were
so much of BC. Manuscript from Egypt detailed how they
(03:07):
would use honey as a remedy both internally and externally
as a circle dressing for burns and ulcers or if
you had some I inflammation going on. And it was
also a component in laxative and worm remedies. Worm remedies.
Apparently our ancestors were just filled with worms, y'all. Sorry,
(03:27):
not a sentence I was expected of this podcast today,
but I'm I'm happy it's there. There's some really fascinating
stuff about genetics and how people had to adjust to
how how infested they were with worms, and like we've
kept those genes even though we've gotten rid of our
worm problems, and they're like negative consequences for for for
(03:50):
health purposes in some ways, I think fascinating. Yeah, I
think it's like like Norse kind of area. People. I'll
have to look it up sometime. It's great. Yes, please, yeah,
send me a link about that. Okay, we're cool. Were
im tangent back to honey. Welcome to food stuff. Sorry
about it, Sorry about it. We're in tangion scholore um. Okay.
(04:12):
So a lot of Egyptian medicines were some form of milk,
wine and honey, like mixed mixture that sounds delicious anyway,
It kind of does. I'm not sure the milk and
wine go together, but hey. They also sometimes offered honey
to their gods as a sacrifice, so like they really
(04:32):
respected this honey. Yeah, they could not get enough of it. Uh,
and they were the only ones, the Greeks. Um. They
went further. They used it as a medicine, often mixing
it with not wine but grape juice, and athletes would
drink a mixture of honey and water for energy before
major events. That makes perfect sense, Yeah, a lot of energy,
(04:55):
a lot of carbohydrates. Also, Aristotle wrote about it around
three hundred to four dred BC, as that was the
time that he was writing things yes and living. Um.
He said that pale honey is good as a salve
for sore eyes and for wounds. Yeah, so we're already
kind of seeing a theme here, like eyes and general
(05:15):
cuts anything on the outside. Um. Honey also pops up
a number of times in the Bible. One of Solomon's
proverbs was quote, my son, eat thou honey, for it
is good. Yes, I'll take care of roses. Got some
honey out of a pebble. And the Jews believed it
would make you more quote mentally keen uh. Saul's son
(05:39):
Jonathan used honey to regain his strength. Yeah sure. Meanwhile,
Hindus touted honey as a curative for coughs and stomach problems.
The Kuran also talked about honey's healing ability quote and
thy Lord taught the bee to build its cell in
the hills. There are issues from within their bodies a
(06:00):
ink of varying colors, wherein is healing for men. Muhammad
is said to have recommended honey to treat diarrhea, so
it popped up in a lot of religious text. Hippocrates
also recommended honey for a variety of elements, including difficulty
breathing since since it caused spitting his words, um, and
(06:22):
to clean source. He even thought it was good for
some plants, claiming that soaking the seeds and honey would
make whatever it was they were growing taste sweeter, particular cucumbers.
I remember, I don't think that's an accurate statement of fact,
and so maybe that's an experiment, will try. Um. He
also recommended it as a potential treatment for baldness. Apparently
(06:43):
this keeps popping up like along with Onion Juice episode. Yeah,
balding was a big concern. Yeah then and now Yeah,
but balding. I was just reading another thing about this
um earlier balding was associated with syphilis. It would it
would cause syphilis, would cause premature hair loss. So so
(07:05):
especially if you don't want to be running around like
having people be like, how's that syphilis doing? Brokay, yeah,
you want to get rid of it. Written mentions of
honey are spread throughout Europe and in China and certain
areas of Arabia. During the Middle Ages, it was most
commonly prescribed to fix stomach issues, but also as a
(07:25):
sedative for kidney stones, eye disorders, skin disorders, and for
surgeries as part of the dressing, similar to the Egyptians,
and this is one of my favorites. In Germany, women
used honey mixed with crushed bees for beauty and strength
and also to regulate their mistrual cycle. And my only
(07:46):
response to this in the notes was just a huge
like like sad, crying face things. I was just like,
what the wife, why do you crush bees? And then
consume that that really doesn't sound like a good data me.
I don't know, no, but if your menstrual cycle is
bad enough, I can understand. Sure, you can try anything. Yeah,
(08:06):
you'll never know until the dry During World War One,
the wounds of Russian soldiers were often treated with honey,
both to prevent infection and to speed up healing. And uh,
if you remember the mad honey from the last episode,
Lauren found this factor. Oh yeah, it's it's difficult to
(08:27):
tell exactly how far back the tradition goes, but in
Turkey some people take mad honey as a medicine to
treat things like hypertension, diabetes, stomach issues, and sexual dysfunction. Um.
Also in Nepal, the Gurdon people use mad honey to
treat joint pain and to get high. Um. They've they've
been doing both of those things for centuries. Okay, I
(08:51):
didn't see that coming. And has minld mild hallucinogenic properties. Yeah. Well, okay,
it's part of why it's so easy to you know,
kill enemy soldiers when you've given them mad honey. Right,
that makes perfect sense. Um. And some Eastern cultures still
use honey medicine to this day. Uh. And in the
(09:12):
West even the idea is becoming popular again to derma sciences,
manufacturer of medical devices, has started selling bandages coated with
honey worldwide called all caps Meta honey, Meta honey, not
M E T A M E d I Meta. Just
just wanted to clarify meta honey, so it's not some
(09:32):
weird like breaking the fourth wall. Honey. Yes, A couple
of recent studies have shown that a low exposure of
honey can kill some strains of antibiotic resistant bacteria. In
the World Health Organization I found this interesting, recommends honey
as a cough for remody, even in children over one
(09:53):
year of age, going so far as to say there's
no evidence cossert works any better than honey. It says
that like a government document, okay, saying uh and yeah.
As as I kind of mentioned at the top, honey
is also currently much touted on the internet as a
cosmetic skincare treatment. Yeah. So that's kind of a very
(10:16):
quick rundown of all this long history, kind of overwhelming
amount of history, really so much. Um. Yeah, that's that's
the that's the cliff notes version, because we wanted to
spend most of this episode talking about how modern science
holds all of this up. Yeah, in amazing and strange ways. Um.
(10:36):
And we will get to some of those details after
a word from our sponsor, and we're back, Thank you sponsor.
So let's talk about this health thing for a minute.
(10:58):
What science modern science has to say about at it
um are probably several minutes, but not too in depth
because they're so so, so so much. Yeah. If you
happen to go on pub med, which which is a
database of of medical research papers and just type in honey,
it's just like, yep, we have something on that. We
have we have all of the somethings on that one. Um.
(11:22):
There's even a name for this API therapy. Did I
say that right? Yeah? Ay, API therapy, Yeah, totally. And
there are a few medical grade honeys that are sold
that have standardized levels of anti microbial properties. Umlike the
aforementioned meta honey. That's amazing yeah. UM. And for all
(11:43):
of those anti microbial reasons we discussed, honey does have
some pretty legit medicinal value. Yeah, see the first episode
for for those microbe related these should be enjoyed together. Um.
