Honey is a sweet substance that is collected by bees from the nectar of plant flower nectaries or the secretion of extrafloral nectaries. It is mixed with bee enzyme liquid and fully brewed and stored in the spleen of the nest.

Honey is the main product of bees and is a sweet, viscous, transparent or translucent liquid. Honey is mainly derived from nectar, followed by nectar and honeydew. Nectar is the secretion of the nectaries in the flowers of plants. Manna is the excrement of aphids, leafhoppers, etc. Honeydew is the secretion of the glands outside the flowers of plants. Bees use their tongue tubes to suck the nectaries and sap of plants or aphids and leafhoppers. The sweetness secreted by the honey tubes is mixed with saliva through the mouthparts of the bee and temporarily stored in the sac. After returning to the nest, it is spitted into the hive and brewed repeatedly.

Honey is honey that bees use their tongue suckers to suck nectar from the flower organs and nectaries of the source plants. After bringing it back to the beehive, they spit the nectar from the honey sac into the hive, and then the bees repeatedly inhale and spit it out. Nectar mixed with invertase secreted by honey sacs is stored in the nest. Under the action of enzymes, the polysaccharides in the nectar are decomposed into glucose and fructose, the water content is reduced to about 20%, and mature honey is basically formed. At this point, people can use the centrifugal action of the honey shaker to obtain the finished raw honey. From a food science perspective , Honey is a plant food.

Physical properties of honey: Pure, high-quality, fresh and mature honey is a viscous, transparent or translucent colloidal liquid with a sweet taste and a strong fragrance. Lower-quality honey often has a bitter taste. , astringent, sour or bad smell, the temperature is lower than 10℃ or left for too long, it is easy to transform into different degrees of crystallization. Different types of nectar sources have different physical properties.

●1. What is honey?

Answer: Honey is a sweet substance collected by bees from the nectar or secretions of plants, fully brewed and stored in the spleen of the nest.

● 2. What are the main components of honey? What does it have to do with human health?

Answer: Honey has been enduring for thousands of years, which is related to the many unique nutrients contained in honey. The main components of honey are:

(1) Glucose and fructose, which can be directly absorbed by the human body, about 65-80%;

(2) Various amino acids, including 8% that the human body cannot synthesize 20 kinds of essential amino acids, about 0.3;

(3) More than 20 kinds of minerals, which are almost equal to the content of human serum, about 0.06;

(4) More than 20 kinds of minerals that promote the human body Vitamins for growth and metabolism;

(5) Multiple active enzymes.

● 3. What are the health care functions of honey?

Answer: Li Shizhen stated in "Compendium of Materia Medica" that honey "clears away heat, nourishes the body, detoxifies, and relieves pain." Modern Chinese medicine believes that honey can mainly prevent and treat:

(1) Gastrointestinal diseases: constipation, duodenal ulcer, colitis, childhood dysentery, etc.

(2) Nervous system diseases: insomnia, headache.

(3) Infectious trauma, burns, and frostbite.

(4) Beauty.

● 4. Will eating too much honey cause obesity?

Answer: Some consumers believe that honey is rich in sugar and eating too much will cause obesity. This is actually confusing honey with general nutritional products. Honey is mainly composed of glucose and fructose, accounting for about 65-80%; while the content of sucrose is very small, less than 5%. Since glucose and fructose can be directly absorbed by the human body, the absorption process is not accompanied by fat precipitation, so they will not cause obesity.

● 5. Is crystallized honey adulterated or spoiled?

Answer: The answer is no. Because honey crystallization is a purely physical phenomenon, not a chemical change, it has no impact on its nutritional content and edible value, and crystallized honey is easier to store and transport. Crystallized honey often makes consumers think of it as "molasses". Although the crystallization of honey can be prevented by destroying the crystal nuclei by heating at high temperatures, little does anyone know that the nutrients in honey have been destroyed and there are no active substances!

However, there is indeed honey mixed with white sugar on the market. The difference is that the white sugar crystal grains are hard and difficult to melt when twisted by hand; while the honey crystal grains melt easily when twisted by hand.

● 6. Which is better, light-colored honey or dark-colored honey?

Answer: All good! The color of honey is directly related to the type of nectar collected by bees. The color of honey brewed from the nectar of different nectar plants has obvious differences. Some people think that the lighter the honey color, the better the quality. It is true that acacia honey and some light-colored honey have a refreshing fragrance and are of good quality. But longan honey, dangshen honey, and jujube honey are also high-quality honey. According to research by nutrition experts: the protein and iron content in dark honey is about 50% higher than that of light honey. No wonder the British and Germans have a soft spot for dark honey.

● 7. Honey is a natural food and traditional medicine. Please tell me some simple ways to take it?

Answer: (1) Taking honey in the mouth can treat pharyngitis and has a miraculous effect on rising anger after working hard or staying up late.

(2) Mix it into various beverages and foods for consumption. It has a light aroma and sweet taste, but be careful that the temperature should not exceed 60 degrees.

