Time to change our tune?

[pargyle]

My son suffers from hay fever, and as you're experienced it can be quite debilitating at times. Out of interest, how much honey do you consume each day over spring / summer?

It varies but I will have a good spoonful most days and I will have it on toast or croissants and in my porridge so ... it's probably more than a good spoonful on average - but I don't use sugar in my drinks so I'm not overloading on my sugar intake.

 

[bpmurray]

Electrostatically charged honeybees. Sounds like a new theory. Bit like succussion in homeopathy!

Actually it really is a thing: https://www.scientificamerican.com/...as-as-much-electric-charge-as-a-thundercloud/

 

[Moobee]

Since honey is about 80% sugars, mainly fructose and glucose, there's very little between it and so-called "processed" sweeteners. Pure sucrose, glucose and fructose can be bought in pretty much any supermarket, and there is exactly zero difference between these and the sugars in honey. Most of the remaining 20% is water with around 2% being the various things that impart flavour to the honey and possibly imbue some positive effects.

I won't dispute a claim that says that honey is probably better for you than processed sugars, but it definitely is not a damn sight better. It does, of course, usually taste better, but things like ivy show this is not universally the case.

Surely something that is naturally processed and contains a mix of amino acids, vitamins, minerals, iron, zinc and antioxidants has to be a heck of a lot better than refined sugars

 

[mbc]

Actually it really is a thing: https://www.scientificamerican.com/...as-as-much-electric-charge-as-a-thundercloud/

No ****, Sherlock!

 

[alancooper]

Not sure but I thought it was interesting. It was a June sample from 2021, maybe it got collected while on the air/wing or maybe while collecting from flowers near the ground

 

[alancooper]

Not sure but I thought it was interesting. It was a June sample from 2021, maybe it got collected while on the air/wing or maybe while collecting from flowers near the ground ?

A few years ago, midsummer, I watched a honey bee gathering pollen on a flowering Foxtail-grass head. Hard times in a “June gap”?

 

[Wilco]

Electrostatically charged honeybees. Sounds like a new theory. Bit like succussion in homeopathy!

Whilst I'm not sure if electrostatic is the right term, the concept is valid. Every living cell in the body regulates the flow of ions through its membrane. As ions are charged particles this means there's a current flowing which can be measured using techniques such as patch clamping in electrophysiology. What's more interesting is that sharks and species such as electric eels use this - such as through the Ampullae of Lorenzini whereby sharks can detect the electrical signals of the muscle contractions of their prey. As I understand it, the electric eel even puts out its own electric field and detects interference with this from the presence of the charge on other organisms, a bit like a metal detector or when we have static from a balloon and go near someone else.

 

[Antipodes]

Whilst I'm not sure if electrostatic is the right term, the concept is valid. Every living cell in the body regulates the flow of ions through its membrane. As ions are charged particles this means there's a current flowing which can be measured using techniques such as patch clamping in electrophysiology. What's more interesting is that sharks and species such as electric eels use this - such as through the Ampullae of Lorenzini whereby sharks can detect the electrical signals of the muscle contractions of their prey. As I understand it, the electric eel even puts out its own electric field and detects interference with this from the presence of the charge on other organisms, a bit like a metal detector or when we have static from a balloon and go near someone else.

Platypuses and electroreception

https://www.reed.edu/biology/professors/srenn/pages/teaching/web_2007/myp_site/#:~:text=Unlike any other mammal on,deepest and darkest of waters.

 

[Moobee]

Interesting ruling by a judge: https://www.theguardian.com/busines...-winnie-the-pooh-in-uk-honey-labelling-ruling

 

[Erichalfbee]

Interesting ruling by a judge: https://www.theguardian.com/busines...-winnie-the-pooh-in-uk-honey-labelling-ruling

https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/threads/raw-honey.56520/#post-896772

 

[Karol]

Whilst I'm not sure if electrostatic is the right term, the concept is valid. Every living cell in the body regulates the flow of ions through its membrane. As ions are charged particles this means there's a current flowing which can be measured using techniques such as patch clamping in electrophysiology. What's more interesting is that sharks and species such as electric eels use this - such as through the Ampullae of Lorenzini whereby sharks can detect the electrical signals of the muscle contractions of their prey. As I understand it, the electric eel even puts out its own electric field and detects interference with this from the presence of the charge on other organisms, a bit like a metal detector or when we have static from a balloon and go near someone else.

I get that life is sustained as a biological battery and that honeybees are a supercharged marvel of nature!

Notwithstanding, my comment was tongue in cheek about this 'energy' being perfused into honey to make it a miracle hay fever cure.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Interesting ruling by a judge: https://www.theguardian.com/busines...-winnie-the-pooh-in-uk-honey-labelling-ruling

but if you read it in detail, it doesn't support either side of the argument.

 

[JamezF]

but if you read it in detail, it doesn't support either side of the argument.

Though if I've read it correctly doesn't he accept that they can call their honey "raw"?

James

 

[Erichalfbee]

Though if I've read it correctly doesn't he accept that they can call their honey "raw"?

James

Yes

 

[Antipodes]

Though if I've read it correctly doesn't he accept that they can call their honey "raw"?

James

What was the name of the Court?

 

[JamezF]

What was the name of the Court?

"First-tier Tribunal (General Regulatory Chamber) Food", I would assume.

James

 

[Moobee]

but if you read it in detail, it doesn't support either side of the argument.

But it doesn’t say that they can’t use the term ‘raw’ either.

 

[Dekzion]

Or maybe some bees do collect it before it gets blown off the grass?
Interesting!

Last year I watched bumbles collecting grass pollen from that grass that looks like a Christmas tree.

 

[Dekzion]

Similarly I’ve had bad hayfever since I was 12 (summer of 1976 kicked it off) and regularly took antihistamines every year until I became a beekeeper and started having a teaspoon of my own honey every day. Now I only take them if the pollen count is crazily high.
Several regular customers swear it has improved their symptoms and one woman claims it’s cleared up all her husband’s allergies, so who knows.

My Ex had serious hayfever from childhood, she even wanted to buy one of those Chinese goldfish helmets with filtered air it was that bad. When I took up bees,thirty years ago, she used to hook out some freshly packed pollen cells, half a dozen or so, and kept them in a jar in the fridge. She'd take one a day, after a month she never ever had hayfever again! Her belief was that it trained her body to see it as food not an alien.

 

[jarmo henttu]

I heard Prof Tim Spector say on a BBC Radio 4 programme recently: 'It seems that honey might well have health anti-allergy benefits. The best theory is it has an anti-inflammatory effect, and that it may also be presenting the local pollen allergen in a way that allows our gut microbes to recognise it as a harmless protein, thus avoiding an itchy nose.'

I can't say I understand that fully but I'm prepared to accept it is plausible, particularly coming from an epidemiologist.

Hay allergia is not a epidemia thing.

I think that each people must take care themselves, whis things cause allergy to them. The are so much all kind of food stuffs which make allergy: cats, birds, docs, carrots, nuts, fish, eggs, whisky, flowers. Towars old age allergies become weaker.