Honey Information

Tom does consulting on allergies and landscaping for, among others, the USDA urban foresters, the American Lung Association, for county asthma coalitions, landscape, nursery and arborists¹ associations. He writes; as one who makes his living by writing about allergies and asthma I am often asked about the potential health benefits of using “local” honey.

Unprocessed honey contains bits and pieces of pollen and honey, and as an immune system booster, it is quite powerful. I have often in talks and articles, and in my books, advocated using “local” honey. An example: if you lived in a southern area where bottlebrush trees were frequently used in the landscapes or perhaps you had a bottlebrush tree growing in your own yard, your odds of over-exposure to this tree’s tiny, triangular, and potently very allergenic pollen is greatly enhanced. This specie of plant is what we call amphipilous, meaning they are pollinated by both insects and by the wind. Honeybees will collect pollen from each of these species and it will be present in small amounts in honey that was gathered by bees that were working areas where these species are growing. When people living in these same areas eat honey that was produced in that environment, the honey will often act as an immune booster. The good effects of this “local” honey are best when the honey is taken a little bit (a couple of teaspoons-full) a day for several months prior to the pollen season. It may seem odd that straight exposure to pollen often triggers allergies but that exposure to pollen in the honey usually has the opposite effect. But this is typically what we see. In honey the allergens are delivered in small, manageable doses and the effect over time is very much like that from undergoing a whole series of allergy immunology injections. The major difference though is that the honey is a lot easier to take and it is certainly a lot less expensive. I am always surprised that this powerful health benefit of “local” honey is not more widely understood, as it is simple, easy, and often surprisingly effective.

Eden’s Nectar bottles its’ honey the way the beekeeper removes it from the hive. Because the beekeepers are a vital part of Florida’s agricultural process, the beekeeper here in Central Florida move their hives around to pollinate crops like strawberries, blueberries (winter), citrus (spring), watermelons (summer) and numerous other produce products. Due to this operational process the beekeeper harvests the honey from the hives after each pollination season, which creates “Seasonal Honey”.

Most honeys are blended honeys and have been cooked (pasteurized) not for health reasons, but so the honey will flow faster and speed up the bottling process, which destroys the live enzymes in honey. As you can see from the articles above, not only does “local” honey greatly benefit you, but, now you can know the season it was harvested to receive the beneficial knowledge of the types of pollen and nectar the bees were gathering and integrating to make our honey. We at Eden’s Nectar have heard of result after result of people not needing antihistamines and other medications associated with allergic reactions created by airborne pollen simply by eating “local” honey. Basically, whatever Florida’s mild climate grows the bees use it to make our honey. If that isn’t enough to convince you to use Eden’s Nectar, the taste will, with each season comes a unique taste that can never be reproduced due to the difference in annual nectar flows that honey is made from. It makes sense that if flowers smell different why wouldn’t their nectar taste different? Also, bees can produce honey that isn’t very tasty and that is why we have a “taster” (with 25 years of experience), taste our honey before bringing it to our bottling facility.

See what we mean when we say…
“Eden’s Nectar is making good health sweet”