More honey facts….

From West Mountain Apiary–

Characteristics of Honey

Pure honey lasts a long time. It does, however, darken with age . Two characteristics of honey are fermentation and granulation.

Fermentation
Honey is hydroscopic which means that honey absorbs moisture. If the moisture content of honey exceeds 18.6%, the fermentation yeast in the honey will turn the sugars of the honey into alcohol. This causes honey to have a sour taste. The honey yeast is not able to grow at cool temperatures, with the optimum temperature for honey fermentation being above 80°. If honey is stored at below 50°, the yeast cannot grow. While fermented honey can be feed back to the bees, it is unfit for human consumption. It is recommended that if honey is to be stored for any length of time, it should have a moisture content of around 17%. A good way to keep honey for long periods of time is to freeze it.

Granulation
All honey granulates at some point. That is, it becomes a semi solid sugar-like substance. Honey that has granulated can be returned to a liquid state by heating it. Granulated honey in jars can be put into a water bath having a temperature of 95 to 120 degrees F. Honey is darkened each time it is subjected to heat. If honey is heated to over 160 degrees F. for any period of time, the taste will change and the color will darken considerably. It will also result in damage to the nutritional value of honey. Commercial honey packers usually heat honey to 160 degrees and then rapidly cool it. This causes the death of the yeast and reduces crystallization for several years, giving the product long life on the grocery stores shelf. The resulting honey is, however, devoid of any nutritional value.

Honey Content

Honey is a mixture of sugars and other compounds. The specific composition of any batch of honey will depend largely on the mix of flowers consumed by the bees that produced the honey. Honey has a density of about 1500 kg/m3 (50% denser than water), which means about 12.5 pounds per US gallon.

Honey is a great source of antioxidants, potassium, calcium, minerals and 22 amino acids. Honey also has a much lower Glycemic Index than sugar and is more easily digested, letting your body absorb the nutrients. Unlike refined sugar or high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), honey possesses 181 different molecules that posses the biological capacity to fight free radicals, bacteria, and inflammation. Table sugar has little value other than as a sweetener. When sugar cane is processed to become the white table sugar we all know and love, all of the inherent nutrition is stripped away. The sugar loses all of those vitamins, proteins and good-for-you enzymes. Since there is no processing of raw honey, it retains all of that.While honey has more calories per tablespoon (64) than the sugar (46), it is naturally more sweet than sugar- so you end up needing less.

Typical Raw Honey Contents:
Water 17%, Natural Sugars 79.5% ,Fructose 38%, Dextrose (Glucose) 31%, Maltose 7.3%, Sucrose 1.3%, Other Sugars 1.5%,
Vitamins:
A, Beta carotene, B1 Thiamin, B2 Riboflavin, B3 Niacin, B5 Pantothenic acid, B6 Pyridoxine, B8 Biotin, B9 Folate, C, D, E, K

Minerals:
Calcium, Copper, Iodine, Iron, Magnesium, Manganese, Potassium, Sodium, Sulfur, Phosphorous, Zinc

Amino Acids:
Tryptophan, Leucine, Lysine, Isoleucine, Methionine, Cystiene, Thresonine, Arginine, Phenylalanine, Histidine, Valine, Glutamic acid, Tyrosine, Glycine, Serine, Proline, Alanine, Aspartic acid, Hydroxyproline, Butyric acid