Australian health and wellness retailer Healthy Life has announced it is hosting its first Healthy Honey month this February.
The company said there is a lot of buzz around honey and its health benefits but with prices ranging from $4.95 to $149.95 and medicinal ratings from 8 to 800, it is easy to be confused by the complex beehive of products available on shelves.
As part of its national celebration of the gooey, gold stuff, Healthy Life is offering raw and Manuka products up to 50 per cent off during February, and the qualified health experts at its 50-plus nationwide stores are ready to answer any questions Australians might have about honey health.
While consumers can currently choose from three major types of honey – “supermarket honey”, raw organic honey and medicinal honey – Healthy Life Nutritionist Cayte Moxom said only the latter had health benefits.
“There are a lot of misconceptions about the health benefits of honey. While raw organic honey and medicinal Manuka honey can have far-reaching health benefits, refined supermarket varieties are only really beneficial as a sugar replacement and in some cases, can be so heavily processed that they’re actually bad for your health,” Cayte said.
“The big difference is the antibacterial properties that come with raw honey and high strength Manuka products, which contain all the special nutrients that bees collect from nature and bring back to their beehive. Because a lot of honeys look alike, the best way to tell if a honey is healthy is to check that it has been certified organic, which means that all the natural goodness should still be intact and no nasties have snuck in during heavy processing.
“When it comes to Manuka, the easiest way to tell how powerful the health benefits are is by checking the MGO rating. Anything over MGO 280+, that is organically certified, offers the best potential health outcome. At Healthy Life, we only source trusted quality brands so we take the guess work out of honey health and ensure our customers are getting the most out of their honey.”
Healthy Life said highly processed and pasteurised, refined honey contains no medicinal properties. While it can be beneficial as a sugar replacement, honey still contains fructose and can create a similar reaction in the body as refined sugar.
