Hartman B. Canon wrote:
> HEALTH RISK FROM HONEY?
>  In regard to the letter about heathful honey (SN: 7/12/97, p.19), cases of
> infant botulism caused by ingestion of 'Clostridium botulinum' present in raw
> honeywere reported in the MORBIDITY and MORTALITY WEEKLY REPORT several years
> ago. I have for years suspected that raw honey may also be responsible for cases
> of visceral larval migrans (canine and feline roundworm in tissues other than
> the skin) in children for whom no other mode of infection has been determined.
> Ted M. Reynolds
> Notasulga, ALA
> <<<UNQUOTE
>
> An editor's note followed the above:
> >>>QUOTE:
> Microbial contamination can indeed be a problem (the fungus that produces
> aflatoxin is a known culprit). Garon Smith was referring to trace metal
> contamination when he said that eating honey was safe.
> -C. Wu
> <<<UNQUOTE
>
> Well people, all my life I have been led to think that honey was just the BEST,
> PURIST, SAFEST, MOST HEALTHFUL thing you could eat. But when I picked up on bees
> hanging around the outhouse in a couple messages on the list recently, AND THEN
> I come across this yesterday, I don't know what to think. Have we all been blind
> to or ignoring possible dangers?
 
Practicly no honey is cooked enough to kill the botulism spores so this
applies to practicly all honey. Its important to remember that the
advice not to feed honey to very young babies also applies to any raw
(uncooked) foods including fruits and vegetables and corn syrup. I think
honey has had a lot of unfair press over this issue and that it should
be stated as "uncooked produce" or "all raw foods". I read somewhere
that in the study that started all this, only 20% of the affected babies
had been fed honey and that 80% had been breast fed, but honey got the
black eye.