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"Local"
Honey and Allergies
By
Tom Ogren
Tom
does consulting on allergies and landscaping for, among others,
the USDA urban foresters, the American Lung Association, for county
asthma coalitions, landscape, nursery and arboristsı associations.
He writes; as one who makes his living by writing about allergies
and asthma I am often asked about the potential health benefits
of using "local" honey.
Unprocessed
honey contains bits and pieces of pollen and honey, and as an immune
system booster, it is quite powerful. I have often in talks and
articles, and in my books, advocated using "local" honey. An example:
if you lived in a southern area where bottlebrush trees were frequently
used in the landscapes or perhaps you had a bottlebrush tree growing
in your own yard, your odds of over-exposure to this tree's tiny,
triangular, and potently very allergenic pollen is greatly enhanced.
This specie of plant is what we call amphipilous, meaning they are
pollinated by both insects and by the wind. Honeybees will collect
pollen from each of these species and it will be present in small
amounts in honey that was gathered by bees that were working areas
where these species are growing. When people living in these same
areas eat honey that was produced in that environment, the honey
will often act as an immune booster. The good effects of this "local"
honey are best when the honey is taken a little bit (a couple of
teaspoons-full) a day for several months prior to the pollen season.
It may seem odd that straight exposure to pollen often triggers
allergies but that exposure to pollen in the honey usually has the
opposite effect. But this is typically what we see. In honey the
allergens are delivered in small, manageable doses and the effect
over time is very much like that from undergoing a whole series
of allergy immunology injections. The major difference though is
that the honey is a lot easier to take and it is certainly a lot
less expensive. I am always surprised that this powerful health
benefit of "local" honey is not more widely understood, as it is
simple, easy, and often surprisingly effective.
Eden's
Nectar bottles its' honey the way the beekeeper removes it from
the hive. Because the beekeepers are a vital part of Florida's agricultural
process, the beekeeper here in Central Florida move their hives
around to pollinate crops like strawberries, blueberries (winter),
citrus (spring), watermelons (summer) and numerous other produce
products. Due to this operational process the beekeeper harvests
the honey from the hives after each pollination season, which creates
"Seasonal Honey".
Most
honeys are blended honeys and have been cooked (pasteurized) not
for health reasons, but so the honey will flow faster and speed
up the bottling process, which destroys the live enzymes in
honey. As you can see from the articles above,
not only does "local" honey greatly benefit you, but, now you
can know the season it was harvested to receive the beneficial
knowledge of the types of pollen and nectar the bees were gathering and integrating
to make our honey. We at Eden's Nectar have heard of result after
result of people not needing antihistamines and other medications
associated with allergic reactions created by airborne pollen
simply by eating "local" honey. Basically, whatever Florida's
mild climate grows the bees use it to make our honey. If that
isn't enough to convince you to use Eden's Nectar, the taste will,
with each season comes a unique taste that can never be reproduced
due to the difference in annual nectar flows that honey is made
from. It makes sense that if flowers smell different why wouldn't
their nectar taste different? Also, bees can produce honey that
isn't very tasty and that is why we have a "taster" (with 25
years of experience), taste our
honey before bringing it to our bottling facility.
See what we mean when we say...
"Edenıs Nectar is making good health sweet"
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