(3) After drinking, taking concentrated honey in your mouth can accelerate the decomposition of alcohol, eliminate headaches after drinking, and reduce alcohol damage to the liver.

(4) Apply honey to your lips to prevent mouth rot; use honey as a facial mask to make your skin delicate, smooth and elastic.

(5) Honey can be used instead of sugar to cook or roast dishes, which have excellent flavor, color and nutrition. Especially when roasting chicken and duck, jujube honey is used. It has a golden color and unique flavor, so you might as well try it.

(6) Taking honey half an hour before a meal can stimulate the secretion of gastric acid. Therefore, if you suffer from atrophic gastritis (lack of gastric acid), you should take it before a meal. On the contrary, taking honey two to three hours after a meal can inhibit the secretion of gastric acid. If you suffer from hypertrophic gastritis (hyperacidity), you should take it after meals.

● 8. How to identify the quality of honey?

Answer: Currently, the market is often flooded with fake honey, mainly fake honey made from high-fructose corn syrup. It is light in color and extremely clear and transparent. But compared to honey, it has a single nutrition and does not contain vitamins, amino acids, minerals and active enzymes. Consumers should choose professional stores to buy products with guaranteed quality. Consumers can simply identify the quality of honey through the following methods:

(1) Taste and smell: Consumers can taste and smell the honey when purchasing to observe whether the honey has an oily or peculiar smell. The general quality Good honey is sweet and has a light floral aroma. If the aroma is too strong, it may be mixed with essence. Poor-quality honey may be bitter, astringent, sour or even smelly.

(2) Moisture content identification: Good-quality honey contains less water and is more viscous. Use a sterilized glass rod to pick up the honey, and the honey will become filamentous and extremely long. Honey with a high water content feels very thin.

● 9. What is royal jelly?

Answer: Royal jelly is a milky white or light yellow pulpy substance secreted from the royal jelly glands in the head by young worker bees after ingesting pollen and honey through biological processing in the body. It is used to feed the queen bee and Bee larvae. Only royal jelly produced, processed, stored and transported at low temperatures can be called fresh royal jelly. Only fresh royal jelly retains active substances and nutritional value.

● 10. What is royal jelly of acceptable quality?

Answer: As long as the royal jelly meets my country's national standard for royal jelly GB9697-88, it is of qualified quality and can be sold at home and abroad. However, countries around the world have different quality requirements for royal jelly. For example, Japan focuses on the content of royal jelly acid (10-HDA) to determine the quality of royal jelly; while European and American countries focus on sensory indicators and moisture. 10-HDA is indeed an important component of royal jelly and can be used to measure the authenticity of royal jelly; however, 10-HDA is stable in nature. Even if the royal jelly deteriorates, its 10-HDA content will hardly change. Therefore, it is one-sided and unscientific to measure the quality of royal jelly based on the content of 10-HDA. The content of royal jelly 10-HDA in my country is required to be above 1.4. High-quality royal jelly is milky white in color, has obvious luster, has no impurities and bubbles, has a strong and positive aroma, is obviously sour, spicy, and has a slightly sweet aftertaste. It must not have any odors such as fermentation or odor, and its moisture content is 62.5--67.5.

● 11. What should you pay attention to when choosing to buy royal jelly?

Answer: When purchasing royal jelly, you should choose a regular store or bee product specialty store with three certificates (business license, health license, tax registration certificate) to ensure product quality. Remember not to buy royal jelly without any product (no factory name, address or trademark, no approval number, no production date). In addition, there is currently a phenomenon in the market that some royal jelly export manufacturers sell the eliminated substandard products to vendors at low prices. Customers are advised to pay attention.

When purchasing royal jelly, you should taste and smell it. The pure taste of fresh royal jelly is sour, astringent, slightly spicy, with a slightly sweet aftertaste and a long aftertaste. Fresh royal jelly should have a strong, special fragrance and no other odor. If the royal jelly tastes bitter, honey, milk or smells like wine or has a strong sour taste, it means that the royal jelly has gone bad or is adulterated.

● 12. What is bee pollen?

Answer: Pollen is the reproductive cell produced by the anthers of the male organ of the plant - the stamen. It contains the nutrients needed to breed a new plant life. Bee pollen is the pollen grains collected by bees from the stamens of plants. The bees add nectar and saliva to the pollen grains to form irregular oblate masses.

● 13. What are the ways to take bee pollen?

Answer: Since bee pollen comes from nature and contains a little dust, please mix pollen and honey in a ratio of 1:4 to form pollen honey and leave it for a few days before taking it. Do not let it sink in the bottle. The dust at the bottom. Generally, it is taken on an empty stomach in the morning and evening, about 5-10 grams each time, and the therapeutic dose is doubled.

Notes:

(1) When taking pollen, do not use water above 60℃.

(2) Bee pollen has been selected by bees and humans and is safe and non-toxic. However, for individual severe allergic reactions, please stop using it or gradually increase the dosage. In addition, taking it after meals can also reduce the occurrence of allergies.

