Honey is a wonderful liquid food made by honey bees and consumed by humans around the world. Honey has many health benefits and is also very tasty which is the reason why it is used in many food recipes and also eaten as it is by people, especially kids who love its yummy sugary taste. There are many who remain confused between regular honey that is available in liquid form and in bottles in grocery stores and raw honey. Isn’t it raw or organic honey that is being sold in bottles, in shops? This article takes a closer look at the two forms of honey to come up with answers.
It is nothing too difficult to see the difference between honey we get in bottles in the market and the one that can be purchased straight from the beekeeper in your area. Whenever you see the word raw, it simply means the honey being talked about is unpreserved and is full of all the enzymes, vitamins, and minerals that are naturally there in the honey after honey bees have manufactured it. If anything, you can think of raw honey as a raw vegetable and the one available in bottles inside grocery stores as the cooked vegetable; cooking involves heating the vegetable and adding other ingredients to make the raw vegetable palatable. Much of the nutritional content of raw vegetable is lost during the process of cooking.
Similarly, during the process of pasteurization of honey to conserve it and to bottle it to be sold in the markets, much of the nutritional content of raw honey gets destroyed. This includes powerful antioxidants, enzymes, and natural vitamins that are destroyed when heating is applied to raw honey. There are many wonderful health benefits of eating raw honey. It is anti-viral, anti-fungal and antibacterial in nature, but the same cannot be said about regular honey because of all the heat that is applied to it making it lose its nutritional value and contents.
There are many enzymes in raw honey that are lost during successive filtration of this honey to make it look good. Another difference in the looks of raw honey is that it is not a thick liquid but a solid at room temperature. It is also not so good looking as regular honey, which is golden colored. Raw honey looks milky and very unclear unlike regular honey, which is transparent and clear. In fact, if it is milky when you buy it from your local beekeeper, you can be pretty sure that it is still full of all those enzymes, bee porpolis, pollen granules and natural vitamins that make it a treasure house of health for us.
Raw Honey vs. Honey
• Raw honey is not heated and pasteurized like regular honey.
• Raw honey is not filtered while regular honey is filtered many times to get clear, golden honey.
• Raw honey contains many antioxidants and enzymes that are destroyed during heating.
• Raw honey is solid at room temperature while regular honey is a thick liquid at room temperature.
• Raw honey has a milky appearance and unclear while regular honey is golden colored and is a clear liquid.