Mad honey sex: what's in honey, besides honey?

Rhododendron ponticum
First Light at en.wikipedia (CC-BY-SA-3.0)

January 18, 2010

In June 2009, researchers published findings that described "mad honey" poisoning in Turkey.  A prolific species of Rhododendron in the Baltic area creates nectar that contains a toxin.  Honey bees convert the nectar to honey, which also contains the toxin.  The "mad honey" is then harvested by beekeepers and sold as a form of alternative medicine.  The researchers then hypothesized that men aged 41 to 60 tend to use the "mad honey" to treat sexual dysfunction.

The scintillating title of the paper caught the eye of Reuters, and major organizations such as ABC and Fox picked up the story -- despite the fact that mad honey is not made in the US.  While rhododendrons do grow in North America, honey bees generally avoid those plants.  Local beekeepers never see a honey bee working rhododendron flowers.

The study highlighted the fact that chemicals made in plant nectar can end up, unadulterated, in the honey bear.   What do bees put in honey, and what can end up in honey because of the bees' labors?

Photo by Waussberg

The Good

Sugar, water, nutrients and flavor:  Honey bees favor plants that have a fairly shallow flower, with a nectar content that is about 35% sugar.  They reduce the water content in the hive to under 18%; the honey you eat contains about 85% sugar - fructose and sucrose, for the most part.  The distinctive flavors and colors that define honey varieties comes from nectar.  Honey also contains trace vitamins and minerals.

Pollen: As bees gather nectar, they pick up pollen on their legs.  When they return to the hive, and walk over the honeycomb, some of the pollen ends up in the honey.  Pollen is an integral component of honey.  According to the Codex global standard for honey, "no pollen or constituent particular to honey may be removed except where this is unavoidable".  Many people claim that eating honey produced locally can help allergy sufferers.  Eating the miniscule amounts of pollen in honey will, the theory goes, desensitize your body to the local flower pollens.  Desensitization does work for some allergies, peanut allergies for example, but the pollen/honey connection has yet to be clinically tested.

Antioxidants:  Honey contains antioxidants, the amounts of which vary by flower source.  The rule of thumb is the darker the honey the richer it is in antioxidants.  Antioxidants are currently thought to purge elements in the body, which may be linked to various cardiac ailments and cancer. 

Clostridium botulinum
Center for Disease Control
Public health image library #2107

The Bad

Clostridum:  This bacteria, common in soil and water, can cause botulism.  Honey can contain botulism spores, but in various studies, between 80-90% of the honey tested was found to be botulism-free. Since infants are particularly susceptible to botulism infection, the Center for Disease Control advises that infants avoid honey.

The Ugly

Pesticides: Bees may forage on plants that have been sprayed with insecticides.  If the chemicals don't kill bees, the pesticides can end up in the honey.  While alarming on this surface, USDA testing for honey contaminants found only micrograms of pesticides -- amounts far, far lower than the Environmental Protection Agency considers a risk.

Hive treatments:  Beekeepers may treat their hives with chemicals and antibiotics designed to fend off diseases and keep their hives healthy.  If done properly, the honey will remain uncontaminated.  As found in a Seattle Post-Intelligencer report, if not done properly antibiotics can contaminate the honey. 

It's important to remember that with all of the things that can be in honey, the one thing you will find in honey is just honey:  sugar, water, nutrients and pollen.  If contaminants are a concern, buy your honey  locally, and talk to the beekeeper about his or her beekeeping practices.