And to be clear, most of this stuff that we're
referring to um at least before this and in the
(12:04):
first part of this modern day section, is like referring
to when honey is applied externally. Yeah, because the stomach
breaks it down too quickly for it to do much
in the anti microbiol arena and ingested Um. Yeah, it's
been found to inhibit the growth of sixty bacteria species
and is still effective even when diluted up to nine times. Yeah.
(12:28):
Clinical observation has shown that honey can reduce inflammation and
it can help speed up the body's immune response to
a wound, with FAKEO sites being activated with honey exposure
as low as point one percent. Yeah, that's not much. No,
that's so small. And a two thousand seven study found
(12:49):
that honey doesn't lead to antibiotic resistance antibiotic resistant bacteria,
so you can keep administering it, which is huge, super
huge because because a rise of superbugs. It's probably a
thing that you've heard about, and it's really terrifying. Um.
And we we don't we don't want to keep producing
bacteria that are like ha ha, your medicine means nothing
(13:10):
to me, because that's really bad. Yeah. And I read
briefly that there's a problem with India's honey supply because
they're putting antibiotics in the honey and it's like messing
the whole thing up. And it's not just India either.
It's like countries will import because businesses can fill import
(13:31):
honey with antibiotics, and it it's a big problem. Apparently noted.
Part of the reason for honeys antibacterial mojo is due
to something called osmolarity, which simplify definition, is the concentration
of the solution, like how much is dissolved in a
particular amount of water. Okay, yeah, um. A lot of
(13:54):
times in nature things are trying to equal out in
a process called osmosis. And this is why honey suffocates bacteria.
Because it has so little water in its composition, it
draws the water out of the bacteria and kills it,
which is again something that we talked about in the
former episode. Right, honey retains its property even when diluted
(14:15):
down like two, which means it could possibly maybe still
work some of its antibacterial magic while in the stomach, um,
like helping out with stuff like diarrhea or any out
of wag gut bacteria. Maybe maybe, Yeah, a little bit
more about the internal stuff later. Um. But there's also
(14:38):
the fact that lots of honeys contain hydrogen peroxide as
a natural byproduct of the action of one of the
enzymes that bees in part during the honeymaking process. That
that enzyme is glucose oxidase, and hydrogen peroxide of course,
kills things like bacteria. However, even honeys that do not
contain hydrogen peroxide can have anti microbial properties. Of course.
(15:03):
Of course, bees also deposit a protein in honey discovered
and named defense in one I love It, which which
researchers think adds to to honey's antibacterial properties. Yes, and
honey may provide some resistance against E. Coli, MERSA, and salmonella.
And this is like so important or it could potentially
(15:27):
be so important because of what like we said earlier
that increasing back to your resistance to traditional antibiotics. And
honey might also have some anti fungal abilities. Studies fine
honey effective against things like ringworm and athletes foot Okay,
so like home treatment for athletes foot right, maybe put
some honey on it. Maybe maybe there's in there. There's
(15:49):
a disclaimer about this in a minute. Honey does genuinely
help with burns and other skin wounds, in part because
it helps keep the wound moist, which allows your immune
system to to better do its thing. Um. Furthermore, it's
viscosity helps form a protective barrier over the wound, and
some honeys stimulate the cells in your immune system that
are responsible for creating macrophages, which are what eat harmful
(16:14):
bacteria in your body. UM, and honey may simultaneously regulate
the action of those macrophages so that they don't just
go nuts and attack your own healing cells during the process,
which is a pretty common thing, and it's it's part
of what causes inflammation in a wound. In some cases,
honey applied to wounds has been observed to reduce that inflammation.
(16:35):
And here goes disclaimer. Fun disclaimer. This does not mean
that you should definitely go slather your next flesh wounded honey. No,
these findings are in laboratory settings or under close medical supervision. Furthermore,
honey is a is a natural product that naturally varies
in its content. Like it's it's makeup is going to
be different due to the season and the bees and
(16:55):
the pollen and the manufacturer and all kinds of other things,
so uh so use it at your own risk. Yes, um,
just be mindful. He's a good judgment. Be mindful. I
didn't even realize sorry the first plant of the episode,
and we made it pretty far, so we did. I
feel good about that. Um. Researchers were able to show
(17:19):
that honey was as effect of treating inflammatory model colitis
as the typically prescribed pregnant z alone. Yes, pregnanz alone. Yes,
that is what I'm going to continue saying whether it
is correct or not. Let me know if I'm wrong.
And this is one area where ingesting honey does in
fact seem to help. Because okay, Uh, colitis can cause
(17:40):
inflammation in your digestive tract, which is bad. Uh. Pregn
z alone works well to fight it because it suppresses
your immune system, uh, which is unhelpfully attacking your digestive
tract to see above re macrophages UM, and this causes
and or worsens the inflammation in your gut. Just calm down,
(18:02):
immune system, geez, like what like chill if I only
talk like like hey, like everything's gonna be fine. Um.
But okay, as you can probably guess, suppressing your immune
system with more than just calming words can lead to
a whole other host of problems, especially if you're doing
(18:22):
it in the long term, you kind of want your
immune system to generally work to generally work. Um. But
as we said, honey may have those anti inflammatory properties,
and similar to how it works on external wounds, it
may help stimulate the repair of damaged intestinal tissue when
taken internally, and there are other internal applications. A couple
(18:43):
of studies have found that honey is effective at treating
diarrhea and back to your gastro enteritis, not the viral one,
when offered as part of a rehydration treatment instead of glucose.
And just to remind you this, this is a medical
application that was recommended by the prophet Muhamma. Guys. Yeah,
it comes full. It's this is ah, this is so nuts.
(19:06):
Honey is amazing m H. Priori. The bacteria behind ulcers
has shown in a few studies to be susceptible to
honeys inhibitory properties as well, and honey may contain antioxidants
like flavonoids, which are substances that may help prevent certain
diseases like cancer under particular circumstances. Oh Man. And and
(19:31):
there's also some very preliminary research being done looking into
honey's potential benefits for cardiovascular health, which has been demonstrated
in vitro and in preventing the proliferation of bladder cancer
cells in specific. And that's not all. No, I feel
like we could sell honey cognitive and brain function. Some
honeys have small amounts of coline and acidal cloline which
(19:56):
may help in brain function. Seriously, you guys, it goes
on and on their studies linking honey to faster healing
of burns, treatment of genital hertpies, lower glycemic index for diabetics, eggs,
and the reduction dan drive production. Oh man, but remember
there is no miracle food or cure. No. Honey may
(20:17):
help with these things some of these things in some cases,
but it's complicated. Use good judgment, do your research, and
also probably talk to a doctor if you're going to
leave said yeah, I mean like, like, okay, like eating
honey where you would usually eat table sugar certainly isn't
going to hurt, right, But I mean, like, don't just
start adding it like willy nilly to all your food, um,
(20:39):
because you know, remember to watch your overall sugar intake.
