Is honey gluten-free? Yes, it is. This is because honey is generally free of gluten. After all, it contains no additives.
However, can you be certain that the honey you buy at the store is purely raw honey and unfiltered? This is one tricky question that you should be wary of, as some kinds of honey undergo intense production that can lead to the use of other components which may not be gluten-free.
Therefore, you need to be able to tell when honey is pure and when it is not. You need to be able to visit the store and differentiate between which is gluten-free and which isn’t.
This article will help you figure out if the honey you buy is gluten-free or not.
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What Is Honey?
Honey is a saccharine liquid made by bees using sap from flowers. It comes in a raw form and has a variation of colors.
Honey is directly removed from a hive and scooped into a container for use. It could sometimes contain some amount of wax, pollen, and yeast.
Some scientists have found that eating raw honey may help relieve the symptoms of seasonal allergies and others have concluded that it can speed up the healing of wounds.
How Is Honey Sourced?
Bees collect nectar from flowers, which is converted into honey by the bees’ enzymes.
When the honey is stored in the hive to be eaten later, it is exposed to air and water, which creates a bubbly liquid of sugar and water.
The color and flavor of honey depend on what kind of flower nectar the bees collected.
What Are the Health Benefits of Honey?
Honey is one sweet liquid that possesses a lot of nutritional value to the body without causing any long-term issues.
Therefore, it contains calcium, magnesium, niacin, pantothenic acid, phosphorous, potassium, riboflavin, and zinc.
It is also riddled with a lot of antioxidants, which help to protect the body system from cell damage that may be caused by radicals.
Also, honey has protective effects that aid the respiratory, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, and nervous systems.
Other benefits include:
1. Great for the healing of injuries
Honey is known to be a great healing property that soothes injuries and burns. You will often find people use honey when they have scars, cuts, bite etcetera.
2. Phytonutrient powerhouse
Honey contains phytonutrients, substances that protect the plant from harm.
Antioxidants, antibacterial and antifungal agents, and immune-boosting elements may all be found in honey. When processing destroys important nutrients, raw honey is a better choice.
3. Serves as a great value to the brain and the digestive system
You can use honey to treat digestive issues such as diarrhea, though research to show that it works is limited.
Probiotics include many strains of oxygen-loving bacteria that increase the population of good bacteria in the gut and aid digestion. This probiotic contains prebiotics, which nourishes this flora.
The use of raw honey can be a good source of cognitive growth. This is because of the polyphenols that counter inflammation in the hippocampus, the part of the brain involved in memory.
4. Great for sore throat and cough
Honey soothes sore throats and can help with coughs. Add it to hot tea with lemon when a cold virus hits.
5. Presence of antibacterial and antifungal properties
Honey contains propolis, which has an antifungal and antibacterial chattel that aids the body to rid of infections in the internal organs.
Raw Honey vs Regular Honey
The major difference between raw honey and regular honey is the presence of originality. Raw honey comes straight from the hive, while regular honey has been processed and may be polluted
This pollution in regular honey could be due to properties to make the honey taste even sweeter than it should.
In a jar of raw honey, you may find a bit of debris including pollen, beeswax, and parts of dead bees. Raw honey is not pasteurized and therefore appears cloudy or opaque.
Regular honey, on the other hand, goes through a lot of heating processes and comes out smooth and clear.
The honey needs to be preserved and to appear perfect, which in turn kills the yeast cells that can affect the taste.
In addition, because of the tedious procedure to make regular honey, it is said to have a reduced number of antioxidants and nutrients.
Is Honey Gluten-Free?
Yes, it is. Honey is certainly gluten-free because of how it is sourced. However, you should be in the know that some brands of honey may go ahead and add ingredients that can be gluten-induced. Therefore, making it cross-terminated and not good for people with gluten complications.
In this light, you should always check to be sure if honey is truly in the raw form and original, as this contamination occasionally occurs when manufacturing is taking place.
Is Raw Honey Gluten-Free?
Unfiltered honey, direct from the hive and stored in a container is the healthiest thing ever which makes it gluten-free.
