Honey is the most commonly used product, can be easily found in our home. It is a thick, sweet syrup that has several properties and health benefits.
It’s hard to choose the right honey for your family when you’re running through the grocery store. There’s a debate on which one is better Raw or Regular. Some find more raw honey benefits while others see no difference between the two.
However, as a health-conscious consumer what’s MORE IMPORTANT to note is, that whichever honey we are consuming, it is 100% pure and is not adulterated with corn or rice syrup.
With the growing concern around adulteration, FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) had picked the samples of leading honey brands, as published in DNA article, to conduct a check if they are adulterated with corn syrups or rice syrups.
After the test FSSAI has proposed some changes in norms which clearly implies that some of those brands were doing Rice/ corn or similar artificially made sugar syrup adulteration. Earlier, the FSSAI norms didn’t have any criteria on added sugar syrups in honey, and companies have used those loopholes to do adulteration in honey.
The rice syrup used for adulteration has similar texture and color which is impossible to identify in home-based test methods.
This adulteration can only be ruled out with laboratory equipment and technical expertise. Before knowing whether Raw or Regular is better for health, it’s most important to find out whether it’s 100% pure.
Honey is effective only when it’s 100% pure. If your honey is adulterated with Rice Syrup, it will not be effective in weight management.
It’s not easy to choose 100% pure honey when millions of options available in the market. As screening criteria, look for brands honey that falls in the Rs. 500-600 range per kg.
There’s a high probability that these might be pure as pure honey is costly and is not available at cheap rates. If some honey brands are found to be at more affordable prices, that may be because they are adulterated with artificially made syrup.
Secondly, check out the brand websites, whether they are performing the test for zero rice syrup addition and are qualifying or not. Only a few brands can talk about Rice Syrup’s addition to the public openly. These tips will help you to choose the 100% pure honey for your family.
I’ve recently come across the brand Zandu Honey who discloses the addition test reports about Rice and Corn syrup to their customers on their website.
Raw Honey Benefits: How Is It Different Than Regular Honey?
Honey that straight comes from the beehive is raw honey. It is unheated, unpasteurized, unprocessed honey. It is poured straight into the bottle, bypassing processing methods.
On the other hand, Regular honey is processed honey prepared after pasteurization and filtration. This process makes honey smoother, increases its shelf life, removes impurities.
Some honey undergoes ultrafiltration that destroys its beneficial nutrients, and some may add sugar syrup to reduce its costs.
Differences Between Raw and Regular Honey
The main differences between raw and regular honey are:
Raw Honey Benefits:
- Raw honey benefits are that it’s more nutritious and contains a wide variety of nutrients, 22 amino acids, minerals, enzymes, and vitamins. But since it is unfiltered, it may contain extrinsic bee particles, bee wax, etc. These usually are available in villages procured from beekeepers directly.
- It helps reduce risk factors for heart disease like blood pressure and cholesterol.
- It has antiviral and antifungal properties.
- It doesn’t ferment in the stomach and used for indigestion.
- It effectively relieves nausea and supplies energy.
- It improves wound healing.
- It doesn’t have added sugar or sweeteners.
Regular Honey:
- It contains little to no pollen.No doubt pollen are good for health however if pollen content is more it leads to crystallization in honey. That is why you must have noticed that sometimes honey gets crystallized during winters due to high pollen content.
- It may contain antibiotics. But post breakdown of FSSAI on Indian honey brands in 2004, they have to follow a prescribed limit.
- It may cause narrowing of the blood vessels only if the honey you are using is adulterated and not 100% pure.
- It may lead to obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and liver damage, if it’s not 100% pure honey
- It may have hidden sugars or sweeteners. Some of the brands are selling adulterated honey at low rates. They contain sugar or other sweeteners like rice syrup or corn syrup.
Where to Find the Right Honey:
We are mostly dependent on regular honey as raw honey is not readily available. Also, they are usually not filtered and contain extrinsic matters and are not soothing to mouth.
Choosing the right honey for your family is difficult as most of the honey available adulterated via sugar or corn syrup.
Hence research and choose your honey wisely if you are really looking for the benefits when you are consuming it. The screening criteria I have suggested above can help you find 100% pure honey.
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DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in the blog content are independent and unbiased views of solely the blogger. The content is meant for educational purpose only. One should consult the expert for any related information.
Honey has loads of benefits… I do include honey into my skincare and haircare routin too. But it is important to choose the right raw honey to get the most advantages out of it.
We usually choose products by name or packaging and do not research on the ingredients. Some of us don’t even look at the ingredients list of any products. Thanks for sharing difference between raw and regular honey. This was much needed!
