Conscious Choice: The Big Buzz Around Organic Honey

August 2006 | Choice Eating

The Big Buzz Around Organic Honey

By Christine Mangan

The next time you take a sip of tea sweetened with your favorite honey, keep in mind that you may just be getting more than you paid for.

The not-so-sweet truth is that with every spoonful of honey you may be adding a dash of unwanted chemicals and a sprinkle of pesticide to your teacup. A common practice among many non-organic beekeepers is to use chemicals and pesticides in the treatment of bee hives. In fact, according to The World’s Healthiest Foods website, traces of heavy metals, antibiotics and pesticides have all been shown to be present in different types of honey. It’s a piece of news that may just have some fans of this sweet nectar running to find the “organic” and “natural” labels on their honey jar.

As the first sweetener known to man, honey boasts a history that is both long and rich, not to mention diverse. It has been used for everything from a way for opera singers to soothe sore throats to serving as the basis of many beauty products. The Egyptians even used it in their embalming process and as recently as World War I it was used to dress wounds.

For fans of its sweeter-than-sugar taste, ingesting honey also provides a number of surprising health benefits. “Honey has a high level of antioxidants, a type that is especially protective,” says Dr. Peter Nolan, director of the Honey Research Unit at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. Besides proving itself to be the safest sweetener for those who suffer from Type 2 Diabetes, a whole host of vitamins and minerals can also be found in this delightfully sticky substance. Depending on the type of honey, they can include riboflavin, calcium, iron, potassium and zinc. However, similar to a bottle of wine, not every jar of honey is alike and not every type of honey carries the same antioxidants and antibacterial activity. These health benefits, along with the flavor and color, depend on the type of flower the bees in a particular bee farm, or apiary, frequent. So while the bees of one apiary might prefer clover, another may prefer thyme. All this depends on what flowers are available in the area, and of course, location.

Unfortunately, despite honey’s numerous health benefits, we may not be taking full advantage of all it has to offer. Dr. Nolan notes, “There is a good content of vitamins and minerals, but not at high enough levels to provide significant nutrition unless honey is used as a substitute for sugar in all sweetened foods and drinks in the diet.”

In order to get the most out of honey, particularly its antibacterial and antioxidant properties, Dr. Nolan suggested that honey be purchased raw. “For antibacterial activity it is important that honey is raw, because the activity is destroyed by the heating carried out in processing,” he explained.

The organic label is one to consider, though the costly procedure for a beekeeper to certify their hive as organic is often passed along to the customer. In order to be considered as truly organic, beehives must be placed in an isolated area, miles away from any type of crowded population or pollution similar to the kind found in Chicago. In addition to finding a perfect pollution-free zone, organic beekeepers are not allowed to use chemicals and pesticides on their hives, which is a routine practice for non-organic beekeepers to control pests and disease. Due to the expense, organic beekeepers also tend to preserve their colony of bees once the honey has been extracted, while non-organic beekeepers often use chemicals in order to kill them just before extracting the golden liquid.

So where can you find raw honey, minus the hazardous chemicals and pesticides? Summertime in the city is probably the best season. With farmers markets around Chicago already in full swing, the place to buy honey is directly from the source—the bee farmers themselves. One of these local offerings includes honey produced from a bee farm actually in the city. Located on the West Side, Chicago Honey Co-op now features approximately 100 hives in its apiary. Michael Thompson is a beekeeper and the project manager of this three-year-old project, part of the Sweet Beginnings program of the North Lawndale Employment network.

There are no chemicals used in the hives at the Chicago Honey Co-op and no pesticides are added to kill pests. Thompson said that this honey, sold in liquid form, is all-natural, “When the bees finish ripening the honey, that’s what you get.” Available in two flavors, Thompson described the summer flavor as a combination of clover and basswood, while the autumn is a combination of wild aster and goldenrod. The combination of these flowers is a result of the location. Unlike bees in a more rural setting, city bees are given free range of the city’s diverse flora, creating a poly-flora honey. And if you can’t make it to one of the city’s markets, stop into any natural health food store.

On your return home, if you should find your skin a little red from the summer sun, forget the Aloe Vera. Just reach into your shopping bag and pull out your newly purchased jar of honey. According to Nolan, one of this nectar’s many attributes includes its “potent anti-inflammatory action when applied on burns, sunburn, and any other inflammation of the skin.” Nolan added that, “its antibacterial activity is very beneficial when applied directly on infections.” It’s just one more surprising way that honey can be used.

And with Nolan busy testing honey’s effectiveness on radiotherapy patients, who knows what other uses for honey are yet to be discovered? Only one thing seems certain: honey will continue to sweeten our lives for generations to come.

To taste the Chicago Honey Co-op’s summer offerings, head to any of the following three farmers markets: 9 a.m. Tuesday: Museum of Contemporary Art’s Farmers Market, 220 E. Chicago Ave.; 7 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday: Green City Farmers Market near intersection of Lincoln and Clark; 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday: Oak Park Farmers Market in the Pilgrim Church parking lot at Lake and Elmwood.

Christine Mangan is a Chicago-based freelance writer.

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