Honey: Health Benefits of the Golden Liquid

Honey is a sweet food, which is healthier than table sugars. It is a natural sugar made by honeybees using nectar from the flowers. Cave paintings suggest human beings collected honey from honeycombs roughly 8000 years ago and the goodness of honey has been known and used in food and as medicine for at least 4000 years.

Honey is loaded with powerful antioxidants with antiseptic and antibacterial properties. It is not just to spread on bread toasts in the morning breakfast. Apart from its nutritive food value, honey is extensively used for its medicinal properties in alternate medicine. Studies about honey have revealed that honey has powerful anti-bacterial activity on a wide span of bacteria. The low water content and the osmotic property make honey an excellent anti-bacterial natural product.

The nutritive values of honey are as follows:

Constituents	Nutritional value per 100g
Energy	304 kilo Calories
Carbohydrates	82.4 grams
Sugars	82.12 grams
Dietary fibers	0.2 grams
Fat	0 grams
Proteins	0.3 grams
Riboflavin (Vitamin B2)	0.038 milligrams
Niacin (Vitamin B3)	0.024 milligram
Folate (Vitamin B9)	2 microgram
Vitamin C	0.5 milligram

Minerals present in honey are:

Minerals	Amount in per 339 grams (1 cup)
Calcium	20.3 milligrams
Iron	1.4 milligrams
Magnesium	6.8 milligrams
Phosphorus	13.6 milligrams
Potassium	176 milligrams
Sodium	13.6 milligrams
Zinc	0.7 milligrams
Copper	0.1 milligrams
Manganese	0.3 milligrams
Selenium	2.7 micrograms
Fluoride	23.7 micrograms

Honey is known for various amazing benefits. It has been widely used in a variety of products from sweet confectioneries to cosmetics.

Some of the benefits of honey are mentioned below:

1. Honey and Cinnamon: A Perfect Combination

Honey and cinnamon have been curing many diseases and infections since ancient times. Traditional societies have mixed honey and cinnamon from time immemorial to cure people from common cold, sore throat and skin infections. This practice is still followed by alternate medicine practitioners who use it to cure infertility in men and women. The combination of honey and cinnamon cures arthritis pain, cholesterol, hair fall and gastric problems. It also clears stomach ulcers and helps digest the heaviest meals. The most common use of honey and cinnamon is to cure cold and sore throat. Studies show that applying honey and cinnamon on your skin cures pimples and acne.

2. Honey and Immunity

Studies show that honey is an excellent remedy for improving your immunity against allergies and asthma. Honey contains floral flavonoids. When the honey is ingested, they immediately increase the antioxidant levels within the cells of the body and decrease the capillary permeability and fragility. Honey has also shown anti-cancer and anti-tumor properties preventing the risks of cancer in humans. Research by students at the Xavier University in New Orleans showed positive result of local honey and its allergy curing properties. The results say that honey acts as a vaccine for those who are allergic to pollen grains. Honey contains the same kind of pollen grains that cause this allergy. By consuming honey, we make the body accustomed to these pollen grains decrease the chance of the immune response to them like release of histamines. Local honey is said to be the best kind against allergies.

3. Honey and Stamina

Honey helps build stamina in athletes. When athletes take honey drinks before and after important athletic events, it replaces all the carbohydrates and minerals spent during the workout or in extreme conditions. While we are going through workouts, our body sweats and we lose minerals. Honey contains a good amount of all the important minerals and replaces them in the body. It is like an energy drink for the sportsmen and athletes and helps them in muscle building.

4. Honey and Weight Loss

Honey is a natural sweetener that contains 22 amino acids including a variety of minerals, which are important for metabolism and therefore helpful in preventing obesity. Lemon juice with a little honey early morning is believed to be the effective anti-cellulite treatment. This is an effective remedy to speed up shedding pounds from your body. Again, honey and cinnamon is another powerful remedy for effective weight loss. For people who love binge eating, honey can be taken as an effective remedy for digestion later on.

5. Honey and Cosmetics

Honey is widely used in many types of cosmetics like lip balm, face creams and shower gels. The reason behind this is because honey does not spoil due to its high sugar content. It has 50% more density than water. The osmotic property of honey attributes to its anti-bacterial property. Honey is a thick liquid that acts as a perfect skin and hair conditioner. It brings smoothness to the skin and hair. Hence, is used in cosmetics and shampoos.

6. Honey and Antiseptic Properties

Generally in hospitals, doctors prefer Hydrogen peroxide to clean wounds so they heal quickly. The same chemical is present in honey in very good amounts. It is released by diluting honey in water or body fluids. When it is applied on the open wounds, especially burn wounds, the glucose present in honey dilutes gradually releasing Hydrogen peroxide. And due to its viscous constituency, honey prevents wounds from sticking to the dressing and there are little or no scars after healing.

