# Questions about honey
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-honey/49033
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 8, 2001, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-honey/49033 "2001-01-08T18:15:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jonas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jonas)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2001, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-honey/49033/1 "2001-01-08T18:15:54Z")
Is it harmful to eat too much honey and are there any benefits? I ate a bunch this morning and I feel a little hyper.
Also, can vegans eat honey? (this was probobly covered in the past but I did a quick search and didn’t come up with anything).
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### Author:  [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2001, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-honey/49033/2 "2001-01-08T18:26:08Z")
Honey is just a simple sugar–it shouldn’t be any worse for you than any other similar compound.
No, vegans don’t eat honey. They idea is not to use any food that has an animal source–even if the animal is not harmed.
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### Author:  [@SpinneZiege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpinneZiege)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2001, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-honey/49033/3 "2001-01-08T18:31:09Z")
cher3, you’ve got to be kidding me. Honey is the most vegan food out there! Absolutely no plants or animals are harmed in its production. I learned this from a Unitarian minister one day.
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2001, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-honey/49033/4 "2001-01-08T18:39:39Z")
It depends on how you define “vegan.” Some define it to include honey, and some define it to exclude honey. Seems to me the preponderance of vegan opinion is to exclude it. But I call myself vegan and I’m still meliphagous. This confession is enough to make some folks want to drum me out of veganhood.
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### Author:  [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2001, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-honey/49033/5 "2001-01-08T19:08:28Z")
Damn- I came here on the heels of my wildly poopular [Peanut Butter Question](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=53916) thread to open a Honey Question Thread and Jonas beat me to it. Ah well.
As long as the thread is here, it’s bound to attract dozens- possibly hundreds or thousands of honey afficionados so let me continue:
• Raw wild honey
• Clover honey
• Orange blossom honey
• A fourth kind of honey, the name of which escapes me at the moment
Can anybody taste a real difference between these kinds of honey? Many times when I buy honey they will have wild honey only. Then the next time they’ll have clover honey, so I buy whichever kind they happen to have on the shelf at the time. I think if there was any real difference, they’d stock them all because people would have a preference.
Oh, another one: Honey with a big chunk of the honeycomb floating inside the jar. Is that thing actually edible? I get just a little bit faint when I think about munching on a bee larva hatchery. I mean, what if everybody hasn’t been born yet?
Okay I’m going back to work now…
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### Author:  [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2001, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-honey/49033/6 "2001-01-08T19:27:43Z")
Bees are generally not harmed in the production of honey, but they are enslaved. I would assume that is a personal decision of every vegan.
Jonas asks about the benefits of eating honey. The only one I know of is anecdotal information that eating local honey will boost your immune system to deal with the local pollens. It’s apparently useful for people with allergies. Sounds a little homeopathic to me, but hey, maybe it’s true. You can and will get a little “hyper” from eating a lot so honey, it’s just sugar after all. You could eat a few candy bars and get the same result.
Yes, Attrayant, I can taste the differences in honey, if and only if, it is a single blossom honey. I cannot tell you what the predominate flavor in a mix-blossom honey is, but I can distinguish honey made from predominantly lavender (ok) or eucalyptus (vile) or blackberry (heaven). I do have preferences, and I buy honey from local apiarists rather than the overly filtered, pasteurized swill they sell at my local grocery store.
Yes, Attrayant, you can eat the combs. But I don’t recommend it. Some people prefer to make mead from the “brood” wax (wax that contains bee parts) as opposed to the honey filled wax. Like you, I’m unsettled by the idea so I don’t. I doubt that the wax you get at the grocery store has any brood in it. Look for dark spots or cut it open to be sure.