As we discussed at length UM in our sugar and
your you you should sugar into your health episode. That's
the one that's the title, right, And we actually kind
of need to ask the question, is honey better for
you than secross table sugar if you like me? Your
knee jerk response was yes, well, of course it's made
(21:01):
by bees, and bees know what they're doing, right. And
I ran across an article that was kind of anti honey.
Wasn't written by the sugar industry. Good question, now, it
was from It was from a newspaper in Israel, I believe,
but um, I guess anti honey is too strong. It
was very skeptic, very very skept that's good. I appreciate
(21:25):
a good skepticism. I do too, um. And the researchers
asked this question because there hasn't been a direct study
on this, But again going back to our sugar episode,
how that potential badness and terribleness of sugar, it's probably
a safe bet that honey is better for you. But
the study that they cited in this newspaper I found
(21:46):
was out of New Zealand, and rats were fed either
sucross honey, mixed sugar and honey, or no sugar at all,
and food intake and weight were measured weekly. At the
end of the study, the honey fed rats had gained
way less weight than the ones eating the sugar are
mixed sugar, even though they ate about the same amount.
(22:06):
And the weight of the honey fed rats and sugar
free rats was about the same, and the honey fed
rats ate more compared to the sugar free rats. Huh,
but weight doesn't necessarily equal health. Nope, but just for
what's what it's worth. Yeah, that's interesting. Um. And another
thing that honey is often touted as being able to
(22:27):
do is help with allergies. Local honey and specific right,
it's recommended as an allergic cure. And I have a
friend who swears by this, and and the the idea
here is that local bees pick up the very kinds
of pollen that you run into outside and transfer some
of that pollen to their honey, and therefore, by ingesting
that pollen laden honey, you you build up to you
(22:50):
build up a resistance to that pollen. Um. It's the
same concept that goes into allergy shots or you know,
I okaine powder in the Princess spread. Yes, so happy
the Princess fried made into this episode. Um. But science
doesn't really find this to be the case. Unfortunately. Study
from University of Connecticut Health Center conducted UH had three
(23:15):
groups of allergy havers, one group taking a tablespoon of
local hunting, the other a tablespoon of corn syrup placebo,
and the third taking a tablespoon of commercial honey okay,
And they did this every day for several months, and
they found pretty much no difference. Um. Perhaps it is
helping with symptoms like coughing or a sore throat if
(23:38):
you have that going on. Maybe maybe um. And the
problem with this concept is that the types of pollen
that bees are the most likely to come into contact
with UH. That is that the pollen of bright flowers
and of fruiting trees is not what most people with
seasonal allergies have reactions to. People mostly have reactions to
(23:59):
to other and grass pollens. Also, Hey shout out to
slate dot com for penning the headline on an article
about this, um, honey bunches of lies. Good job, kudos.
Let's talk about some more terrible things about honey. Let's
let's talk about the dark side of honey. Yeah. But
(24:22):
but before we do that, let's let's get a quick
word in from our sponsor again, and we're back. Thank
you sponsor. Yes, and we're about to talk about something
(24:44):
that I am pretty sure Lauren is very excited to
tell you all about. I am. We're going to talk
about botulis um. You guys, confetti balloons, noisemakers, Um, I get,
I get really excited about bacterial infection. Yeah, it's it's
really fascinating. Okay, um, honey induced botulism. Adults generally don't
(25:08):
need to worry about this one, but honey carrying the
bacteria that cause botulism is why you may have heard
that you should never feed honey to babies under one
year of age. But wait, isn't honey supposed to be
anti bacterial? Well that's what I thought. Well, let's back
the truck up. Explain a little bit of botulism um.
It's an illness caused by a neurotoxin called batu linum,
(25:31):
which is excreted by a couple of strains of Bacteria um,
though most often by the bacteria Clastritium batu linum. And
these suckers are everywhere. They live in dirt and in
water bed sentiment and on plants and in some animal
intestines hanging out doing their thing, and their thing involves
the fact that they just happened to create one of
the most virulent neurotoxins known to humankind. Hm, why great question.
(25:58):
I wish I knew sign swishes it knew as well? Um,
And can I can I go on a tangent to
my to my kind of bacterial tangent here? Because baculinum
is so cool? Is it? It's so cool? Okay, I
mean it's horrifying. Um. It prevents our nerves from stimulating
our muscles, which leads to weakness and in sphere cases,
(26:19):
to immobilization and thus death by respiratory paralysis. It's like
a really less entertaining version of the Joker's laughing toxin.
And it can be deadly in the magnitude of nanograms,
which is a billionth of a gram, which is like
a really small amount of narrow toxin um. But it's
(26:41):
also super useful in medicine. UM. Much diluted and very
carefully applied, it can help, for example, patients who have
overactive muscle conditions that affect their their mobility or their eyesight. UM.
And it's the working ingredient in botox. Wow, So if
you've ever known anyone who's gotten boto sucks. They got
some botulinum neurotoxin in their face. No, big, nope, all good.
(27:07):
So anyway, lucky for us, closterdi and botulinum can't survive
when free oxygen like in the air is present. Unluckily
for us, when they're in an environment that has oxygen
like the air, they can concoon themselves in a sort
of spore shell casing thing that is pretty cool. Yeah,
they'll they'll lie dormant in this spore form until they
(27:29):
find themselves in an oxygen poor environment again, and then
they'll wake up and get back to their usual routine
of eating normal stuff and excreting horrible poison. You know,
as you do. Yeah, and bees sometimes pick up some
of these bacterious spores while they're out collecting nectar, and
the spores survive the honeymaking process. When we eat the honey,
(27:50):
as our bodies break it down, the spores are released
and find themselves in the lovely oxygen poor environment that
is our intestines. What a great review oxygen for I
wouldn't recommend it unless your then Yeah, then then you're
into it, right. Yeah. So adult humans immune systems and
(28:11):
and gut bacteria, like natural gut flora and fauna make
really quick work of clusterty and botulinum. They kill it
right off. But babies don't have all of that set
up yet, So don't feed honey to babies. By the way,
if you suspect a baby might have botulism, that is,
if the baby is lethargic and demons demonstrating markedly less
muscle control than usual, especially in the face and neck. Uh.
