Honey should not be heated above the room temperature. When you heat honey it destroys all the good enzymes present in the honey.
If you heat it up to 37-degree Celsius (98.6 F) it loses up to 200 vital beneficial component. Heating it above 40-degree Celsius (104 F) will destroy an enzyme known as invertase. Honey will turn out to be caramel sugar of you heat it above 50-degree Celsius for more than 48 hours.
Honey has various health benefits and also is a delight to the taste buds. It is natural and is obtained from the beehives. It is made by bees and used for their own nutrition.
Raw honey is the best available form of honey and not the processed honey that is available in the market under the names of big brands and claims to have medicinal properties.
Raw honey is almost 98% pure and has all the useful ingredients in them, unlike processed honey. Honey should not be heated above room temperature i.e. more than 25 degree Celsius or 95F which is usually the normal temperature of a beehive.
Honey should also not be ultra-finely filtered to remove the pollen grains and other organic materials which form the basic intrinsic properties of honey.
Heating honey past the temperature of beehive results in the change of honey’s main composition and also brings about degradation internally. It destroys the main enzymes present inside honey and also vaporizes the volatile constituents which are responsible for its aroma.
It also destroys the normal texture and color of the honey. The processed honey is heated before packing as it makes easier to do the process and also delays crystallization and pasteurize the yeast in it.
The micro-filtering that is done in processed honey also diminishes the healthy properties of honey by removing its main intrinsic components. All this is done to actually make the honey look good and appear to be more consumable by the human beings, and all this at the cost of losing its original healthy properties!
It also slows down the crystallization of honey, which is not really a problem because if your honey is forming crystals then all you need to do is heat it up to the temperature of the beehive and it will as good as new.
Crystallisation is also a good sign because it means that the honey is raw. You can also heat it in a water bath and not provide it with direct heat but do keep a check on the temperature. Let us see what properties of honey are destroyed due to excessive heating and processing of raw honey-
Table of Contents
Properties Of Honey Lost Due To Excessive Heating
Antibacterial And Antimicrobial Properties
Sadly true the main properties of honey are degraded due to heating and processing of honey. Honey contains enzymes like invertase and diastase which helps to break down sugar and aid in digestion. It also contains enzyme glucose oxidase which has antibacterial and antiviral properties. It produces hydrogen peroxide which can act as a good disinfectant.
Antioxidant Properties
Honey has a wide range of antioxidants present in it. These substances are capable of neutralizing the effect of free radicals. Antioxidants also act against cellular damage and also help to prevent any kind of chronic disease.
Honey also contains polyphenols which are said to be an anticancer agent which gets destroyed during heating. Polyphenols also are a good class of anti-inflammatory agent.
Therefore, it is necessary to consume only the raw honey which is not processed and deprived of all the essential nutrients which we actually need and not the sugar part which we can consume by taking white sugar. So be careful when you buy honey, choose the raw ones and do not go for branded honey.
