...we did a market in the parking lot of a large kitchen that provides meals on wheels type of services for over 1000 meals a day... many medically necessary dietary restrictions to accommodate.

I asked one of the managers if they ever used honey in the kitchen.  The response was that they could only use pasteurized honey.  Many of the clients require meals that have no live cultures, and as raw honey certainly contains yeasts and molds (if you don't think it does, dilute it with sterile water and see what happens), they could not use it for many of their clients, and therefore don't use it in the kitchen.

Remember that even table sugar diluted with 17% water is hygroscopic, which is responsible for many of the properties we associate with honey as a topical medical treatment (dehydrates microbes via osmosis, drawn moisture from healthy or injured skin, keeps the wound moist).

The medical industry requires a uniform product with known components (this is one of the major objections to medical marijuana, that the product is inconsistent in what it contains in what quantities).

Certainly pasturizing the honey denatures enzymes and kills any microbes.  I'd bet a pretty penny that raw honey is more effective topically...but I'd also be willing to believe that in some situations the microbial cultures (and/or spores) could cause problems.

If I were to formulate an analogy, it might be like the relationship of meditation to medicine...no doubt it can be helpful, but the meditation you learn from the medical community is likely to be a sanitized version of what you might learn in any of the eastern traditions...useful, acceptable to most western worldviews, but lacking the rich culture.

WRT the poop inoculation (which I've mentioned before on the list), one of the issues is that stomach acids will kill the microbes before they get to the colon and intestines.  It is necessary to put a tube past the stomach in order to inoculate successfully (too many twists and turns to go from the other end).

deknow

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