The medicinal and beneficial qualities of honey depend on many factors: storage temperature, nectar collection period, weather conditions, type of honey plants, nuances of consuming the delicacy. Many lovers of sweet products are interested in the question: can honey be poured with boiling water? Experts recommend using a slightly warmed product for medicinal and cosmetic purposes.
The benefits of hot honey
The delicacy contains more than 300 useful elements (vitamins, minerals, amino acids, essential oils).The set of substances is determined by the type of honey plants from which the bees collected nectar and pollen, and the location of the apiary.
The delicacy is an important element of traditional medicine because it helps treat a number of diseases:
- insomnia;
- weakened immune system;
- disorders of the nervous system;
- colds and inflammation of the nasopharynx;
- dysfunction of the gastrointestinal tract;
- dysfunction of the cardiovascular system.
To ensure a healing effect, the sweetness is dissolved in warm water or tea or any drink. Slightly warmed honey is also used to prepare masks and wraps. The sweet product penetrates the pores of the skin, retaining moisture on the surface while cleansing and nourishing.
Thanks to warm honey masks, the skin takes on a fresh look, its elasticity is restored, and fine wrinkles are smoothed out.
The cosmetic rejuvenating effect is especially effective on pale, aging skin. Of course, in order to preserve maximum active substances, nectar is not diluted with boiling water.
Harm and possible danger
There is an opinion that honey should not be heated too much, since this creates hydroxymethylfurfural (an intermediate product of the chemical decomposition of sugars). For the same reason, it is not recommended to dilute sweets with boiling water. The substance is a carcinogen, its content in heated honey is insignificant, but there is a possibility of its accumulation in the human body with regular consumption of hot tea with the addition of a natural product. Therefore, it is advisable to put the treat in a warm drink.
The higher its content, the lower the medicinal properties of the delicacy. There are no uniform standards for the amount of substance in a natural product (according to Russian GOSTs - 25 mg/kg, according to European requirements - 40 mg/kg). Increased content means a violation of the technologies for processing, packaging or storing nectar. Naturally, it is useless to drink drinks with such honey for medicinal purposes.
To what temperature can honey be heated?
Thanks to special studies, it was found that the product heated to 45-55 ° C retains its beneficial qualities. In order for a sweet drink to exhibit medicinal qualities, it is important to prepare it correctly:
- to prepare a health product, it is advisable to choose well-soluble varieties of delicacy (sunflower, rapeseed);
- Before adding sweetness, it is recommended to cool the hot liquid (tea, herbal infusion, water, milk) to a temperature of 40-50 °C.
When preparing a medicinal drink, it is important to maintain a sense of proportion. Add no more than 1-1.5 teaspoons of honey to the liquid.
When does a product lose its beneficial properties?
The enzyme diastase (amylase), which is part of honey, helps break down starch and digest food, accelerating the process of its absorption. An indicator of the naturalness and quality of nectar is the diastase number. It is this parameter that is taken into account when assessing the naturalness of a sweet product. It is believed that the diastase number of nectar without impurities is at least 8 units. During the research, it was found that this indicator is significantly influenced by temperature:
- amylase is completely destroyed in 1-1.5 hours when honey is heated to 75-80 ° C;
- rapid destruction is also observed when the sweetness temperature increases to 45-50 °C;
- in about a year and a half, amylase is destroyed when the sweet product is heated to a temperature of 25 ° C;
- the diastase number parameter does not change for 4.5-5 years if the delicacy is stored at a temperature of 15-20 °C.
Nectar can retain beneficial and medicinal qualities for a long period if the correct storage conditions are observed (glass/ceramic containers, protection from sunlight, the container is hermetically sealed). Of course, in order for the therapeutic effect of the biologically active elements of honey to manifest itself, sweetness is added to the drink warm or hot (heated to 40-45 ° C).
The beneficial qualities of honey are beyond doubt. However, like any product, it requires compliance with the rules of storage and use. There is no consensus at what temperature the delicacy loses its medicinal properties. But it is definitely not recommended to add it to boiling water.
