Dariusz ROZYCKI <[log in to unmask]>:
>Just how easy or difficult to digest is honey? Is it better to eat it
>after or before, say, fruit or RAF?

Tom:
Honey is mostly glucose, and is digested faster than any food - it goes into
the blood stream very quickly, within a minute or two when consumed alone.
You can eat it with fruit; the instinctos on the list might comment on
your RAF question (note that Aajonus recommends raw honey+unsalted butter
for many of his clients).

Dariusz ROZYCKI <[log in to unmask]>:
>Is it a bad sign as far as quality goes when one is able to purchase a
>whole variety of flavors of honey (wild flowers, fireweed, etc.) while
>knowing they are coming from the same manufacturer AND region?  Common
>sense dictates that honey should not have one specific flavor (unless
>artficially added) and should be a result of bees collecting from any
>mixture of flowers available in the region.

Tom:
No honey is ever 100% the (single type of) flower it is labelled as; the bees
decide which blossoms to visit, not the beekeeper. However, by placing the bees
in an area where a particular plant is abundant and in bloom, one gets honey
that is predominantly that flower. (The exceptions to this being those
flowers so small that bees collect only pollen from them, not nectar;
e.g. mango bloom.)

Plants don't all bloom at the same time. In the part of Florida I grew up
in, we had a number of blooms: citrus (orange blossom, grapefruit), brazilian
pepper, palmetto, gallberry, melaleuca, and clover, among others. By moving
the bees at the right time, one gets multiple blooms, and different types
of honey. Fortunately, the plants mentioned don't all bloom at the same
time...

Dariusz ROZYCKI <[log in to unmask]>:
>I recently tried some of the so-called "non-filtered" or "brut" honey.  It
>was more of a solid (creamy and whitish) texture than other
>varieties.  What is it exactly?  Is it closer to natural than the
>brownish, liquid varieties?

Tom:
Kirt discussed crystallized honey in a post some time ago. Search the archives,
in particular April-May 1997.

Dariusz ROZYCKI <[log in to unmask]>:
>I can hardly see how overeating on honey might be bad for you, given it
>is in a state that should be extremely easy to digest in any quantity.
>And perhaps it is true that overeating on honey is not easy to do or that
>the consequences aren't as bad as say overeating on fruit.

Tom:
Honey is so sweet, and sugar so seductive, that it is fairly easy to
overeat on it, in my opinion and experience.

Regards,
Tom Billings
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