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### Author:  [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2001, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-honey/49033/7 "2001-01-08T20:12:40Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by SpinneZiege \*
> \*\*cher3, you’ve got to be kidding me. Honey is the most vegan food out there! Absolutely no plants or animals are harmed in its production. I learned this from a Unitarian minister one day. \*\*
Well, here’s what the UK vegan society has to say about why vegans don’t eat honey:
[http://www.vegansociety.com/info/info24.html](http://www.vegansociety.com/info/info24.html)
Anyway, Unitarians are notoriously confused about their beliefs. 😉
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### Author:  [@jonas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jonas)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2001, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-honey/49033/8 "2001-01-08T20:22:16Z")
Even with the supermarket variety there is a difference in flavor. Sometimes it is not noticable but sometimes it is. Whenever I go to a Starbucks or a Pete’s coffe, I always try to grab a handfull of the honey packets (which are for tea but I just eat 'em straight), and there’s even a big difference between these. The few times I’ve had straight from the hive honey, they are always drastically different, raging from very dark (there’s a store by me where you can buy a hunk on honeycomb), to really light. I either didn’t pay attention to the type of honey it was or there was no way of finding out.
What exactly do they do to the honey you buy at a supermarket. My wife says that she is allergic to honey in Russia (unprocessed), but not to honey in the US. Is it the wax or pollen, or maybe even bee’s knees.
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2001, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-honey/49033/9 "2001-01-08T21:33:32Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Attrayant \*
> \*\*
> Oh, another one: Honey with a big chunk of the honeycomb floating inside the jar. Is that thing actually edible? I get just a little bit faint when I think about munching on a bee larva hatchery. I mean, what if everybody hasn’t been born yet?
> \*\*
Yeah, munching on “bee larva hatchery” is kinda disgusting, IMHO. I prefer to stick with plain, ordinary bee vomit. 😛
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### Author:  [@mongrel\_8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mongrel_8)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2001, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-honey/49033/10 "2001-01-08T22:14:47Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Oh, another one: Honey with a big chunk of the honeycomb floating inside the jar. Is that thing actually edible?
Yes it is edible, in fact my father said that when they were younger they would chew it like bubblegum. I doubt they could blow bubbles though. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Zarathustra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zarathustra)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2001, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-honey/49033/11 "2001-01-09T00:27:58Z")
Whenever I hear about vegans and their philosophy (philosophies?), I think of the scene from _Notting Hill_:
> [@](#):
>
> Keziah: No thanks, I’m a fruitarian.
>
> Max: I didn’t realize that.
>
> William: And, ahm: what exactly is a fruitarian?
>
> Keziah: We believe that fruits and vegetables have feeling so we think cooking is cruel. We only eat things that have actually fallen off a tree or bush - that are, in fact, dead already.
>
> William: Right. Right. Interesting stuff. So, these carrots…
>
> Keziah: Have been murdered, yes.
>
> William: Murdered? Poor carrots. How beastly!
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### Author:  [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2001, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-honey/49033/12 "2001-01-09T00:50:31Z")
I got interested in bee keeping, and I have a single hive.
-You can taste big differences in honey based on what it was made of.
-You can eat comb if you want.
-There’s all kinds of other junk in honey besides sugar.
-No bees knees in honey, or comb. Basic apiary technique is to seperate the brood portion of the hive from the honey portion. The bees do this pretty naturally so it’s no big deal. Most of the comb you buy is uncapped. When you take it out naturally, it’s sealed.
-Brood comb is pretty dark and has a webby chrysalis kinda thing inside each chamber that a bee hatched from. You don’t want honey from it.
-Brood comb is typically thicker.
-Children under two shouldn’t have honey.
-No bees harmed? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.
As far as the bees go, you’re Godzilla romping through Tokyo when you enter the hive. There are between 50,000 and 100,000 bees in a hive. Evey time you move a frame, you’re crushing a couple. Every time you brush them off the frame with your brush you mortally injure a bunch. Every time you smoke them, some are overcome. Some will sting you or your clothes, the die.
Beef is far less homicidal as only one cow must die to feed many, but thousands of bees died or were killed for each jar of honey.
