Honey Honey is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees (the genus Apis) is the one most commonly referred to and is the type of honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans. Honey produced by other bees and insects has distinctly different properties.

PROPERTIES Honey bees transform nectar into honey by a process of regurgitation, and store it as a primary food source in wax honeycombs inside the beehive. Beekeeping practices encourage overproduction of honey so the excess can be taken from the colony. Honey gets its sweetness from the monosaccharides fructose and glucose, and has approximately the same relative sweetness as that of granulated sugar.12 It has attractive chemical properties for baking, and a distinctive flavor that leads some people to prefer it over sugar and other sweeteners.1 Most microorganisms do not grow in honey because of its low water activity of 0.6.3 However, honey sometimes contains dormant endospores of the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, which can be dangerous to infants, as the endospores can transform into toxin-producing bacter in the infant's immature intestinal tract, leading to illness and even death

BENEFITS The fact is, honey is far better than what most people perceive. Researchers are turning up more and more new evidence of honey's medical benefits in all directions. The benefits of honey don't just stop at satisfying the palate; honey also offers incredible antiseptic, antioxidant and cleansing properties for our body and health, hot beauty and skin care tips for ladies, and amazing healing properties as a head-to-toe remedy, from eye conjunctivitis to athlete foot. Its powerful healing attributes have long been used thousands of years ago and known to promote healing for cuts, cure ailments and diseases, and correct health disorders for generations after generations. This honey not only fights infection and aids tissue healing but also helps reduce inflammation and scarring. In addition, it is often used for treating digestive problems such as diarrhea, indigestion, stomach ulcers and gastroenteritis.

DANGERS Heavy metals The Food Standards Agency in the UK routinely measures and monitors the levels of heavy metals found in foods, and discovered varying amounts of aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, copper, iron, lead, manganese and zinc in honey and other food samples. The agency has established limits for how much heavy metal is allowed to be in honey before it is considered unsafe, and an FSA report, published in 2007, established that the levels of heavy metals found in honey did not exceed what is allowed by law, and so the honey is still considered safe to eat. Pesticides Bees collect pollen from flowers to make honey, and many flowers are treated with fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, whose chemicals can be found in the pollen

INFANT BOTULISM Infant botulism is a very dangerous condition. Botulinum spores are bacteria that can be found in dust and mold, and sometimes on unwashed fruit and vegetables. They can also be found in honey. Infants are particularly susceptible to the dangerous properties of these bacteria, and if they get some into their systems, the results can be deadly. The intestinal tracts of babies are immature. Once botulinum spores enter their systems, they can produce a substance called botulinus toxin. After release, this toxin is absorbed into the blood stream through the intestinal tract. Babies are at risk for the first year of their lives, but seem to be particularly susceptible between 2 and 4 months. If adults ingest these spores, once in the intestinal tract, the normally existing bacterium that is present can take care of the spores and not allow them to proliferate.

Maria Laura Novembre Francesca Calabre IV C a. s Maria Laura Novembre Francesca Calabre IV C a.s. 2011/2012 PON di SCIENZE in INGLESE