In message <[log in to unmask]>, Peter
Borst <[log in to unmask]> writes
>Honey is often heated to kill yeast that may cause it to ferment.

It should not ferment with the correct water content - as the bees seal
it.

> But no one has presented the reasons why we should
>be concerned about these enzymes.

It matters not to me that anyone can give a reason. OK, so hydrogen
peroxide is one result from enzyme action, presumably one of the ways
honey keeps sterile. There may well be more obvious beneficial
properties. However, a lack of knowledge or understanding should not
prevent anyone insisting on as natural a food as possible. We do too
many things with inadequate knowledge and cause damage which may be
recognised decades later, when understanding may have been acquired
after trying to get to grips with some environmental or other problem.
For example, there was huge publicity about deaths which seemed to
follow olive oil sales in Spain and France, which were attributed to the
oil. Later, it was discovered that tomatoes grown in Portugal were
contaminated with organo-phosphate insecticides, determined as the cause
of death. Of course olive oil was sold with tomatoes for salad dressing
in the markets, hence the association. Less publicity was given to the
finding, which is very significant in my opinion. And we still use the
stuff!

Unfortunately the reductionist way we describe food values by energy or
fat content or whatever leaves out everything important in my view. So,
lets not think something may not be valuable just because we cannot
prove it. My local farmer still thinks putting cow manure on grass is
less valuable than chemical fertiliser as there is so little nitrogen in
it. As a proponent (and customer) of organic produce, I see animal
manure (composted) as feeding and building the soil. After all, soil and
plants evolved together.

I say leave honey alone. Keep it as close to natural, raw or whatever.
Minimize any processing.

Another interesting thing. I gather that American doctors routinely
prescribe glyco-nutrients before any chemotherapy. These are complex
sugars found in sun-ripened fruit and freshly picked vegetables. Most
people's diets have fruit picked a long time before, ripened
artificially, often having travelled half way across the planet.
Vegetables are rarely fresh, though you can often buy things a couple of
days old or slightly less. My homeopath sees them as the missing link in
their treatments, revolutionising the way he helps his clients.

>(It is most certainly a moot point whether or not to heat
>honey if it is going to be put into anything cooked --like cakes or bread.)

Which is why the European Union rules about honey labelling includes
cooking honey - effectively anything not allowed under any other label,
and includes heated honey.
--
James Kilty