So I brought this on myself, asking some stranger on facebook what is so great about honey. Well lots in great with honey, it tastes good, never spoils because nothing grows in it, it can be used as antibacterial for wounds, because nothing grows in it. But then some ashole comes along and says is "helps" with cancer. So here's the rant.
I just read this http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/benefits-raw-organic-honey-9105.html abaout the benefits of honey.... No wait, only raw organic (magic) honey.
1)Honey as a antibacterial: that is fine, in a pinch, or in the presence of only expensive antibacterial options, spreading honey on a wound works (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3609166/, it should be noted this is only one reference amoungst many, one scientific paper is meaning, consensus matters, but I think this is the one the author was talking about when they mentioned the NIH, note it is more recent than 1988). Bacteria don't grow in high concentrations of sugar. That is why it works, also the texture of honey makes it more useful for spreading on wounds that using sugar water. Here is an article by an infectious disease doctor who has avocated for the use of topical honey https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/honey/ . But this would be true of ANY highly concentrated and viscous sugar substance.
2) honey as an antioxidant: The idea of antioxidants being beneficial in your diet is so elegantly simply it HAS to have come from a physicist. It makes so much intuitive sense, your cells are ran from chemical reactions, the more chemical reactions take place, the more worn your cells become. So if we could just prevent the cell from having so many reactions, we could extend the life of the cell. Another way to put it is that these chemical reactions, normally relying on oxygen being released or exchanged from or between molecules produce extra “free radical”. Free radicals roam about you body, reacted with molecules in cells and ergo a whole chain reaction of badness. Hence a LOT of research dollars were spent studying free radicals and the idea ingesting antioxidants arose as perfectly reasonable hypothesis, introduce agents to react away the oxygen laden free radicals so they don't interact with your cells. Unfortunately, after about thirty years of research... well http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/antioxidants/ . Then the diet-gurus all got a hold of antioxidants being to next big hoo-haa, and next thing you thing you know every organic superfood out there, including 100 percent of Dr. Oz BS, is the “best antioxidant of all time!!!!” So yeah, could be an antioxidant, so are a lot of things, but the real question is whether antioxidant are the best things in the world. Here is another link, just for the hell of it https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/antioxidant-hype-and-reality/ .
3) Honey for digestion and immunity: Starting with the last point made about honey preventing local allergies because it is the least upsetting and the most plausible. Bees get pollen from local plants. Bees make honey. Humans eat honey, humans get low dose exposure to local pollen and thus do not have allergic reaction to local plant pollen. Again, so elegantly simple I bet it was another physicist. I just bet you. Bees do get pollen on them from plants, they gather the nector and then they digest it and process it into sugar. Yeah Honey is still delicious process sugary goodness, it is just process inside bee guts (which I have no problem with). It just doesn't work on many levels http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2015/05/local_honey_for_allergies_pollen_in_honey_cannot_desensitize_the_immune.html . About “boosting the immune system” here is yet another article from science based medicine, https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/boost-your-immune-system/ . The gist of the article is addressing the idea of whether you really want your immune system boosted. The problem with that concept is that the immune system is not a muscle. It is not something that gets stronger and the stronger the better. Instead, the immune is a complex system consisting of different antibodies, a series of proteins serving to assist in killing bacteria or in attracting white cells, blood components like white blood cell, proteins that regulate response to infection, and a plethora of others. “Over” reaction of the immune system leads to auto-immune diseases, allergies, and death in 1918 flu epidemic (http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/18/2/10-2042_article, sorry you have to read quite a bit of it to get to that part). So again, like with the antioxidants, the real question here is “is there a reason to boost the immune system?” Also once you consider that “boosting” or “assisting” or “supporting” the body is one of the few things that anyone can claim for a food, medicine, or supplement without inviting punishment from the FDA regarding medical claims. I have the same complaint regarding probiotics; isn't the question whether or not probiotics are desirable? The bacteria that honey is claimed to stimulate the growth of is bifidobacteria, which is naturally occuring in the intestine. Of course, the bacterial population of the intestines in important to our health. However, we have MANY different species of bacteria living in our intestines. Bio-diversity is just as important there as it is in the rain forest. So the idea of excessively promoting the growth of one type of bacteria does not seem like the best idea out there. Of course, that sort of simpllistic thinking is coming from a physicist so what can I say. When you lose all the “good” or rather “benign” bacteria in your gut, the popluation has to be replaced. Though you will notice that doctors these days don't ask patients after broad spectrum antibiotics to eat a lot of yoghurt... instead, you get a poo transplant (http://thefecaltransplantfoundation.org/what-is-fecal-transplant/), usually from someone close to you, so that the whole bio-diverse population can be replaced not just one or two or twenty species (it was even done in ancient China!!). And just so you can have another Science Based Medicine article, https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/gut-check/ (I keep linking these, because they have links to many good resources). And for the big one. HONEY DOES NOT CURE CANCER. For fuck's sake, just leave people with cancer alone. They are going through enough and don't need to hear ever dipshit's anecdote about what their relative/friend was shoving up their butt when they went into remission. You aren't making people feel better, you are making everyone who has cancer or knows someone who has died of cancer feel like useless shit because they “didn't fight hard enough”. Go find a link for yourself. I could put in a hundred fucking links, but if you haven't questioned anything by know then there is no helping you. Yeah, I got a massive stick up my butt about assholes who talk shit about something helping cancer. It's honey. It tastes good. It is fucking magic.