Food safety, hygiene in dairy industry theme of Ecolab's Anand conference

Ecolab, in association with Vidya Dairy, organised a conference on the importance of food safety and hygiene in the dairy industry in Anand, Gujarat. The conference had personalities from the industry and Ecolab to share their views on the topic. The chief guest for the conference was Rahul Srivastava, managing director, Amul Dairy.

The welcome presentation was delivered by Ron Pringle, general manager and vice-president, Ecolab India. He said, “This is the beginning of a platform for new ideas and experiences to be shared with each other, and this conference will create an open platform where dairy industry members can come together and share their views on food safety and hygiene in the dairy industry. We have an exciting day ahead and speakers with good amount of experience in this field.”

In his presentation titled, 'Food safety and hygiene in dairy industry', Srivastava said, “I would like to congratulate Ecolab and Vidya Dairy for organising this conference. Food safety and hygiene is the heart of the dairy industry. Indian dairy is unique in the world. Currently, India produces roughly 121 million metric tonnes of dairy products. There are about 90 million farmers in the dairy business, and 30 million cattle. About 28-29 per cent of milk is processed in India; 50 per cent of it is processed by the co-operative organisations, and the rest by private players.”

Sham Chaudhary, former general manager (quality), Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), spoke about hygiene and food safety concerns in a dairy plant and good manufacturing practices (GMP) in the dairy industry. He also commented on the hygienic conditions of urinals and toilets in the dairy plants, saying that the urinals and toilets are most neglected areas in offices, factories, public places, etc. in India.

“Functioning urinals and toilets should be free from leakages and there should not be rusted plumbing. They should have working high-capacity exhaust fans with covering nets, which should be free from dust and dirt to remove the odour. And there should be a proper dustbin and toilet cabins should not be locked,” he said.

B P Rao, general manager, GEA India, spoke on the significance of cleaning solutions from an equipment perspective. He described the water consumption pattern for a typical milk plant, stating that about 27 per cent of the steam is used in processing, and 73 per cent steam is used in cleaning.

He also said, “Good manufacturing depends on various points like – (a) conventional (viz. man, machine and material); and (b) the need of the day, which includes hygiene efficiency, environment, cleanability, etc.”

Peter Gatchell, technical specialist, dairy, Ecolab New Zealand, spoke about the company's best practices in the dairy industry, and the operational efficiencies and CIP in dairy industry.

He commented on the prevalent trends in the dairy industry, and highlighted the need for increased productivity; higher milk volume; longer run time, and reduced CIP cycle time.

Albert Lee, application manager, Ecolab Asia, spoke on improving productivity and operational efficiency with sustainable cleaning and sanitation programs.

A sustainable future

Being sustainable is inevitable, but it is important to minimise energy, water and detergent, and strive to improve productivity. Lee also mentioned reducing the use of energy water and chemicals.

Anil Kumawat, business manager, Ecolab India, made a presentation on making difference with specialty hygiene solutions. Vivek Nair, industry technical consultant, NALCO (an Ecolab company), spoke about the water-related challenges in the dairy industry, in which he mentioned about product quality, operational efficiency and sustainability.

Camps for issuing licences to food traders from tomorrow

Amritsar, July 1
The Health Department has planned to organise camps at various markets in the city to register and issue licences to food traders under the Food Safety and Standard Act. The first camp in the series would be organised at Majith Mandi on Tuesday, said district health officer Ashwani Sondhi.
Sondhi said the department would be accompanied by bank officials so that all the formalities in registering and issuing licences were completed on the spot. The department had earlier created awareness among traders through meetings and advertisements, but despite all efforts, only around 400 traders responded to the repeated calls.
“We have divided the city into five parts. In the first series, we will hold one camp in each part. Later, we will also organise camps at the sub-division and block levels in the rural areas,” said Sondhi, adding that the camps would be helpful in bringing more traders under the ambit of law.
The Food Safety and Standards Act, which came into force earlier this year, had so far failed to draw any big response. Even the government had to extend the deadline once in order to give a chance to traders to respond. As per the guidelines issued by the state government, businesses with a turnover of less than Rs 12 lakh were required to get themselves registered with the office of the district health officer, while those with a turnover above the limit were required to obtain a licence.
The guidelines were also binding on those engaged in activities related to manufacture, processing, packaging, storage, transportation, distribution, import and even catering. Further, temporary stalls and “karyana” stores selling food ingredients were required to register themselves, said Sondhi.
Officials of the Health Department had claimed that the procedure would help them keep an eye on food sellers and manufacturers to ensure good health of residents. The instructions are issued under the Food Safety and Standards Act — 2006 which became operational in the state after August 8, 2011.