If he or she is having trouble latching and sucking
(28:33):
and swallowing, contact your doctor immediately. But the treatments that
they have these days have super excellent outcomes, so you know,
don't don't panic, just just definitely call a doctor. It
can be kind of intensive for a little bit there,
but but full recovery is expected in like percent of cases. Good. Yeah,
modern medical science. I love it. Also, um, if you're
(28:53):
an adult with a compromised immune system and you have
severely damaged gut flora due to a how use of
antibiotics or something like that, I might check with my
doctor about whether it's chilled to eat honey, just just
to be safe. Yeah. And going along with that, something
else I read is that people with commune systems or
cancer should only eat pasteurized honey. Oh yeah, yeah, that's great. Yeah,
(29:14):
that that'll that'll raise the temperature enough to to usually
kill off anything that you need to. And another thing
another dark side of honey. Ye, people do still get
mad honey disease. Yeah, yeah, which we talked about. That's
how honey was weaponized and past honey the bio weapon, right, amazing.
(29:36):
Mad honey is more common in raw a k a
unprocessed honey, and is more common too in New Zealand
thanks to the tootoo bush and the vine hopper insect.
Bees gather honey using the honey do method from the
vine hopper insects. Gross, cool, gross and cool. This introduces
(29:58):
the poison too tin to the honey. But since two
thousand one, beekeepers in New Zealand are required to monitor
what's going on within a two mile radius when it
comes to the tootoo bush and the vine hopper insects, well,
it's great. There was a case in two thousand eight
of of of mad honey disease. It involved a couple
who sought out mad honey near the Black Sea and
(30:20):
Turkey looking for its supposedly sex enhancing hallucinatory effects. Okay, um,
you know, I don't know whatever you want to get
up to, um, But the thing is, the honey's potency
is really hard to gauge, and so after consuming increasing
doses of it, they wound up in the hospital with
a heart attack like symptoms. Um, don't worry. They're fine. Okay,
(30:42):
there this. Yeah. Yeah, they're they're doing they're doing just fine. Um.
Just you know, if you're if you're going to eat
mad honey or other products containing the neurotoxin that makes
it work, um, garana toxin, if you're gonna do that
on purpose, take it easy. Maybe don't do it. Yeah,
under supervision, Yeah, take it. I don't know, I don't know.
(31:03):
Speaking to yourself. Yes, And and animals, mad honey disease
is often lethal and um, they usually get it pet
like pets or cattle from eating the toxic flowers. Yeah.
So reminder, if you have a pet that likes a
nice potted plant, note, always check up on the toxicity
of plants before you install them in your home. Yes. Um.
(31:26):
Europe has documented a few cases of honey contaminated with
antibiotics used in bee disease treatments, very intreated by that,
and some honeys might contain the poisonous pyrolysidine alkaloids, which
occurs in somewhere around three percent of flowering nectar plants,
but the rate in honey is probably higher because those
(31:49):
plants are used specifically for producing seed oil. They're not
good for your liver, Okay, yeah, terrible, And the best
way to avoid these alkaloids is to avoid consuming a
large quantity of honey from flowers you don't recognize are
those that have been known to contain these substances. Uh.
And this mostly applies if you're living in an area
where these plants are known to grow, which makes sense absolutely, yeah. Yeah,
(32:12):
if you're perhaps making your own honey, this is a
thing that you might want to watch out for for sure.
If you are making your own honey, right into us
and let us know, because I want pictures of your
bees and I want to hear how they're doing. And
you could do that every day and I would be
really interested to hear about Just an update would be wonderful.
And speaking of writing into us, that wraps up honey's
(32:34):
medicinal long history and it seems like future medicinal use. Yeah,
all of this research is ongoing. Um, I'm really looking
forward to seeing what people come up with, especially for
the for the antibacterial resistance kind of kind of stuff. Yeah. Yeah,
but yeah. It brings us to a listener male segment,
(32:57):
and there's only one today because we had so much
to say about Honey, and it just from Matthew, who
wrote in with Hi Lauren, Hi Annie, Hi Matthew. Um.
I've been a huge fan of the two of you
and food stuff since the very first episode aired, or
just slightly every month, but every super fan start somewhere. Yeah. Um,
(33:18):
I just finished your most excellent episode on yogurt and
you mentioned the person that invented go gurt being a
college professor. It just so happens that I have taken
several courses taught by professor that talked a lot about
his involvement with the creation of a popular snack called,
wait for it, go gert. He never explicitly said that
(33:38):
he was the sole inventor of it, but if he wasn't,
he had a large hand in its creation. He told
us about some of the different designs that they tried
out before landing on the familiar tubes that we have now,
the different recipes that they went through to get the flavor,
consistency and shelf life that go Gert has, and even
the marketing process that made it so popular. He's not guy,
(34:00):
and it's one of my favorite professors that I had
during my time at Michigan State University. Go Green. Anyway,
I just thought it was interesting and figured i'd share
with the two of you. Thanks for an informative and
entertaining podcast. I look forward to learning more stuffs about food,
So thank you for that. Matthew, that's awesome. Ah, that's
that's really fascinating. I want to I want to look
(34:22):
him up now. And yeah, about the marketing campaign, all
the experiments, I love that so much like science went
into this incredibly goofy two seconds devoured as a kid gone,
and that I mostly remember for for being combined with
(34:44):
with tricks in a in a marketing campaign like it
was like tricks flavored go gurt Oh yeah, yeah, I
forgot about that and it would have the swirl that Yeah.
So that brings us to the end of our episode,
and please feel free to write us if you know
any food inventors or just have general food thoughts or
(35:05):
from you, Yes, or have any episode subject requests, we
would love to hear them. You can get in touch
with us. Yes, we have an email address food stuff
at how stuff works dot com. We're also available on
popular social media channels on Twitter and Instagram. On Twitter
we are at food Stuff hs W that stands for
how Stuff Works, and on Instagram we are just at
(35:28):
food stuff. Um, y'all are lovely and I've been hearing
we've We've just had such terrific experiences with you guys. Also,
a lot of you are apparently growing strawberries like I am,
which is which is really cool, man. I love strawberries.
If I can get any of them this year before
the rabbits eat them, I'll be super excited. Our fingers
are crossed for you, Lauren. Thank you, okay anyway, Yes,
(35:49):
we hope that we hear from you, and we hope
that many more good things are coming you away
Hey there, and welcome to food Stuff. I'm Lauren Vogelbon
and I'm an Eries, and today we are still talking
about honey still forever. It's the Honey Show now Honey
Stuff because as we found when we started researching this topic,
there's so much history, and so we we decided to
(00:31):
split it into the kind of cultural history for the
first episode, and in this episode we're going to talk
about the medical history and and modern research going into
the really completely incredible things that honey can do for you. Right.
Have you ever been recommended to use honey for medicinal purpose?
(00:53):
I have a friend of mine is an aesthetician, and
she always recommends doing honey facials, um, which I have
done and forgot to tie my bangs up first. I
have I have fringe and uh it was very it
was a huge mess. Have gone wrong, but my but
my skin felt really nice afterwards. If there's that, have you? Yeah? Um.
(01:18):
When I was in Peru hiking, the people I was
with highly recommended these um lozenges. They were honey and
the coca leaves for altitude sickness and like the dry air.
