I wanted to create a series of blog posts about foods that are so highly beneficial, they should be integrated into most every diet. I think bee products are a strong consideration for everything except a low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet. I typically advocate for what a call a seasonal-paleo diet, which is low carbohydrate and ketogenic in the winter, and moderate carbohydrate (think potatoes, fruit and honey) in the summer. Specifically I think carbohydrate intake should be dictated by levels of both sunlight exposure and physical activity, assuming you aren’t dealing with metabolic dysfunction; more than 20 lbs overweight, diabetes, etc.
So, if you are getting sun & exercising, and are in reasonable shape, some bee products could and perhaps should be integrated into your diet. Manuka Honey, Propolis, Royal Jelly and Bee Pollen seem to have some serious benefits to consider.
Manuka honey has effectively inhibited all bacterial pathogens it’s been tested against.
And the list isn’t small. It’s been tested in vitro against over sixty known pathogenic bacteria, including C. Difficile, Salmonella, Staphylococcus, MRSA, and Streptococcus. Based on my reading of the research, it seems to me that the sweet spot for killing pathogens seems to be manuka honey rated at UMF 10+, though if this is a serious consideration for you, the higher the UMF the better. 10+ seems to be effective against most, and would be great for day-to-day use. A UMF of 15+ or 20+ would be more appropriate for specific therapeutic uses.
Normal honey does have some anti-bacterial qualities due to the hydrogen peroxide content present. Manuka has all that, plus a compound called methylglyoxal, which is uniquely abundant in manuka honey on account of nectar from the manuka flower. Methylglyoxal seems to be the key component that gives manuka honey specifically some of it’s great benefits. Commercially available manuka is rated on a scale based on how much methylglyoxal is present, that’s what the UMF rating of manuka refers to.
Manuka honey can disperse and kill bacteria living in biofilms.
Biofilms are another way of saying mucous membranes. Pathogens living in mucosal membranes are typically difficult to disrupt, as they’re somewhat sheltered from any kind of intervention. This can mean persistent, non-resolving infections. Manuka can not only penetrate the mucous membrane to go after pathogens there, it has also been shown to prevent biofilm formation in the first place, from strep and staph infections, E. Coli, and pneumonia. For this reason, Manuka may help internally to deal with conditions of mild dysbiosis, and generally speaking, keep bad bacteria from getting out of control. Contrast this with SUGAR, which tends to feed the kind of bacteria we don’t want in our guts.
To that point, a 2010 study out of a periodontics research center in India compared the cavity and plaque fighting capacity of Manuka honey, Xylitol and chlorhexidine gluconate (a typical active ingredient in mouthwash). Manuka honey was found to be on-par with chlorhexidine gluconate and superior to Xylitol. The significance of this is that even xylitol is quite effective. So for a sugary substance like manuka honey to be superior to xylitol in this regard can only mean that it’s ability to kill the harmful pathogens that cause cavities and plaque is not only very impressive, but significantly outweighs the degree to which the sugars cause the bacteria to thrive.
Manuka Honey may help with Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Animal studies have shown Manuka can improve antioxidant status and reduce intestinal inflammation in rats with IBS and ulcerative colitis. This would make sense if overall manuka is able to improve the status of the microbiome. A 2006 study out of the National Research Center in Egypt found that raw honey improved the intestinal microflora of mice. Numerous studies have shown manuka can help with gastric ulcers. So, it would follow that it may be very helpful for people with IBS. If you have IBS, you probably know that you can be very sensitive to changes in your microbiome, so approach cautiously. My point here is more that there is decent evidence that manuka can improve the status of the microbiome overall, in spite of it’s sugar content. This is a very important point, and again I would contrast this with refined sugar which seems to strongly shift the microbiome to an unfavorable composition. We have here a sweetener that seems to have net positive effects on the microbiome.
Gram for gram, honey seems to have a more favorable blood sugar and insulin response than sugar
A recent 2022 meta-analysis titled “Effect of honey on cardiometabolic risk factors: a systematic review and meta-analysis” looked at 33 different studies and found that “Overall, honey reduced fasting glucose, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, fasting triglycerides… and increased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. There were significant subgroup differences by floral source and by honey processing, with robinia honey, clover honey, and raw honey showing beneficial effects on fasting glucose and total cholesterol.” Indicating that high quality honey, especially raw honey, is likely a healthier choice than the average calorie.
