Subject: Honey Attacked

From: [email-masked] (Andy Nachbaur)
Date: Sat, 9 Mar 1996 22:05:00 GMT

*What other's say about honey and the people who produce it.

    Reproduced from 'The Vegan' (Autumn 1992)
   ,the magazine of the Vegan Society (UK) (c) The Vegan Society

                                HEALTHY HONEY?

   Honey -- a pure natural food for humans coming direct from nature?
   That's too much to swallow. Honey is produced when nectar is mixed
   with the digestive secretions of the bee, and the resulting mixture is
   disgorged (to be fed half-digested to other bees). Its sole purpose is
   not to satisfy humans' sweet tooth but to provide the energy necessary
   to sustain a bee in flight. It is no more suitable for humans than
   cow's milk. How many other species consume regurgitated, pre-digested
   food produced by, and for another species?

   Researchers have discovered that honey can be contaminated with the
   bacterium clostridium botulinum which causes one third of all cases of
   infant botulism. A health warning about feeding honey to babies
   appears in "The Parent's When-Not-To-Worry Book" by Barry Behrstock
   (MD, Fellow of American Academy of Pediatrics) and Richard Trub. They
   state that infant botulism can produce a muscle-weakening disease in
   babies and has even been implicated in some cases of Sudden Infant
   Death Syndrome. Many paediatricians are now insisting that no child be
   given any form of honey during its first year of life.

   Depending on the source of the nectar, honey can also contain poisons.
   Dr Herbert M Shelton states: "In many parts of the world poisonous
   honeys are produced. I have eaten honey that was as bitter as
   quinine." (Source: Ahimsa, July-Spetember 1991.) He goes on to say
   that no person with gastric or intestinal ulcer, or any marked
   catarrhal condition should ever use honey.

   In his book "Pesticides and Your Food", Andrew Watterson states that
   pesticides which may be found in honey include: cypermethrin, DDT,
   deltamethrin, dieldrin, fenvalerate, malathion and pirimiphosmethyl.
   In 1988-9 gamma-HCH was present in our out of seven samples of honey
   checked by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF). In
   Bombay, honey has been found to contain BHC, gamma-HCH, heptachlor and
   aldrin/dieldrin but not in concentrations above the limits adopted by
   the World Health Organisation (WHO).

   An American organic food publication notes that bees may resort to
   drinking from a sewage leech bed or the run-off from a chemical or
   oil-retaining pond if cleaner sources of drinking water are not
   readily available.

   In addition to honey, numerous (so-far unsubstantiated) health claims
   have been made for royal jelly - the food of queen bees. However, the
   Consumer's Association failed to find any clear evidence that it has
   any medicinal benefits. "A 30g bowl of cornflakes provides 30 times
   more thiamin and riboflavin; 90 times more niacin; and nearly 400
   times more folic acid than a 500mg dose of royal jelly. And the
   cornflakes are much cheaper." (Guardian 9.4.91.) Despite this annual
   sales in Britain top 17 million pounds.
     _________________________________________________________________

    Vegan Society
     _________________________________________________________________

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 þ QMPro 1.53 þ Every absurdity has a champion to defend it.

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From: adamf@.unc.edu (Adam Finkelstein)
Date: 18 Mar 1996 03:12:50 GMT

Interesting...vegans have a very "controlled" view of the food chain.
For a little fun, why not try reading the Usenet group:
talk.politics.animals

Lots o vegans and lots of interesting honey bee biology....

Adam
-- 
_________________________________________________________________________
Adam Finkelstein             Internet Apicultural and Beekeeping Archives
[email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Wolfgang Mengon)
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1996 09:36:03 +0100

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Andy

>    food produced by, and for another species?

What other purpose do we have than keeping our pump running and our
muscles working? All these sugars containing in honey will just do this
job. If honey tastes good and has some additional benefits why not eating
it? Also saccarose extracted from beets can be used by the human
biochemical system and I am pretty sure that the beet never thout when
building up this sugar that it will be of use for humans. Unfortunately
our bodies are not able to produce calories containing stuff while
enjoying the sun.  Maybe we would like to drink some human milk, but as
soon as we learn to stand on our own feet we are out of this age and also
the production rate is quite small. 

>    catarrhal condition should ever use honey.

I guess Dr H. Shelton did not have malaria at this time so he would have
eaten this honey in kilos. 

>    the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Many people are not aware that the professionals in the analytical labs
are able to detect whatever they want in whatever material they are
testing. It sounds stupid but in the most remote areas of the world you
may detect DDT for example in the air.  Depending on the effort you will
find most of the mentioned pesticides in your daily bread.  The world is
contaminated with thousands of pullutants that should be clear since the
rise of radioactive matter in the air or the lack of ozone in
stratospheric layers. But nevertheless we are living (even if some of us
are starving).  Headlines like DDT or lindane in honey are really not
helpfull to estimate risks we have to face in our live. 

>    oil-retaining pond if cleaner sources of drinking water are not

People dying with thirst often start to drink their urine, so why should
our bees be better humans?
If you drive your car in a bigger city for only have an hour I am sure you
get more carcinogens through simple breathing then by eating bees honey
whose producer had a bad water supply. 

>    sales in Britain top 17 million pounds.

With this part of the polemic I fully agree. 

Greetings Wolfgang

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Wolfgang Mengon                                +41-1-823 55 75
Atmospheric Chemistry Group               FAX: +41-1-823 50 28
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From: [email-masked] (Wolfgang Mengon)
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1996 09:36:03 +0100

Greetings Wolfgang