And I can't say if they worked or if I
(01:39):
just was desperate for some kind of relief. But I
was like popping them one this caffeine and then it
would coat your throat. Um. That does sound fun. Yeah,
it seemed to work. And we are definitely not the
only people to use honey as some kind of medical cure,
(02:01):
curative medicine type thing. Yes, absolutely not. Yeah, this this
goes back to like Sumerian clay tablets. Yes, honey is
sometimes called the oldest medicine known to man, and the
first record of honey being used medicinally goes back to
those Sumerian clay tablets that were The dates range from
(02:22):
maybe nineteen hundred to twelve BC. Yeah, I I saw
reports going like even a hundred or two hundred years
older than that. History is hard, No one knows. Historical
numbers are fun as we say, um. But yes, of
the prescriptions on one of the tablets used honey. Um.
(02:43):
The Egyptians were all about honey. They loved honey, seriously
loved it. Um, And they primarily primarily used it to
make ointments that treated diseases of skin and eyes. But
that that was it at all. No, No, there were
so much of BC. Manuscript from Egypt detailed how they
(03:07):
would use honey as a remedy both internally and externally
as a circle dressing for burns and ulcers or if
you had some I inflammation going on. And it was
also a component in laxative and worm remedies. Worm remedies.
Apparently our ancestors were just filled with worms, y'all. Sorry,
(03:27):
not a sentence I was expected of this podcast today,
but I'm I'm happy it's there. There's some really fascinating
stuff about genetics and how people had to adjust to
how how infested they were with worms, and like we've
kept those genes even though we've gotten rid of our
worm problems, and they're like negative consequences for for for
(03:50):
health purposes in some ways, I think fascinating. Yeah, I
think it's like like Norse kind of area. People. I'll
have to look it up sometime. It's great. Yes, please, yeah,
send me a link about that. Okay, we're cool. Were
im tangent back to honey. Welcome to food stuff. Sorry
about it, Sorry about it. We're in tangion scholore um. Okay.
(04:12):
So a lot of Egyptian medicines were some form of milk,
wine and honey, like mixed mixture that sounds delicious anyway,
It kind of does. I'm not sure the milk and
wine go together, but hey. They also sometimes offered honey
to their gods as a sacrifice, so like they really
(04:32):
respected this honey. Yeah, they could not get enough of it. Uh,
and they were the only ones, the Greeks. Um. They
went further. They used it as a medicine, often mixing
it with not wine but grape juice, and athletes would
drink a mixture of honey and water for energy before
major events. That makes perfect sense, Yeah, a lot of energy,
(04:55):
a lot of carbohydrates. Also, Aristotle wrote about it around
three hundred to four dred BC, as that was the
time that he was writing things yes and living. Um.
He said that pale honey is good as a salve
for sore eyes and for wounds. Yeah, so we're already
kind of seeing a theme here, like eyes and general
(05:15):
cuts anything on the outside. Um. Honey also pops up
a number of times in the Bible. One of Solomon's
proverbs was quote, my son, eat thou honey, for it
is good. Yes, I'll take care of roses. Got some
honey out of a pebble. And the Jews believed it
would make you more quote mentally keen uh. Saul's son
(05:39):
Jonathan used honey to regain his strength. Yeah sure. Meanwhile,
Hindus touted honey as a curative for coughs and stomach problems.
The Kuran also talked about honey's healing ability quote and
thy Lord taught the bee to build its cell in
the hills. There are issues from within their bodies a
(06:00):
ink of varying colors, wherein is healing for men. Muhammad
is said to have recommended honey to treat diarrhea, so
it popped up in a lot of religious text. Hippocrates
also recommended honey for a variety of elements, including difficulty
breathing since since it caused spitting his words, um, and
(06:22):
to clean source. He even thought it was good for
some plants, claiming that soaking the seeds and honey would
make whatever it was they were growing taste sweeter, particular cucumbers.
I remember, I don't think that's an accurate statement of fact,
and so maybe that's an experiment, will try. Um. He
also recommended it as a potential treatment for baldness. Apparently
(06:43):
this keeps popping up like along with Onion Juice episode. Yeah,
balding was a big concern. Yeah then and now Yeah,
but balding. I was just reading another thing about this
um earlier balding was associated with syphilis. It would it
would cause syphilis, would cause premature hair loss. So so
(07:05):
especially if you don't want to be running around like
having people be like, how's that syphilis doing? Brokay, yeah,
you want to get rid of it. Written mentions of
honey are spread throughout Europe and in China and certain
areas of Arabia. During the Middle Ages, it was most
commonly prescribed to fix stomach issues, but also as a
(07:25):
sedative for kidney stones, eye disorders, skin disorders, and for
surgeries as part of the dressing, similar to the Egyptians,
and this is one of my favorites. In Germany, women
used honey mixed with crushed bees for beauty and strength
and also to regulate their mistrual cycle. And my only
(07:46):
response to this in the notes was just a huge
like like sad, crying face things. I was just like,
what the wife, why do you crush bees? And then
consume that that really doesn't sound like a good data me.
I don't know, no, but if your menstrual cycle is
bad enough, I can understand. Sure, you can try anything. Yeah,
(08:06):
you'll never know until the dry During World War One,
the wounds of Russian soldiers were often treated with honey,
both to prevent infection and to speed up healing. And uh,
if you remember the mad honey from the last episode,
Lauren found this factor. Oh yeah, it's it's difficult to
(08:27):
tell exactly how far back the tradition goes, but in
Turkey some people take mad honey as a medicine to
treat things like hypertension, diabetes, stomach issues, and sexual dysfunction. Um.
Also in Nepal, the Gurdon people use mad honey to
treat joint pain and to get high. Um. They've they've
been doing both of those things for centuries. Okay, I
(08:51):
didn't see that coming. And has minld mild hallucinogenic properties. Yeah. Well, okay,
it's part of why it's so easy to you know,
kill enemy soldiers when you've given them mad honey. Right,
that makes perfect sense. Um. And some Eastern cultures still
use honey medicine to this day. Uh. And in the
(09:12):
West even the idea is becoming popular again to derma sciences,
manufacturer of medical devices, has started selling bandages coated with
honey worldwide called all caps Meta honey, Meta honey, not
M E T A M E d I Meta. Just
just wanted to clarify meta honey, so it's not some
(09:32):
weird like breaking the fourth wall. Honey. Yes, A couple
of recent studies have shown that a low exposure of
honey can kill some strains of antibiotic resistant bacteria. In
the World Health Organization I found this interesting, recommends honey
as a cough for remody, even in children over one
(09:53):
year of age, going so far as to say there's
no evidence cossert works any better than honey. It says
that like a government document, okay, saying uh and yeah.