(3) For long-term storage of pollen, it should be sealed and placed in the refrigerator.

(4) Bee pollen has a special spicy taste, which is not very palatable, so taking pollen requires persistence! Once you persist, you will definitely gain something!

● 14. What are the advantages and disadvantages of bee pollen wall breaking?

Answer: Because pollen has a hard outer wall that is resistant to acid, alkali and corrosion, academic circles once believed that bee pollen can only be absorbed and utilized if the wall is broken. But now many studies have shown that bee pollen does not need to be broken when used as food, because there are germination pores and germination grooves on the pollen wall. In the acidic environment of the gastrointestinal tract and the action of enzymes, the nutrients of the pollen can pass through the germination pores and germination grooves. The trench seeps out. After the pollen breaks through the wall, it is more susceptible to contamination and is not conducive to preservation. However, pollen must be broken down to be used as raw materials for cosmetics because the skin has no ability to digest it. However, when pollen is used as a raw material for further processing, the wall must be broken to ensure that all the nutrients of the pollen are extracted.

● 15. What are the factors that affect the quality of bee pollen?

Answer: High-quality bee pollen must meet three conditions: first, it must be fresh to ensure that the active substances are not lost; second, the number of bacteria must be within a safe range; and third, it must not become moldy. Pollen is rich in nutrients and is easily susceptible to moisture, pollution, and mildew. Bee pollen must undergo scientific sterilization and low-temperature drying to ensure its safety. Unsterilized pollen should not be taken orally; undried pollen is prone to mold and deterioration. To ensure freshness, it must be refrigerated.

The identification methods of real and fake honey can be roughly divided into three categories:

1: Smell single-flower honey has the unique floral fragrance of the plant, mixed honey has a natural floral fragrance, and fake honey Some are cane sugar flavored and some are spice flavored.

Two: Eye Observation

1. Look at the concentration of honey. Take a chopstick and insert it into the honey. Lift it up vertically. Honey with high concentration will flow down slowly and will be sticky and stringy. , can shrink into honey balls after being broken, but the opposite is true for fake honey or low-concentration honey. Even if it can be stretched, the broken wire has no elasticity and will not shrink into honey beads.

2. Drop a drop of honey on the newspaper. Pure honey with high concentration is hemispherical and difficult to soak into the newspaper. Honey with low concentration or fake honey can easily soak into the newspaper.

3. Take a cup of water and add a little honey. Real honey will quickly sink to the bottom of the cup and is not easy to melt. When stirred slowly with chopsticks, there will be strands of honey. If it is fake honey, , it will quickly dissolve into the water.

4. Look at the crystallization. The crystallization of honey is related to the type of plant and temperature. Generally, pure natural honey is easy to crystallize at 13-14 degrees Celsius. Honey that can fully crystallize generally has low water content and high concentration. , does not go bad easily, so it is high-quality honey. Crystallized pure honey has a delicate feel when rolled by hand, without any gritty feel. Fake honey is not easy to crystallize, or part of it precipitates. The precipitate is hard and difficult to crush.

Three: Taste, pure and natural honey, sweet, slightly sour, soft and delicate, refreshing and soft, slightly spicy in the throat, with a long aftertaste, although the adulterated honey is sweet. But mixed with sugar or spice flavor. The throat feeling is weak and the aftertaste is light and short.

In short, to identify the authenticity of honey, using one method alone may cause certain errors. You can use multiple methods to identify a kind of honey at the same time. Under normal circumstances, you can determine the authenticity of honey. Fake.

The honey sold on the market can be divided into dozens of types, with different origins and colors. How can I buy real honey? Here we teach you how to identify it.

View: Various honeys have fixed colors. For example, linden honey is light amber, clear and translucent, sunflower honey is amber, and mixed flower honey has an unstable color, generally yellow-red.

Smell: Real honey is sweet and fragrant, while fake honey has no smell. Honey mixed with spices has an unusual aroma.

Taste: High-quality honey is fragrant and sweet, with a long aftertaste after entering the mouth. Adulterated honey has no floral aroma, some fake honey has the smell of boiled sugar, and the fine taste has the smell of white sugar water.

Chemical test: Honey mixed with starch will turn blue when iodine solution is added; honey mixed with maltose will appear white floc after adding high-concentration ethanol; honey mixed with other impurities, use red-hot The iron wire is inserted into the honey, and there is sticky matter attached to the iron wire.

Refrigerated crystallization test: Honey will become solid after being stored for a period of time at 4 to 14 degrees Celsius. This is a physical phenomenon of honey. The crystals of real honey can be easily pierced with a chopstick. Soft, fake honey can't stick to it. Real honey can be pinched with your hands and its crystals will melt quickly. Fake honey has a tingling feeling and melts slowly or insoluble. Real honey crystals make little noise when chewed with teeth, while fake honey crystals are crisp and loud. Pour out the honey and wait for it to solidify slightly. If it is real honey, it will solidify like a honeycomb. The hexagonal structure of the one; the fake one does not.