Thanks for sharing this, it is really important to know the adulterated honey and differentiate between pure and adulterated ones. Never knew that crystallization is due to pollens.
We love honey .Most of our home baked goodies have organic honey. This is a very eye opening post.
I never knew the differences between the two until now…though I am still not sure if I will be able to differentiate if you keep the two types in front of me ??
This is a wonderful post. I never before this gave any thought to raw honey and regular honey.
Honestly, I only thought honey can be used for health benefits when added in warm water. But never knew there are two different kinds of honey. Thanks a lot for this post.
I never know so many benefits of raw honey.. The benefits of honey are most pronounced when it is replacing another, unhealthier sweetener.
Its important to choose the best when it comes to health, raw honey has quite a lot of benefits. Hence, always know what you’re consuming
Honey is so healthy and i believe we must eplace sugar with honey in our Desserts,etc and live a healthy life.
Thanks this was pretty useful and I wasnt aware about the adulteration.
Now a days finding pure raw honey is really difficult . But raw honey has loads of health benefits..
Honey is really great for everyone, and I have added Honey to my kid’s diet too. I have seen White honey and It was unimaginably good.
Honey has so many health benefits. I never knew that raw honey is more beneficial. Thanks for letting us know
Its curial to know the health benefits of a food product before consuming it, and especially things like honey which has so many medicinal benefits. Informative post
I love honey for the benefits that it offers. Thanks for sharing your tips on finding the pure honey. It is quite helpful.
Raw honey is great f or weight management and skin car and wound healing. C want believe honey is also adulterated these days. .thank you for sharing
glad to shared this. I am sure I am not along who wasnt aware of these facts. Its always better we know what we eat
Oh yes, yes. I completely agree with you. Even we don’t buy the honey we get in the stores, the branded ones. We go for the raw ones that people take directly.
Organic honey is not easy to find. This looks like a good advice Will be trying out what you advice definitely.
It’s really hard to get the original raw honey. But it’s always far better than the regular one. Thanks for sharing all the infos
I totally agree with you, choosing the raw honey is so important to get the benefits. I love using honey in my skin care products
This is completely new to my knowledge .I mean the differences highlighted between raw and regular honey.Thank you for sharing this informative post
Super insight. I did not know that there is a difference between normal honey and raw honey. Will check out next time while buying.
OMG, this is something I got to know for the first time. I substitute sugar with honey and jaggery most of the times but never knew whether I’m using the real one or not. Thank you for the information, any tips to choose the right honey?
Sounds yummt and healthyy!! will definately try it out !! #Superbloggerchallenge
Thank you for letting know the differences between raw and regular honey. Will definitely try raw honey once.
That is what our Dadi Nani told us
To have Raw Honey because it is no less then a medicine
Warm it mix with Ginger your cough syrup is ready
Just add black salt and your internal cleasner is ready
Very useful indeed
Thanks for the informative post. Its really scary to know about the dark side of the honey business.
i did not know so many things about honey. love the detailed informative post..
I prefer honey for my throat issues. I add it to a glass a warm water with lemon when a cold virus hits me.
It also works as a cough suppressant. Ever since I gave up sugar, honey has taken its place and I find its benefits working on me.
I hadn’t a clue about the difference between raw honey and regular honey. All I knew were few tests to check the purity of honey.
I prefer honey to sugar in nimbu paani, and sometimes even in my cup of green tea (although mostly, prefer the latter without any kind of sweetener).
Thanks for the informative post. Will try out raw honey next time.
Getting pure honey is so very difficult. We have many times tried getting honey from places where it’s available easily still in no way we could know that what we were getting was real raw honey or the regular market one. Thanks for sharing various factors which can be considered while screening honey.
This is great information. I loved going through it, I didn’t know so much about raw and regular honey
#superbloggerchallenge
Luckily I found about raw honey while travelling a country years ago. it was shocking to me that time informatve post
This is indeed very useful information to me. I give a little quantity of turmeric and honey paste to my daughter in the morning as per doctor’s advise as she is allergic to dust and other things and is asthmatic. Very informative and useful.
This is a fabulous post and I am so glad i came across this. The benefits of raw honey are immense and I’m glad you confirmed them!
Organic honey is so rare to find. This is indeed a very useful piece of information.
Till date I prefer honey and ginger juice for my kids whenever they catch cold and cough. Even I prefer to have my hot water with honey every morning.
Thank you for sharing this information. I thought the crystal formation is due to sugar getting settled..
Hi… Can you please mention a few brands which have organic and raw honey . Completely clueless. Pls help.
Thanks and regards,
Payal
I love honey with my lukewarm lemon water. This post is very useful because I didn’t know raw honey is more useful than a regular one.