Information that honey can not be heated, appeared relatively recently, and immediately attracted attention. The main argument in favor of the prohibition of heating honey was that the product becomes carcinogenic when heated. However, in this statement there is only a fraction of the truth, and in order not to fall into extremes, it is worth considering this issue in more detail.
What will happen if you heat honey?
When heated, such properties of honey manifest themselves:
- As the temperature of honey increases, its nutritional and therapeutic properties decrease. The more honey is heated, the more it loses its bactericidal and immunomodulating properties. Therefore, adding honey to hot tea does not make the drink more curative.
- Heating honey to a temperature of 45 ° C leads to the loss of valuable enzymes and vitamins in it . Useful for the body of glucose and fructose also decompose at a temperature above mentioned. It follows from this and the answer to the question, to what temperature can honey be heated. It is best to try to use honey at room temperature, and if you want to add it to tea, you should wait until the drink has cooled to a temperature of 45 ° C.
- You can find a huge number of sources that say that heating honey over 60 ° C makes the product carcinogenic. The main proof why it is impossible to heat honey is the fact that in hot honey there is such a poisonous substance as oxymethylfurfural. This substance is really harmful to the body and is almost not derived from it. However, it should be borne in mind that this poison appears in the honey in negligible amounts and therefore it is not capable of harming a person's health. For comparison, products such as carbonated sweet drinks and roasted coffee, in which oxymethylfurfural is contained in an amount tens of times its content in hot honey, can be cited.