4) Honey for mind and body: This says honey should be used before exercising. Man I am getting tired and cranky. OK, sure why not? It has carbs and sugar. Carbs and sugar give you energy because your cells burn carbs and sugar for energy. Kind of a no duh there. But honestly carbs and sugar are carbs and sugar. It does not matter where they are from. You like honey, eat honey, like granola bars, eat granola bars. Of course you may want to keep an eyes on how much sugar and carbs you are ingesting. Pretending something is healthy does not make it better for you. In fact it may make people ingest too much of it because they think it is magically OK (think when the girl in “Mean Girls” gets fats because Lindsey Lohan gave her the fake diet bar). You could also eat twinkie before you work out, but no one is going to claim that twinkies make you lose weight or something dumb like that (http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/). And as for the Greeks and Romans doing it (haha “doing it”), they also put lead in their wine, had slaves, and killed Jesus. Just sayin'.
5) Honey should be bough local, raw and organic: My brain is injured. I can not go on. Buy local. Sure that sounds good. What grows in your area? How much water does it take? What pesticides are necessary in your area? How much tilling of the soil is necessary? All these factor contribute to fucking up our environment. The real question buying local is “is the impact of shipping the food to your location more of less than the impact of growing it local?” If you live in California, buying local sound like a good idea. If you live in Utah, maybe not. Buying local, raw organic honey absolutely does NOT guarantee that you get the honey magic, I can say that is assurance, because your local, raw, organic honey is not tested for anything. It is bee vomit. Nice, delicious bee vomit. Not anything else. Organic makes my hurt so bad: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479712004264 (paywall), http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/science-sushi/httpblogsscientificamericancomscience-sushi20110718mythbusting-101-organic-farming-conventional-agriculture/ , https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/no-health-benefits-from-organic-food/ . I am going to stop before my brain explodes from illogic.
I just read this http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/benefits-raw-organic-honey-9105.html abaout the benefits of honey.... No wait, only raw organic (magic) honey.
1)Honey as a antibacterial: that is fine, in a pinch, or in the presence of only expensive antibacterial options, spreading honey on a wound works (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3609166/, it should be noted this is only one reference amoungst many, one scientific paper is meaning, consensus matters, but I think this is the one the author was talking about when they mentioned the NIH, note it is more recent than 1988). Bacteria don't grow in high concentrations of sugar. That is why it works, also the texture of honey makes it more useful for spreading on wounds that using sugar water. Here is an article by an infectious disease doctor who has avocated for the use of topical honey https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/honey/ . But this would be true of ANY highly concentrated and viscous sugar substance.
2) honey as an antioxidant: The idea of antioxidants being beneficial in your diet is so elegantly simply it HAS to have come from a physicist. It makes so much intuitive sense, your cells are ran from chemical reactions, the more chemical reactions take place, the more worn your cells become. So if we could just prevent the cell from having so many reactions, we could extend the life of the cell. Another way to put it is that these chemical reactions, normally relying on oxygen being released or exchanged from or between molecules produce extra “free radical”. Free radicals roam about you body, reacted with molecules in cells and ergo a whole chain reaction of badness. Hence a LOT of research dollars were spent studying free radicals and the idea ingesting antioxidants arose as perfectly reasonable hypothesis, introduce agents to react away the oxygen laden free radicals so they don't interact with your cells. Unfortunately, after about thirty years of research... well http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/antioxidants/ . Then the diet-gurus all got a hold of antioxidants being to next big hoo-haa, and next thing you thing you know every organic superfood out there, including 100 percent of Dr. Oz BS, is the “best antioxidant of all time!!!!” So yeah, could be an antioxidant, so are a lot of things, but the real question is whether antioxidant are the best things in the world. Here is another link, just for the hell of it https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/antioxidant-hype-and-reality/ .
