The issue with honey isn't exactly that it is bee spit. And while it is a sugar - an extremely acidic component that any alkaline striving individual strives to avoid because sugar in ALL forms ferments red blood cells, ferments tissue, feeds cancerous cells and tissues, propagates mold and rot in the body, feeds yeast (another destructive item that should always be avoided), and contributes to any overall acidic condition - that isn't my primary problem with it, either. The issue with honey is the pathogen content. Bacteriostatic or not, honey is packed full of disease causing pathogens at 150,000 pathogens per gram (or 12,712,500 pathogens per 1/4 cup) of honey!
What do people use honey for? Well, almost anything from sore throats, to weight loss, but 3 major uses according to one source include energy, immune system booster, and anti-cancer benefits.
I think if we take a closer look at the last 3, the rest will also become clear... It is easy to understand why honey, just as any other sugar, would give a surge of energy, but I don't think we will be too easily fooled that consuming sugar for energy, even if it is honey, will solve our fatigue issues. Immune system booster: this is deceiving. Many foods considered immune boosters are wildly misunderstood. When errant "old biology" looks at the blood after consuming a food that results in increased white blood cell formation, it takes that to mean that the increase in white blood cells is a benefit resulting from eating the food. It is definitely a result of eating the food, but not because the food gave a healthy boost to our immune system. IT IS BECAUSE THE FOOD EATEN WAS SO FILTHY THE BODY NEEDED TO MAKE AN AMPLE AMOUNT OF WHITE BLOOD CELLS TO CLEAN UP THE MESS! I have heard it said about eggs, too. After the initial eye roll and palm to forehead, now my body just automatically goes into a hung head shake. Along with the need to clean up the rot as the sugar in honey ferments the cells, the 150,000 pathogens per gram of honey there is a load to clean up before it can even start with the aftermath. Sure, everything has pathogens, but compare whole vegan foods including veggies, fruits, legumes, nuts, seeds, and sprouted grains which average 10 pathogens per gram. An entire meal of raw such whole foods caps off at around 500 pathogens. Just an added note, 1 egg contains about 37,500,000 pathogens.
As for the anti-cancer claims...this is also misconstrued. The claim is actually that the antioxidants found in honey are anti-cancer, and therefore by reason the honey must be also. Any antioxidants found in honey are in trace amounts and would by no means combat the sugar content that feeds cancerous cells or the pathogen content forcing the body to work hard to clean up the mess.
Any claim that honey-pushers boast can be more quickly accomplished by true alkalizing. But what, you might ask, sugar CAN I use if even the health boasting natural honey is so bad? So, what sugar do I use when I do use sugar? Well, not agave. According to Dr. Young (and many others) agave is a neurotoxin and in a personal conversation with me he also said it was a toss-up as to which was worse: agave or white sugar! Stevia is a good option, raw unrefined coconut sugar and coconut nectar are nice options, and I also use dates and/or maple syrup when I am using a sugar. I am by no means recommending that these are alkaline to use, and especially not saying that we can add them to the use freely list of foods, but when I do use sugar, these are the ones I choose.
Here is an indulgent sweet treat that I developed this week as a vegan alternative "dressing" for Waldorf Salad: Simple Cinnamon Yogurt. And with it comes a clue for my next Harmful Remedies post. This 5 ingredient "yogurt" is a super fast and non-fermented version of yogurt with cinnamon as the star. It also just so happens that cinnamon actually does have health benefitting properties including that it helps buffer the acid sugar, not to mention it is delicious!