Honey is a sweet, natural food that’s provided to us by bees. Not only does it taste amazing, but it’s also nutritious, rich in antioxidants and is a good alternative sweetener to highly processed sugars.

The problem, however, is that golden honey goes through a pasteurisation process that depletes the nutritional value and other health benefits contained in raw honey. Here’s why you should choose raw honey over golden processed honey.

The benefits of natural, raw honey:

Raw honey can best be described as honey “as it exists in the beehive”. It is cold extracted and unpasturised to retain the beneficial enzymes, nutrients and antioxidants found in bee pollen that can help support your immune system.

On the other hand, the golden honey you find on most store shelves is produced in a much more complicated way. It goes through both pasteurisation and filtration before bottling, as well as the dietary antioxidants and anti-inflammatory effects that are present in raw honey.

Pasteurisation: What makes golden honey different?

So how does the pasteurisation process work – and why is it so detrimental to the end product? To remove its natural aromas, yeasts and enzymes, regular honey undergoes a process where the manufacturers heat up the honey to at least 70°C and then cool it down very quickly. This is done to make the honey look more attractive, clear, and as close to perfect as possible! The honey effectively becomes more fluid and turns transparent, which ends up making the pasteurised honey easier to filter and gives it a longer shelf life.

However, while it may make the honey more attractive to the average shopper, pasteurisation ends up removing nutrients and vital properties such as pollen that add significant health benefits.

Why raw honey is better for your health

Because raw honey contains natural bee pollen, the lack of pasteurisation means the honey keeps all its anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties.

Raw honey also contains small amounts of vitamins and minerals to support overall good health, including:

• Niacin
• Riboflavin
• Pantothenic acid
• Calcium
• Magnesium
• Manganese
• Potassium
• Phosphorus
• Zinc

For kids, small doses of raw honey can help your child’s digestion. It offers soothing effects that can be used to treat mild diarrhoea. It can also help relieve coughs when traditional cough medicine isn’t available – especially for younger children. Please note that raw honey is not suitable for children under 1.

How to use raw honey in your diet

So, what are the best ways to use raw honey in your diet? The number-one rule is that you can’t heat it up – as that will destroy all the health benefits mentioned above. But that doesn’t mean you can’t play around with raw honey in lots of different recipes. From salad dressings to lemonade and everything in between (even avo toast!), here are some suggestions:

• Easy 5-minute hummus
• Roasted pumpkin and asparagus salad
• Mango and peach smoothie
• Honey ginger-lime porridge

Explore our wide range of Meluka raw honey products and experience firsthand its added benefits. You can also get healthy ideas at our blog, and find tasty recipes for ongoing health and wellness.