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### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2001, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-honey/49033/13 "2001-01-09T01:14:23Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by cher3 \*
> \*\*
>
> > [@](#):
> >
> > \*Originally posted by SpinneZiege \*
> > \*\*cher3, you’ve got to be kidding me. Honey is the most vegan food out there! Absolutely no plants or animals are harmed in its production. I learned this from a Unitarian minister one day. \*\*
>
> Well, here’s what the UK vegan society has to say about why vegans don’t eat honey:
>
> [http://www.vegansociety.com/info/info24.html](http://www.vegansociety.com/info/info24.html)
> Anyway, Unitarians are notoriously confused about their beliefs. 😉 \*\*
Well I hope the vegan community is willing to go an a much stricter diet; the poor enslaved honeybee is responsible for pollinating fully one third of the crops in this country. Without domestic honeybees, our supermarkets would be barren of fruits and vegetables.
A partial list from [www.pollinator.com](http://www.pollinator.com/bycrop.htm):
> [@](#):
>
> **Alfalfa, Apple, Asian Pear, Atemoya, Avocado, Beans, Blueberry, Brazil Nuts, Buckwheat, Cabbage, Canola, Canteloupe, Carrot, Cashew, Cherimoya, Cherry, Coconut, Corn, Cranberry, Cucumber, Fig, Ginko, Grape, Hazelnut, Kiwifruit, Lima Beans, Luffa (gourds), Macadamia, Olive, Papaya, Passionfruit, Paw paw, Peach, Pear, Peanut, Pecan, Pepper, Plum, Pomegranite, Radish, Safflower, Soybean, Squash & Pumpkin, Strawberry, Sugar Beet, Sunflower, Tomato, Watermelon**
So I don’t want to see any of you strict vegans knoshing on alfalfa sprouts without shedding a tear for the abused honeybees that made it possible.
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### Author:  [@fish\_in\_the\_sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fish_in_the_sky)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2001, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-honey/49033/14 "2001-01-09T03:16:30Z")
Here is a website which spells out why vegans don’t eat honey:
[“Honey is not vegan”](http://www.vegetus.org/honey/honey.htm)
And here is a recent discussion on a veg. message board about honey:
[Vegsource: Another view on Honey](http://www.vegsource.com/talk/veganissues/messages/4292.html)
I’m vegetarian, and I eat close to vegan (remember, veganism is a lifestyle, not just a diet)–no meat of any kind, and very little dairy or eggs–except I do eat honey. Love the stuff. A lot of other people that are otherwise vegan still eat honey. The big gross out factor about honey is that it’s bee vomit, but, frankly, I don’t care. If my vomit tasted like honey I’d eat that on toast, too.
As for the ethical concerns… Yes, I do understand that bees are killed in the honey harvesting process. Lots of insects and small animals are killed in regular fruit and vegetable farming, too. I myself personally murdered dozens of potato bugs last summer in my garden. Death happens. I don’t think that large scale, massive bee murder is the intent of the honey industry, so I don’t really have an ethical problem with it.
And, bee enslavement? :rolleyes: If bees were as smart as these people claim they are, and if they were really so miserable you’d think they’d find a way to leave. Whatever. I think that a lot of vegans are absolutely terrified of any kind of human/animal interaction (at the message board linked above you will find people who claim that having pets of any kind is not vegan because that too is exploitation and enslavement.) Also, I think a lot of vegans don’t really understand how the world works, and don’t want to accept that in Nature some things must die for other things to live.
ehhh… But this is kinda veering way off topic. My point is that no, honey is not technically “vegan,” but most normal people don’t have an ethical problem with it.
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### Author:  [@oldscratch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oldscratch)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2001, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-honey/49033/15 "2001-01-09T05:49:39Z")
I’ve seen literally dozens of honeys out there. My fave is buckwheat, nice and and dark. And yes, good vegans don’t eat honey.
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### Author:  [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2001, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-honey/49033/16 "2001-01-09T06:23:36Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Oh, another one: Honey with a big chunk of the honeycomb floating inside the jar. Is that thing actually edible? I get just a little bit faint when I think about munching on a bee larva hatchery. I mean, what if everybody hasn’t been born yet?
> [@](#):
>
> -No bees knees in honey, or comb. Basic apiary technique is to seperate the brood portion of the hive from the honey portion. The bees do this pretty naturally so it’s no big deal. Most of the comb you buy is uncapped. When you take it out naturally, it’s sealed.
>
> -Brood comb is pretty dark and has a webby chrysalis kinda thing inside each chamber that a bee hatched from. You don’t want honey from it.