3) Honey for digestion and immunity: Starting with the last point made about honey preventing local allergies because it is the least upsetting and the most plausible. Bees get pollen from local plants. Bees make honey. Humans eat honey, humans get low dose exposure to local pollen and thus do not have allergic reaction to local plant pollen. Again, so elegantly simple I bet it was another physicist. I just bet you. Bees do get pollen on them from plants, they gather the nector and then they digest it and process it into sugar. Yeah Honey is still delicious process sugary goodness, it is just process inside bee guts (which I have no problem with). It just doesn't work on many levels http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2015/05/local_honey_for_allergies_pollen_in_honey_cannot_desensitize_the_immune.html . About “boosting the immune system” here is yet another article from science based medicine, https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/boost-your-immune-system/ . The gist of the article is addressing the idea of whether you really want your immune system boosted. The problem with that concept is that the immune system is not a muscle. It is not something that gets stronger and the stronger the better. Instead, the immune is a complex system consisting of different antibodies, a series of proteins serving to assist in killing bacteria or in attracting white cells, blood components like white blood cell, proteins that regulate response to infection, and a plethora of others. “Over” reaction of the immune system leads to auto-immune diseases, allergies, and death in 1918 flu epidemic (http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/18/2/10-2042_article, sorry you have to read quite a bit of it to get to that part). So again, like with the antioxidants, the real question here is “is there a reason to boost the immune system?” Also once you consider that “boosting” or “assisting” or “supporting” the body is one of the few things that anyone can claim for a food, medicine, or supplement without inviting punishment from the FDA regarding medical claims. I have the same complaint regarding probiotics; isn't the question whether or not probiotics are desirable? The bacteria that honey is claimed to stimulate the growth of is bifidobacteria, which is naturally occuring in the intestine. Of course, the bacterial population of the intestines in important to our health. However, we have MANY different species of bacteria living in our intestines. Bio-diversity is just as important there as it is in the rain forest. So the idea of excessively promoting the growth of one type of bacteria does not seem like the best idea out there. Of course, that sort of simpllistic thinking is coming from a physicist so what can I say. When you lose all the “good” or rather “benign” bacteria in your gut, the popluation has to be replaced. Though you will notice that doctors these days don't ask patients after broad spectrum antibiotics to eat a lot of yoghurt... instead, you get a poo transplant (http://thefecaltransplantfoundation.org/what-is-fecal-transplant/), usually from someone close to you, so that the whole bio-diverse population can be replaced not just one or two or twenty species (it was even done in ancient China!!). And just so you can have another Science Based Medicine article, https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/gut-check/ (I keep linking these, because they have links to many good resources). And for the big one. HONEY DOES NOT CURE CANCER. For fuck's sake, just leave people with cancer alone. They are going through enough and don't need to hear ever dipshit's anecdote about what their relative/friend was shoving up their butt when they went into remission. You aren't making people feel better, you are making everyone who has cancer or knows someone who has died of cancer feel like useless shit because they “didn't fight hard enough”. Go find a link for yourself. I could put in a hundred fucking links, but if you haven't questioned anything by know then there is no helping you. Yeah, I got a massive stick up my butt about assholes who talk shit about something helping cancer. It's honey. It tastes good. It is fucking magic.
4) Honey for mind and body: This says honey should be used before exercising. Man I am getting tired and cranky. OK, sure why not? It has carbs and sugar. Carbs and sugar give you energy because your cells burn carbs and sugar for energy. Kind of a no duh there. But honestly carbs and sugar are carbs and sugar. It does not matter where they are from. You like honey, eat honey, like granola bars, eat granola bars. Of course you may want to keep an eyes on how much sugar and carbs you are ingesting. Pretending something is healthy does not make it better for you. In fact it may make people ingest too much of it because they think it is magically OK (think when the girl in “Mean Girls” gets fats because Lindsey Lohan gave her the fake diet bar). You could also eat twinkie before you work out, but no one is going to claim that twinkies make you lose weight or something dumb like that (http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/). And as for the Greeks and Romans doing it (haha “doing it”), they also put lead in their wine, had slaves, and killed Jesus. Just sayin'.
5) Honey should be bough local, raw and organic: My brain is injured. I can not go on. Buy local. Sure that sounds good. What grows in your area? How much water does it take? What pesticides are necessary in your area? How much tilling of the soil is necessary? All these factor contribute to fucking up our environment. The real question buying local is “is the impact of shipping the food to your location more of less than the impact of growing it local?” If you live in California, buying local sound like a good idea. If you live in Utah, maybe not. Buying local, raw organic honey absolutely does NOT guarantee that you get the honey magic, I can say that is assurance, because your local, raw, organic honey is not tested for anything. It is bee vomit. Nice, delicious bee vomit. Not anything else. Organic makes my hurt so bad: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479712004264 (paywall), http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/science-sushi/httpblogsscientificamericancomscience-sushi20110718mythbusting-101-organic-farming-conventional-agriculture/ , https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/no-health-benefits-from-organic-food/ . I am going to stop before my brain explodes from illogic.
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