If you buy raw honey, you have taken the right step and can use it in your food, recipes, beverage, and many more benefits it holds.
Is Honey Dairy-Free and Vegan-Friendly?
Honey is not milk from a bee, so honey is safe for a dairy-free diet. Therefore, if it is dairy-free, it is automatically vegan-friendly.
Honey is one of the purest sweeteners you will come across that is good for anyone on any sort of diet.
It is gluten-free, dairy-free, and generally free of many mixtures that other sweeteners would readily have. Although, vegans often avoid honey because honey is an animal byproduct.
6 Ways You Can Use Honey
However, whichever way you think of using your honey, know it meets the benchmark and is safe.
The common use of honey is with coffee or tea, pancakes or toast, yogurt, cereals, and oatmeal. Moreover, some people use honey as a spread for bread just like peanut butter.
Listed are some of the detailed ways to make use of your honey.
1. As salad dressings and sauces
Use your raw honey to garnish your salad after everything veggies must have been put in place to give it that earthy and naturally sweet taste.
You can also use your honey together with apple cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and lemon juice for a tangy and sweet sauce that can go on barbecues, steaks, and bacon.
2. Use honey as a spread
Hungry and need to eat that bread, cookie, croissant, or waffle immediately? Then make use of your honey as a spread and help it is going. Honey contains glucose and fructose and has slightly more calories than table sugar.
3. Add honey to make a snack
Recently, many brands are beginning to add honey into the manufacturing mix to make the snacks more nutritional.
This is because honey retains its moist, sticky, flexible texture even after baking, which means granola bars, trail mix bars, and cereal bars are prime honey products.
4. Make challah with honey
Honey is a great baker’s secret weapon! It’s a natural preservative and adds a wonderful flavor to baked goods.
Therefore, you should try baking a loaf of honey challah. Challah is a traditional Jewish braided loaf that’s typically served with the Sabbath dinner, but it’s good to snack on at any time. It’s particularly tasty when made into French toast.
5. Add honey to soups
This may not be common, but it is possible and very much healthy. That you add honey to your soup doesn’t make it sweet or out of touch with what you want the soup to originally taste like.
What it does is make it more balanced. Honey is a common ingredient in lightly sweet bisques and soups flavored with curry, ginger, or chipotle seasoning.
6. Bake honey bread
Just like you can bake banana bread, you can make honey bread instead of regular bread with sugar. If you are gluten intolerant, go for whole flour that doesn’t contain gluten to make your bread.
What you will get from this is a sweet bread with a texture so fluffy you won’t stop eating.
FAQs
Is honey safe for celiac?
Yes, honey is very safe for people who suffer from celiac disease. However, this is when the honey is raw and not polluted with additives or other components.
What ailments can you treat with honey?
Honey has been around for thousands of years, and they have been widely known to be great for healing and treating wounds.
Therefore, you will find that many people use honey to treat hiccups, stress, bad breath, hangovers, eczema and dermatitis, coughs and asthma, vision problems, high blood pressure, sleep disturbances obesity, jaundice, arthritis, and many more.
Although some of these have not been proven to be 100% effective, still, they are used for this purpose.
Is honey sustainable?
Honey production has a negative environmental impact. Pollination studies show that beekeeping introduces large populations of honeybees into regions where they are not indigenous, suppressing native bee species and hurting the ecosystem.
Is there any risk of taking honey?
Moderation should be key in whatever you do when you use your honey. Abusing the benefits that honey has and taking it in excess could be quite dangerous.
Nonetheless, honey poses no risk but more benefits. However, you must remember that honey is a form of sugar, and too much of it, especially when consumed, could be bad and lead to health difficulties long term.
Conclusion
Honey is generally a safe food. It doesn’t contain the additives found in many other foods and is good for people who are gluten intolerant.
However, it is also clear that some kinds of honey can be contaminated. This, you should be careful, especially when you buy raw honey.
A good takeaway from this is that spotting the difference between raw and regular honey is clearer now.
Thank you for reading.
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