One of our oldest health publications, Herald of Health, had to discontinue publication because it didn’t have enough subscribers. This magazine provided substantive health information, not gimmicky, over-dramatized stories of miraculous cures with some slickly, over promoted new development that cannot stand the test of time.
From time to time, reprints from Herald of Health by such authors as Dr. Norman W. Walker, Edwin Flatto, M.D., Drs. J.J. and N. Hajek, etc., have appeared in Cancer Forum. One well-researched item printed in one of the late issues of Herald of Health about honey and sugar deserves to be printed and reprinted to reach a wider readership.
Following is the item which was printed in The Question Box, which was a regular feature under Dr. Edwin Flatto’s byline:
Q: In the July, 1980, issue of Consumer Reports, the following is stated under the title, In The Land of raw milk and honey: “As we pointed out in our report on sugar (Consumer Reports, March 1978) all sugars honey, sucrose, fructose, et al are about the same. All increase the incidence of tooth cavities, may help promote obesity, and provide little or no nutrient value other than calories.” Is this true and do you agree with these statements?
A: Somebody had better tell the publishers of Consumer Reports to have their nutrition editors, or whoever does their research for them, to do their homework. The above statements are entirely untrue.
How many minerals are in sugar? How many vitamins? How many enzymes? Honey contains 25 different kinds of sugar, including: Fructose, Glucose, Levulose, Trebolose, Meletoze, Dextrose (Dextro-glucose), Maltose (among the other reducing disaccharides), Kojibiose, Isomaltose, Nigerose, Malturose, Isomaltotriose, Eriose, Theanderose, etc. In fact, with all the advances in analytical science, 5 per cent of the ingredients in honey remain unknown. Honey contains: Aluminum, boron, iron, iodine, potassium, calcium, silicon, lithium, magnesium, manganese, copper, sodium, nickel, tin, osmium, titanium, sulphur, zinc, chlorine, phosphorus.
Honey also contains the following vitamins: Thiamine, Riboflavin, Nicotinic acid, K, Folic Acid, Biotin, Pyridoxin, and 7 vitamins of the B complex group. It also contains amino acids, Carotene, Dulcitol, Acetylcholione, etc. Also many important enzymes and other vital factors.
Tooth decay is caused by bacteria. Bacteria cannot live in honey. Honey contains an antibiotic, inhibine, which kills virus, fungus, and bacteria. (When they opened King Tut’s tomb, honey was still there unspoiled and edible after 5000 years).
Honey turns into energy and is not “empty calories” as the case with sugar. Honey is predigested by the bees and goes into the bloodstream in 15 minutes, while sugar, a chemical, sacharose, is completely undigestible, absolutely dead. It takes up to 4 hours, depending on the individual’s metabolic capacity, of hard work by the human system to invert and convert this chemical, saccharose, into simple, digestible forms of glucosides, and then assimilate it, exhausting that system, especially the islands of Langerhans of the pancreas resulting in arthritis, diabetes melitus, obesity, heart attacks, cancer, etc.
All this applies to unheated honey. When honey is cooked, the natural enzymes are killed and made unavailable.