As as I kind of mentioned at the top, honey
is also currently much touted on the internet as a
cosmetic skincare treatment. Yeah. So that's kind of a very
(10:16):
quick rundown of all this long history, kind of overwhelming
amount of history, really so much. Um. Yeah, that's that's
the that's the cliff notes version, because we wanted to
spend most of this episode talking about how modern science
holds all of this up. Yeah, in amazing and strange ways. Um.
(10:36):
And we will get to some of those details after
a word from our sponsor, and we're back, Thank you sponsor.
So let's talk about this health thing for a minute.
(10:58):
What science modern science has to say about at it
um are probably several minutes, but not too in depth
because they're so so, so so much. Yeah. If you
happen to go on pub med, which which is a
database of of medical research papers and just type in honey,
it's just like, yep, we have something on that. We
have we have all of the somethings on that one. Um.
(11:22):
There's even a name for this API therapy. Did I
say that right? Yeah? Ay, API therapy, Yeah, totally. And
there are a few medical grade honeys that are sold
that have standardized levels of anti microbial properties. Umlike the
aforementioned meta honey. That's amazing yeah. UM. And for all
(11:43):
of those anti microbial reasons we discussed, honey does have
some pretty legit medicinal value. Yeah, see the first episode
for for those microbe related these should be enjoyed together. Um.
And to be clear, most of this stuff that we're
referring to um at least before this and in the
(12:04):
first part of this modern day section, is like referring
to when honey is applied externally. Yeah, because the stomach
breaks it down too quickly for it to do much
in the anti microbiol arena and ingested Um. Yeah, it's
been found to inhibit the growth of sixty bacteria species
and is still effective even when diluted up to nine times. Yeah.
(12:28):
Clinical observation has shown that honey can reduce inflammation and
it can help speed up the body's immune response to
a wound, with FAKEO sites being activated with honey exposure
as low as point one percent. Yeah, that's not much. No,
that's so small. And a two thousand seven study found
(12:49):
that honey doesn't lead to antibiotic resistance antibiotic resistant bacteria,
so you can keep administering it, which is huge, super
huge because because a rise of superbugs. It's probably a
thing that you've heard about, and it's really terrifying. Um.
And we we don't we don't want to keep producing
bacteria that are like ha ha, your medicine means nothing
(13:10):
to me, because that's really bad. Yeah. And I read
briefly that there's a problem with India's honey supply because
they're putting antibiotics in the honey and it's like messing
the whole thing up. And it's not just India either.
It's like countries will import because businesses can fill import
(13:31):
honey with antibiotics, and it it's a big problem. Apparently noted.
Part of the reason for honeys antibacterial mojo is due
to something called osmolarity, which simplify definition, is the concentration
of the solution, like how much is dissolved in a
particular amount of water. Okay, yeah, um. A lot of
(13:54):
times in nature things are trying to equal out in
a process called osmosis. And this is why honey suffocates bacteria.
Because it has so little water in its composition, it
draws the water out of the bacteria and kills it,
which is again something that we talked about in the
former episode. Right, honey retains its property even when diluted
(14:15):
down like two, which means it could possibly maybe still
work some of its antibacterial magic while in the stomach, um,
like helping out with stuff like diarrhea or any out
of wag gut bacteria. Maybe maybe, Yeah, a little bit
more about the internal stuff later. Um. But there's also
(14:38):
the fact that lots of honeys contain hydrogen peroxide as
a natural byproduct of the action of one of the
enzymes that bees in part during the honeymaking process. That
that enzyme is glucose oxidase, and hydrogen peroxide of course,
kills things like bacteria. However, even honeys that do not
contain hydrogen peroxide can have anti microbial properties. Of course.
(15:03):
Of course, bees also deposit a protein in honey discovered
and named defense in one I love It, which which
researchers think adds to to honey's antibacterial properties. Yes, and
honey may provide some resistance against E. Coli, MERSA, and salmonella.
And this is like so important or it could potentially
(15:27):
be so important because of what like we said earlier
that increasing back to your resistance to traditional antibiotics. And
honey might also have some anti fungal abilities. Studies fine
honey effective against things like ringworm and athletes foot Okay,
so like home treatment for athletes foot right, maybe put
some honey on it. Maybe maybe there's in there. There's
(15:49):
a disclaimer about this in a minute. Honey does genuinely
help with burns and other skin wounds, in part because
it helps keep the wound moist, which allows your immune
system to to better do its thing. Um. Furthermore, it's
viscosity helps form a protective barrier over the wound, and
some honeys stimulate the cells in your immune system that
are responsible for creating macrophages, which are what eat harmful
(16:14):
bacteria in your body. UM, and honey may simultaneously regulate
the action of those macrophages so that they don't just
go nuts and attack your own healing cells during the process,
which is a pretty common thing, and it's it's part
of what causes inflammation in a wound. In some cases,
honey applied to wounds has been observed to reduce that inflammation.
(16:35):
And here goes disclaimer. Fun disclaimer. This does not mean
that you should definitely go slather your next flesh wounded honey. No,
these findings are in laboratory settings or under close medical supervision. Furthermore,
honey is a is a natural product that naturally varies
in its content. Like it's it's makeup is going to
be different due to the season and the bees and
(16:55):
the pollen and the manufacturer and all kinds of other things,
so uh so use it at your own risk. Yes, um,
just be mindful. He's a good judgment. Be mindful. I
didn't even realize sorry the first plant of the episode,
and we made it pretty far, so we did. I
feel good about that. Um. Researchers were able to show
(17:19):
that honey was as effect of treating inflammatory model colitis
as the typically prescribed pregnant z alone. Yes, pregnanz alone. Yes,
that is what I'm going to continue saying whether it
is correct or not. Let me know if I'm wrong.
And this is one area where ingesting honey does in
fact seem to help. Because okay, Uh, colitis can cause
(17:40):
inflammation in your digestive tract, which is bad. Uh. Pregn
z alone works well to fight it because it suppresses
your immune system, uh, which is unhelpfully attacking your digestive
tract to see above re macrophages UM, and this causes
and or worsens the inflammation in your gut. Just calm down,
(18:02):
immune system, geez, like what like chill if I only
talk like like hey, like everything's gonna be fine. Um.
But okay, as you can probably guess, suppressing your immune
system with more than just calming words can lead to
a whole other host of problems, especially if you're doing
(18:22):
it in the long term, you kind of want your
immune system to generally work to generally work. Um. But
as we said, honey may have those anti inflammatory properties,
and similar to how it works on external wounds, it
may help stimulate the repair of damaged intestinal tissue when
taken internally, and there are other internal applications. A couple
(18:43):
of studies have found that honey is effective at treating
diarrhea and back to your gastro enteritis, not the viral one,
when offered as part of a rehydration treatment instead of glucose.
And just to remind you this, this is a medical
application that was recommended by the prophet Muhamma. Guys. Yeah,
it comes full. It's this is ah, this is so nuts.
