If I'm diabetic, should I eat pure honey?

Honey, as you already know, is just another type of sugar, processed not in an industrial setting, but by bees themselves. For a diabetic person, however, this difference is rather nominal.

Honey of high quality has the glycemic index ranging between 45 to 64 depending on its type – only marginally better than ordinary sugar – but its effect will still be immediate and quite damaging to your body. The fructose contained therein might make some believe they can safely consume the product, but your body does not see a difference whether the sugar was produced artificially or organically.

This being said, the answer is not a simple 'never.' Small amounts of unrefined honey (half a teaspoon) consumed occasionally will probably pose no serious threat for a person suffering from controlled Type 2 diabetes. However, portion control becomes an issue here as honey is very concentrated and easy to overdose, especially if someone doesn't measure the amount consumed.

In the case of type 1 diabetes, every single gram of carbohydrate needs to be monitored and taken care of, and honey offers none of these benefits, containing nothing but sugar itself – without any nutritional bonuses.

What gets honey any sort of credit is its antimicrobial and antioxidant capabilities, especially when it comes to manuka honey. However, these are purely peripheral and accidental – there is no need to consume the stuff in bulk simply because you've read it's "natural."

What it boils down to is that people with diabetes have been convinced that being natural makes something safe. This is not true. Dates are natural. Mangoes are natural. Glucose monitors don't make the distinction between elite and regular sugars.

What happens to a beehive if the honey is not harvested?

 The bees will eat the honey they have collected.

Well, actually it's a bit more complicated than that.

Bees collect nectar from flowers and make honey from it. Honey is what they eat, along with pollen, and bees need to store enough honey to feed themselves during the honey-gathering season, as well as during the winter months when the colony cannot go out to forage. So, when a beekeeper harvests honey from a hive, they are stealing the food the bees have worked hard to collect.

At first, that might sound cruel. However, fortunately for us, a healthy bee colony can collect more honey than it can consume on its own. A wise beekeeper will know how much honey the colony needs to survive and will only collect the excess for themselves. Furthermore, most of the honey harvesting takes place in midsummer so the bees have enough time to rebuild their honey stores.

But there's another reason to collect honey from the hive besides having something tasty to put on your toast. If the bees collect enough honey to completely fill the hive, two things can happen. First, the bees may decide their space is too small and swarm, leaving the hive in search of a larger home. The second thing that can happen is that the bees don't leave the hive but begin storing honey in the comb they usually use to raise young bees. This is also bad, as the colony won't be able to raise new bees. The bees and the colony will become very weak and may collapse as the existing bees age and die. Both situations are also bad for the beekeeper. A full hive of bees can represent an investment of several hundred dollars.

Therefore, don't feel bad about taking honey as long as you don't become too greedy. Always leave enough for your bees.

Honey

 

• One spoonful of 🍯 honey is enough to keep a person alive for 24 hours.
• One of the world's first coins had the symbol of a 🐝 bee.
• Honey contains live enzymes.
• Upon contact with a metal spoon, these enzymes are killed. The best way to eat honey is with a wooden spoon; if you can't find one, use a plastic spoon.
• Honey contains a substance that helps the brain function better.
• Honey is one of the few foods on earth that can sustain human life on its own.
• Bees saved people from starvation in Africa.
• Propolis produced by bees is one of the most powerful natural antibiotics.
• Honey has no expiration date.
• The bodies of the world's greatest emperors were bathed in honey and then buried in golden coffins to prevent decay.
• The term “honeymoon” comes from the fact that brides and grooms consumed honey for fertility after their marriage.
• A bee lives less than 40 days, visits at least 1,000 flowers, and produces less than a teaspoon of honey, but for them, it's the work of a lifetime.

Obviously, using your intelligence and being an adult, you're not going to ingest a liter of honey in a day; you'll use your judgment and consume a tablespoon a day.