Today, you hear a lot about honey. Honey this and honey that. Where does this renewed interest come from? Why are people so enthusiastic for it and its properties? Let us say that it is not just a recent thing, but rather it has always been viewed as a miracle from nature, more specifically from the bees. It has been used in medicine for over 5,000 years. Honey was used as Ayurvedic medicine, to treat indigestion and other imbalances in the body. In Ancient Egypt, it was used on wounds and skin problems such as acne.
You can’t help but see how much honey is featured in many products, especially in skin care. When purchasing these skin care items, you should determine if the honey being used is pasteurized, raw or unpasteurized. You may ask, “what is the difference?” We will explain this and which is the best in our opinion.
Raw honey is removed from the bee hive and packaged and may contain:
1) Yeast
2) Wax
3) Pollen
Consuming local honey is said to help alleviate some symptoms of seasonal allergies due to exposure to pollen in the area. Honey can help with many things, such as: healing burns and wounds, fighting infections and help with common skin problems (acne, psoriasis and eczema). (1)
Pasteurized honey has been heated and processed to remove impurities. In one study, pasteurized honey had 4.3 times less antioxidants than its raw counterpart as a result of this process. (2) This also removes a lot of the nutrients that raw honey contains (22 amino acids, 31 minerals and 30 Polyphenol (antioxidant properties).(3) Unpasteurized honey only goes through a straining process, meaning it removes debris like dead bees while leaving most of the nutrients intact!!!
Bee pollen has been used as a medical treatment in places like Germany and due to the pasteurization process, pollen is removed from the honey. This takes a lot of the health benefits away from the honey you consume. (4) Due to the filtering process used for unpasteurized honey, there isn't a significant change in amount of bee pollen in the final product!
This is why we use unpasteurized honey in our products.
Unpasteurized honey has many of the same benefits as raw honey. The filtering process removes most of the impurities found in raw honey without removing significant amounts of what we find beneficial and have been shown to help with various skin issues (psoriasis, eczema, dry itchy skin and many more). These are skin care issues that affect millions of people everyday. Many studies have been done on Manuka honey for its medical properties for skin care and wound healing. However, clinical studies have shown honey to be effective in promoting the healing of partial thickness burns and other wounds. When it comes to skin disorders and dermatological use, more research is needed, but encouraging results have been seen with certain types of honey and their use on rosacea. (6)
Footnotes
(1) Watson, Kathryn. “Honey for Face: Uses and Benefits.” Healthline, Healthline Media, 4 Jan. 2019, www.healthline.com/health/honey-for-face.
(2) McLoone, Pauline, et al. “Home - PMC - NCBI.” National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 4 Aug. 2016, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/.
(3) Blasa, Manuela, et al. “Raw Millefiori Honey Is Packed Full of Antioxidants.” Food Chemistry, vol. 97, no. 2, 2006, pp. 217–222., doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2005.03.039.
(4)Nozal, Ma J, et al. “Rapid and Sensitive Method for Determining Free Amino Acids in Honey by Gas Chromatography with Flame Ionization or Mass Spectrometric Detection.” Journal of Chromatography. A, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 20 Aug. 2004, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15481469.
(5) Subramanian, R., et al. “Processing of Honey: A Review.” International Journal of Food Properties, vol. 10, no. 1, 2007, pp. 127–143., doi:10.1080/10942910600981708.
(6) McLoone, Pauline et al. “Honey: A Therapeutic Agent for Disorders of the Skin.” Central Asian journal of global health vol. 5,1 241. 4 Aug. 2016, doi:10.5195/cajgh.2016.241