(19:06):
Honey is amazing m H. Priori. The bacteria behind ulcers
has shown in a few studies to be susceptible to
honeys inhibitory properties as well, and honey may contain antioxidants
like flavonoids, which are substances that may help prevent certain
diseases like cancer under particular circumstances. Oh Man. And and
(19:31):
there's also some very preliminary research being done looking into
honey's potential benefits for cardiovascular health, which has been demonstrated
in vitro and in preventing the proliferation of bladder cancer
cells in specific. And that's not all. No, I feel
like we could sell honey cognitive and brain function. Some
honeys have small amounts of coline and acidal cloline which
(19:56):
may help in brain function. Seriously, you guys, it goes
on and on their studies linking honey to faster healing
of burns, treatment of genital hertpies, lower glycemic index for diabetics, eggs,
and the reduction dan drive production. Oh man, but remember
there is no miracle food or cure. No. Honey may
(20:17):
help with these things some of these things in some cases,
but it's complicated. Use good judgment, do your research, and
also probably talk to a doctor if you're going to
leave said yeah, I mean like, like, okay, like eating
honey where you would usually eat table sugar certainly isn't
going to hurt, right, But I mean, like, don't just
start adding it like willy nilly to all your food, um,
(20:39):
because you know, remember to watch your overall sugar intake.
As we discussed at length UM in our sugar and
your you you should sugar into your health episode. That's
the one that's the title, right, And we actually kind
of need to ask the question, is honey better for
you than secross table sugar if you like me? Your
knee jerk response was yes, well, of course it's made
(21:01):
by bees, and bees know what they're doing, right. And
I ran across an article that was kind of anti honey.
Wasn't written by the sugar industry. Good question, now, it
was from It was from a newspaper in Israel, I believe,
but um, I guess anti honey is too strong. It
was very skeptic, very very skept that's good. I appreciate
(21:25):
a good skepticism. I do too, um. And the researchers
asked this question because there hasn't been a direct study
on this, But again going back to our sugar episode,
how that potential badness and terribleness of sugar, it's probably
a safe bet that honey is better for you. But
the study that they cited in this newspaper I found
(21:46):
was out of New Zealand, and rats were fed either
sucross honey, mixed sugar and honey, or no sugar at all,
and food intake and weight were measured weekly. At the
end of the study, the honey fed rats had gained
way less weight than the ones eating the sugar are
mixed sugar, even though they ate about the same amount.
(22:06):
And the weight of the honey fed rats and sugar
free rats was about the same, and the honey fed
rats ate more compared to the sugar free rats. Huh,
but weight doesn't necessarily equal health. Nope, but just for
what's what it's worth. Yeah, that's interesting. Um. And another
thing that honey is often touted as being able to
(22:27):
do is help with allergies. Local honey and specific right,
it's recommended as an allergic cure. And I have a
friend who swears by this, and and the the idea
here is that local bees pick up the very kinds
of pollen that you run into outside and transfer some
of that pollen to their honey, and therefore, by ingesting
that pollen laden honey, you you build up to you
(22:50):
build up a resistance to that pollen. Um. It's the
same concept that goes into allergy shots or you know,
I okaine powder in the Princess spread. Yes, so happy
the Princess fried made into this episode. Um. But science
doesn't really find this to be the case. Unfortunately. Study
from University of Connecticut Health Center conducted UH had three
(23:15):
groups of allergy havers, one group taking a tablespoon of
local hunting, the other a tablespoon of corn syrup placebo,
and the third taking a tablespoon of commercial honey okay,
And they did this every day for several months, and
they found pretty much no difference. Um. Perhaps it is
helping with symptoms like coughing or a sore throat if
(23:38):
you have that going on. Maybe maybe um. And the
problem with this concept is that the types of pollen
that bees are the most likely to come into contact
with UH. That is that the pollen of bright flowers
and of fruiting trees is not what most people with
seasonal allergies have reactions to. People mostly have reactions to
(23:59):
to other and grass pollens. Also, Hey shout out to
slate dot com for penning the headline on an article
about this, um, honey bunches of lies. Good job, kudos.
Let's talk about some more terrible things about honey. Let's
let's talk about the dark side of honey. Yeah. But
(24:22):
but before we do that, let's let's get a quick
word in from our sponsor again, and we're back. Thank
you sponsor. Yes, and we're about to talk about something
(24:44):
that I am pretty sure Lauren is very excited to
tell you all about. I am. We're going to talk
about botulis um. You guys, confetti balloons, noisemakers, Um, I get,
I get really excited about bacterial infection. Yeah, it's it's
really fascinating. Okay, um, honey induced botulism. Adults generally don't
(25:08):
need to worry about this one, but honey carrying the
bacteria that cause botulism is why you may have heard
that you should never feed honey to babies under one
year of age. But wait, isn't honey supposed to be
anti bacterial? Well that's what I thought. Well, let's back
the truck up. Explain a little bit of botulism um.
It's an illness caused by a neurotoxin called batu linum,
(25:31):
which is excreted by a couple of strains of Bacteria um,
though most often by the bacteria Clastritium batu linum. And
these suckers are everywhere. They live in dirt and in
water bed sentiment and on plants and in some animal
intestines hanging out doing their thing, and their thing involves
the fact that they just happened to create one of
the most virulent neurotoxins known to humankind. Hm, why great question.
(25:58):
I wish I knew sign swishes it knew as well? Um,
And can I can I go on a tangent to
my to my kind of bacterial tangent here? Because baculinum
is so cool? Is it? It's so cool? Okay, I
mean it's horrifying. Um. It prevents our nerves from stimulating
our muscles, which leads to weakness and in sphere cases,
(26:19):
to immobilization and thus death by respiratory paralysis. It's like
a really less entertaining version of the Joker's laughing toxin.
And it can be deadly in the magnitude of nanograms,
which is a billionth of a gram, which is like
a really small amount of narrow toxin um. But it's
(26:41):
also super useful in medicine. UM. Much diluted and very
carefully applied, it can help, for example, patients who have
overactive muscle conditions that affect their their mobility or their eyesight. UM.
And it's the working ingredient in botox. Wow, So if
you've ever known anyone who's gotten boto sucks. They got
some botulinum neurotoxin in their face. No, big, nope, all good.
(27:07):
So anyway, lucky for us, closterdi and botulinum can't survive
when free oxygen like in the air is present. Unluckily
for us, when they're in an environment that has oxygen
like the air, they can concoon themselves in a sort
of spore shell casing thing that is pretty cool. Yeah,
they'll they'll lie dormant in this spore form until they
(27:29):
find themselves in an oxygen poor environment again, and then
they'll wake up and get back to their usual routine
of eating normal stuff and excreting horrible poison. You know,
as you do. Yeah, and bees sometimes pick up some
of these bacterious spores while they're out collecting nectar, and
the spores survive the honeymaking process. When we eat the honey,
(27:50):
as our bodies break it down, the spores are released
and find themselves in the lovely oxygen poor environment that
is our intestines. What a great review oxygen for I
wouldn't recommend it unless your then Yeah, then then you're
into it, right. Yeah. So adult humans immune systems and
(28:11):
and gut bacteria, like natural gut flora and fauna make
really quick work of clusterty and botulinum. They kill it
right off. But babies don't have all of that set
up yet, So don't feed honey to babies. By the way,
if you suspect a baby might have botulism, that is,
if the baby is lethargic and demons demonstrating markedly less
muscle control than usual, especially in the face and neck. Uh.
