Healthfulness of Honey
Before the manufacture of great quantities of sugar a larger amount of honey was used per capita than is used now. The necessary introduction of honey as a substitute for sugar has just recently again called general attention to its healthfulness and the lesson is not likely soon to be forgotten. Because it is predigested and readily assimilable, physicians recommend it as a food for persons with delicate stomachs, for those troubled with kidney complaint, and for those subject to constipation, since honey is laxative in effect.
The average amount of sugar consumed annually for every man, woman, and child is about 80 pounds, and this sugar can not be assimilated without change in the stomach, an action not necessary with honey. It can readily be understood that the population might be benefited by substituting honey for some of the sugar consumed. When the stomach fails to do its work in modifying the sugar, the eliminating organs, the kidneys especially, are severely taxed. A noted physician, now 84 years old, eats honey instead of sugar, believing it will prolong his life and give him better health while living. He says that it is well authenticated that, as our natural craving indicates, sweets are a real need of the system, but that the excessive use of sugar brings in its train a long list of ills. He asserts also that the health of the present generation, if honey could be at least partially restored to its former place, would be greatly improved.
Prof. Cook, of California, says: “Physicians may be correct in asserting that the large consumption of sugar is a menace to health and long life, and that by eating honey our digestive machinery saves work that it would have to perform if we ate sugar and in case it is overtaxed and feeble, this may be just the respite that will save it from a breakdown.” Switzerland produces large quantities of honey, but the demand for it is so great that the price has advanced and the Government has been compelled to fix it. Although we may infer that the Swiss themselves are a great honey-eating people, Dr. Emfeld, of Geneva, seems to think that they might well eat more of this sweet. “If people would eat more honey,” he says, “we doctors would starve.”
Honey has many medicinal qualities, and is used in nearly all cough sirups, cold preparations, and compounded in many other medicines where delicate flavor, absolute purity, and sweetness insure results not to be obtained by the use of any substitute.
While commonly used in its natural state as a spread on hot bread and cakes, honey may be employed in cooking wherever sugar may be used. The same beneficial effect upon health will follow as a result from its use in the natural state. Foods prepared with it are better and will remain in fresh condition longer than if prepared with sugar or sirup. Bread and cakes prepared with honey will not dry out as with sugar, because honey attracts moisture. It has long been employed in the household in general cooking, as well as in canning and in the baking of many desirable kinds of bread, and numerous varieties of cakes, gems, snaps, and cookies. When used in sweetening tea and coffee it does not cause any loss of aroma. Its recent substitution for sugar is causing it again to be employed in making pies, puddings, and sauces. Confectioners use honey freely, and might well use it more freely than they do in making honey nuts, candies, creams, butter scotch, and popcorn balls.
In Turkey, a great honey-producing country, where bee culture is scientifically followed with the noted oriental strains of bees, a popular sweet, known as rose honey marmalade, is manufactured. It is made from the leaves of roses and honey and combines the exquisite perfume of the former with the delightful flavor of the latter in an unusual product of the nature and texture of a marmalade due to incorporating the rose petals with the honey.