In recent years, people have gone overboard with the amazing benefits of honey. It is believed that honey is rich in nutrients, and drinking honey water can improve beauty and health, improve sleep, laxative and detoxification, and so on. A little honey really have the magical effect that everyone said? Today we will take stock of the misconceptions about honey. This 8 big misunderstandings, you know a few? 1, honey can use boiling water? And use boiling water to brew tea, many people also like to use boiling water to brew honey. In fact, this is very wrong! The active enzyme content in honey is an important indicator of the quality of honey. The optimal temperature for active enzymes is around 37℃, the higher the temperature, the lower the activity. Research shows that when the temperature exceeds 60℃, the active enzyme will be killed and lose its activity. Therefore, using boiling water to brew honey will lead to the inactivation of the biological enzymes in honey and reduce the nutritional value. It is generally recommended to use warm or cool water below 40℃ to brew honey. 2, honey can not treat cough caused by colds? The American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) has researched the treatments and medications associated with Common Cold Associated Cough (CACC) and has written a report in which honey is the only recommended medication for CACC. The results of a controlled study in Israel in 2012 also showed that honey did reduce the frequency and severity of cough in children. Based on these studies, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children over the age of 1 who have a cough due to the common cold can drink 2-5 mL of honey to relieve their cough. 3. Can babies eat honey? Honey can contain Clostridium botulinum, which can cause symptoms of poisoning in infants and young children, and infants less than 6 months old are more susceptible to this disease. Symptoms of poisoning often occur 8-36 hours after eating honey or honey-containing foods, and include constipation, fatigue, and loss of appetite. Although the chance of botulism in infants is very small, it is still recommended: do not eat honey and its products before the child reaches the age of one. 4, drinking honey can laxative? In fact, some people drink honey after laxative because their body fructose intolerance. Honey contains a lot of fructose, fructose intolerant people, the intestinal absorption of fructose is very slow, after drinking honey, fructose is too late to absorb. In order to balance the osmotic pressure in the intestinal tract, water will enter the intestinal cavity, the volume of stool increases, it is easy to diarrhea. 5, honey appeared foam can not drink? When the temperature of the honey storage environment rises, the surface of the honey will often appear a layer of foam, many people believe that this is a manifestation of honey fermentation and deterioration, can no longer drink. In fact, the main reason is: when the temperature rises, the biological activity of glucose oxidase in honey will increase, which will accelerate the main component of honey – glucose, into hydrogen peroxide (with antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effects). Hydrogen peroxide is easily decomposed into oxygen at high temperatures. As honey is thicker, a lot of oxygen will accumulate on the surface layer of honey, forming white foam. As you can see, the foam on the surface of honey is not only drinkable, but also indicates that honey is rich in active enzymes. Generally speaking, the richer the active enzyme content in honey, the better the quality of honey! However, it is important to note: honey does also produce foam when it is fermented and spoiled, but this time the foam tends to be very large and coarse. At the same time, the honey will have a very distinct wine-like odor. Such honey can not continue to eat. 6, honey solidified because of spoilage? When the temperature of the storage environment of honey is lowered, a lot of honey will slowly solidify, and many people think that this is because the honey is spoiled. In fact, honey solidifies at low temperatures, called “honey crystallization”, honey crystallization and “water at low temperatures condenses into ice” is the same reason. In fact, honey crystallization is a normal physical phenomenon when natural honey is cold, and its quality will not be affected. Honey is made up of 65-80% glucose and fructose, two natural monosaccharides, while glucose crystallizes, fructose does not. Crystallized honey is good or bad, the degree of crystallization, it is the honey in the natural glucose content of the different. 7, honey is real honey? Online rumors of a “honey pulling method” to identify real honey: use chopsticks to pick up the honey, such as honey can be pulled into a long, thin silk, and silk broken automatically retracted after the ball-shaped, for real honey. In fact, this method is wrong. The honey pulling method can only identify whether the honey is thick or not, and cannot identify the real honey, because fake honey can also be made very thick, and the real honey may also be thin. In fact, there are many ways to fake honey, if not with the help of professional instruments, relying on a single method is impossible to identify all the real honey. 8. Is it best to keep honey in the refrigerator? Honey in the refrigerator will crystallize and precipitate glucose. This not only affects the taste, but also makes people think that the honey is bad. Hurry out of these misunderstandings, don’t get trapped again!