If he or she is having trouble latching and sucking
(28:33):
and swallowing, contact your doctor immediately. But the treatments that
they have these days have super excellent outcomes, so you know,
don't don't panic, just just definitely call a doctor. It
can be kind of intensive for a little bit there,
but but full recovery is expected in like percent of cases. Good. Yeah,
modern medical science. I love it. Also, um, if you're
(28:53):
an adult with a compromised immune system and you have
severely damaged gut flora due to a how use of
antibiotics or something like that, I might check with my
doctor about whether it's chilled to eat honey, just just
to be safe. Yeah. And going along with that, something
else I read is that people with commune systems or
cancer should only eat pasteurized honey. Oh yeah, yeah, that's great. Yeah,
(29:14):
that that'll that'll raise the temperature enough to to usually
kill off anything that you need to. And another thing
another dark side of honey. Ye, people do still get
mad honey disease. Yeah, yeah, which we talked about. That's
how honey was weaponized and past honey the bio weapon, right, amazing.
(29:36):
Mad honey is more common in raw a k a
unprocessed honey, and is more common too in New Zealand
thanks to the tootoo bush and the vine hopper insect.
Bees gather honey using the honey do method from the
vine hopper insects. Gross, cool, gross and cool. This introduces
(29:58):
the poison too tin to the honey. But since two
thousand one, beekeepers in New Zealand are required to monitor
what's going on within a two mile radius when it
comes to the tootoo bush and the vine hopper insects, well,
it's great. There was a case in two thousand eight
of of of mad honey disease. It involved a couple
who sought out mad honey near the Black Sea and
(30:20):
Turkey looking for its supposedly sex enhancing hallucinatory effects. Okay, um,
you know, I don't know whatever you want to get
up to, um, But the thing is, the honey's potency
is really hard to gauge, and so after consuming increasing
doses of it, they wound up in the hospital with
a heart attack like symptoms. Um, don't worry. They're fine. Okay,
(30:42):
there this. Yeah. Yeah, they're they're doing they're doing just fine. Um.
Just you know, if you're if you're going to eat
mad honey or other products containing the neurotoxin that makes
it work, um, garana toxin, if you're gonna do that
on purpose, take it easy. Maybe don't do it. Yeah,
under supervision, Yeah, take it. I don't know, I don't know.
(31:03):
Speaking to yourself. Yes, And and animals, mad honey disease
is often lethal and um, they usually get it pet
like pets or cattle from eating the toxic flowers. Yeah.
So reminder, if you have a pet that likes a
nice potted plant, note, always check up on the toxicity
of plants before you install them in your home. Yes. Um.
(31:26):
Europe has documented a few cases of honey contaminated with
antibiotics used in bee disease treatments, very intreated by that,
and some honeys might contain the poisonous pyrolysidine alkaloids, which
occurs in somewhere around three percent of flowering nectar plants,
but the rate in honey is probably higher because those
(31:49):
plants are used specifically for producing seed oil. They're not
good for your liver, Okay, yeah, terrible, And the best
way to avoid these alkaloids is to avoid consuming a
large quantity of honey from flowers you don't recognize are
those that have been known to contain these substances. Uh.
And this mostly applies if you're living in an area
where these plants are known to grow, which makes sense absolutely, yeah. Yeah,
(32:12):
if you're perhaps making your own honey, this is a
thing that you might want to watch out for for sure.
If you are making your own honey, right into us
and let us know, because I want pictures of your
bees and I want to hear how they're doing. And
you could do that every day and I would be
really interested to hear about Just an update would be wonderful.
And speaking of writing into us, that wraps up honey's
(32:34):
medicinal long history and it seems like future medicinal use. Yeah,
all of this research is ongoing. Um, I'm really looking
forward to seeing what people come up with, especially for
the for the antibacterial resistance kind of kind of stuff. Yeah. Yeah,
but yeah. It brings us to a listener male segment,
(32:57):
and there's only one today because we had so much
to say about Honey, and it just from Matthew, who
wrote in with Hi Lauren, Hi Annie, Hi Matthew. Um.
I've been a huge fan of the two of you
and food stuff since the very first episode aired, or
just slightly every month, but every super fan start somewhere. Yeah. Um,
(33:18):
I just finished your most excellent episode on yogurt and
you mentioned the person that invented go gurt being a
college professor. It just so happens that I have taken
several courses taught by professor that talked a lot about
his involvement with the creation of a popular snack called,
wait for it, go gert. He never explicitly said that
(33:38):
he was the sole inventor of it, but if he wasn't,
he had a large hand in its creation. He told
us about some of the different designs that they tried
out before landing on the familiar tubes that we have now,
the different recipes that they went through to get the flavor,
consistency and shelf life that go Gert has, and even
the marketing process that made it so popular. He's not guy,
(34:00):
and it's one of my favorite professors that I had
during my time at Michigan State University. Go Green. Anyway,
I just thought it was interesting and figured i'd share
with the two of you. Thanks for an informative and
entertaining podcast. I look forward to learning more stuffs about food,
So thank you for that. Matthew, that's awesome. Ah, that's
that's really fascinating. I want to I want to look
(34:22):
him up now. And yeah, about the marketing campaign, all
the experiments, I love that so much like science went
into this incredibly goofy two seconds devoured as a kid gone,
and that I mostly remember for for being combined with
(34:44):
with tricks in a in a marketing campaign like it
was like tricks flavored go gurt Oh yeah, yeah, I
forgot about that and it would have the swirl that Yeah.
So that brings us to the end of our episode,
and please feel free to write us if you know
any food inventors or just have general food thoughts or
(35:05):
from you, Yes, or have any episode subject requests, we
would love to hear them. You can get in touch
with us. Yes, we have an email address food stuff
at how stuff works dot com. We're also available on
popular social media channels on Twitter and Instagram. On Twitter
we are at food Stuff hs W that stands for
how Stuff Works, and on Instagram we are just at
(35:28):
food stuff. Um, y'all are lovely and I've been hearing
we've We've just had such terrific experiences with you guys. Also,
a lot of you are apparently growing strawberries like I am,
which is which is really cool, man. I love strawberries.
If I can get any of them this year before
the rabbits eat them, I'll be super excited. Our fingers
are crossed for you, Lauren. Thank you, okay anyway, Yes,
(35:49):
we hope that we hear from you, and we hope
that many more good things are coming you away
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Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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