What I’ve read is that most beekeepers use containers that enable them to open up the hive and remove separate combs from it. These containers are modular, and the beekeepers use a “queen excluder” to keep the queen (who is, after all, responsible for the bee larva) out of certain modules so that it’s easier to harvest brood-free honey. So don’t worry about munching on baby bees.
I think that beekeeping is fascinating, and I’d like to do it myself…but I’m allergic to bee stings. So this is PROBABLY not a good hobby for me. 😛
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### Author:  [@BunnyGirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BunnyGirl)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2001, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-honey/49033/17 "2001-01-09T14:23:12Z")
Working in Entomology has its benefits! 🙂
Earlier this fall, a couple of the professors did a honey harvesting seminar in one of their classes and allowed me to come up. I have to say, it was fascinating. One guy brought in a hive that he had vacated (only the honey portions, not the brood portion) and explained how the whole process works, including how the honey is actually taken off the comb.
We then sampled some of the honey taken from the comb and 4 other different types: “wildflower”, clover, buckwheat and some other type that I can’t remember.
I was very amazed at the differences in the flavors. Buckwheat was very strong (not my favorite), clover was the typical “honey” taste, and my favorite was the name I can’t remember…something-something “star”.
Very cool!
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### Author:  [@Jet\_Jaguar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jet_Jaguar)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2001, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-honey/49033/18 "2001-01-09T14:31:27Z")
The honeycomb is definitely edible. When I was a kid, there was a place we occasionally went to that made honey, and we would get pieces of honeycomb. We’d suck the honey off of them then chew the comb like gum. There were never any brood in the comb at all.
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### Author:  [@diamud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diamud)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2001, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-honey/49033/19 "2001-01-09T16:16:41Z")
We had a beehive growing up (it came with the house). I noticed a difference in flavors, depending on where we placed the hive on our property (even bees can be lazy, if there is plenty of nectar nearby, they are not going to fly acres or miles away). When we had the hive next to our fruit trees (lime, lemon, orange, sour orange), it tasted like normal honey. When we had the hive next to the lake/swamp behind our house (cattails, lily pad flowers, etc.), it tasted difference (sometimes very very good, sometimes inedible). I don’t really have a stand on the vegan issue, but I would also like to say that the hive and bees therein had a definite “personality”, vaguely relating to the weather, some days they were friendly and happy, (the best time to get honey), some times sluggish, some times pissed off (usually righted before it rained on a hot summer day, BAD time to try to get honey). The beekeepers I knew definitely cared about their hives, and did not consider the bees enslaved, nor where they ever cruel to the bees. In fact, during the winter it was recommended by the local extension office that you let the bees die off and then get a new queen and hive in the spring, this was cheaper than providing shelter/heating for a hive over the winter. My beekeeper friends thought this horrible, I never met one who followed this “recommended” procedure. While not warm and fuzzy like a normal pet, myself and my friends respected the bees for their hard work (also, our yard looked great, thanks to all their work, and we had tons of fruit!)
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### Author:  [@Usurer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Usurer)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2001, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/questions-about-honey/49033/20 "2001-01-09T17:12:42Z")
Like Scylla sez, yes, lots of bees do get crushed in production, but most beekeepers try to be as careful as possible to get the bees out of harms way. After all, more dead bees = less money, right? I really can’t say I disagree with anything on the UK page about why vegans don’t eat honey, but I think they’re taking a rather grim view of things. For example, antibiotics and pesticides are used in honey production, but care is taken to make sure that they’re NOT applied while the “honey flow” (when the flowers are blooming and the bees really pack the honey in) is on. As a result, the risk to honey eaters is negligible. Were we not to use the chemicals, the bees would die from parasites, which is what happened to all the wild colonies in Minnesota, where I live. Somehow I doubt that neglecting them to this extent is what the vegans had in mind.
Here’s an interesting FYI: Yes, we take the bees’ honey and feed them fructose corn syrup and artificial pollen, but at least we make sure they’re fed. In the wild, a hungry colony will _Gasp_ steal honey from other colonies!