Superfood  - Raw Honey

Raw honey is best described as honey “as it exists in the beehive, exactly how the bees made it”. If it weren’t for our supermarket shelves been flooded with processed foods we could drop the ‘Raw’ and it would simply be ‘Honey’. The majority of honey you see on the supermarket shelves has been pasteurized. By Pasteurizing honey it kills the yeast cells and bacteria that raw honey contains. This is all done to improve it's appearance, making it look more appealing to the buyer. It might look pretty but all the nutrients have been stripped from it and all that’s left is glucose syrup.

Raw honey on the other hand really is a Superfood. What’s most impressive about raw honey is that it contains nearly 30 types of bioactive plant compounds. These are called polyphenols, and they act as antioxidants. Many studies have linked these antioxidants with awesome health benefits, including reduced inflammation and a lowering the risk of heart disease and certain cancers. By ensuring that the honey is in its raw form you can guaranteed what you are feeding your family has the vitamins, minerals, enzymes…all the good bits left in it.

Over time Raw honey will go through a natural process and crystallize. This is a good thing and also another sign of what you are eating is high quality Raw honey. The natural sugars in honey (glucose and fructose) will bind together and begin to form little crystals, which can start making your honey harder. Different types of Honey will also crystallize differently. Some honeys crystallize uniformly and others starting from the bottom of the jar so half is crystallized and the top half is still liquid. The Size of the crystals vary as well, some have larger gritty crystals where as others have smother smaller crystals.

Raw honey is as individual as the people that eat it. If you prefer it hard you can keep it in the fridge. If you like your raw honey to stay softer or more liquid for longer, you can gently warm it in hot water (not boiling) or keep it on the windowsill in the sun. Another amazing attribute of raw honey, is that it never spoils! While excavating Egypt's famous pyramids, archaeologists  found pots of raw honey in an ancient tomb. The Raw honey, dated back approximately 3,000 years and was still perfectly edible!

So when you’re buying honey, check the label, and make sure it's 100% Raw and natural, straight from the hive……