Honey is probably the third most important component of the Primal Diet.

First and second being raw animal fats and raw animal proteins for building healthy new cells.

If I was stranded on a deserted island, the next food I would search for after wild caught animals and fish to augment my survival and thrival diet would be honey.

What is honey?

Obviously, you could live off of just animal fats and proteins, and honey is a special food. Honey bees sequester and refine sugary secretions of plants (primarily floral nectar) or the secretions of other insects, like the honeydew aphids. This refinement takes place both within individual bees, through regurgitation and enzyme activity, and during storage in the hive, through water evaporation that concentrates the honey’s sugars until it is thick and viscous. This is the primary CARBOHYDRATE for the honeybees energy in the Winter.

What is the value to humans?

We need 5% of our macro-nutrient in carbohydrates to live and honey is the best source because it is largely predigested enzymes and thus doesn’t overload our pancreas causing over-sugary blood which is one of the largest contributors to ALL disease, not just diabetes.

We can eat honey, as long as it is absolutely never heated over 93 degrees. If this happens, the honey is converted into 100% sugar which is no better for you than commercial table sugar or candy.

Eating unheated honey adds enzymes to your meal to help predigest meats so the amino acids are more easily assimilated. This means that we do not need to spend as much energy and use our own precious enzymes up as quickly.

According to Dr. Edward Howell, in Enzyme Nutrition, we are given a certain number of enzymes in our lifetime. Once we use these up, we die. We can extend our longevity by consuming enzymes from uncooked and unheated live foods (meat and fats under 104 degrees). therefore preserving our own body’s enzymes.

So, adding honey to our diet can aid in the digestion of the meats and fats we eat. 

How do I find healthy honey?

Unfortunately, the industry has blurred the definition of healthy honey. The are 

short cuts that apiaries take to increase efficiencies and profits at the expense of the quality of honey. Even if a honey is marketed as “raw” this does not mean that the honey has stayed below 93 degrees. They fudge a little by heating it to make the extraction process go quicker.

Beekeepers like maple syrup farmers and olive oil farmers will cut their pure products with corn syrup which is cheaper to buy to increase their profits.

Also, bee keepers will feed their bees sugar. This is a response to extracting too much honey and not leaving enough in the hive for the bees to eat over winter.

Beekeepers will also spray their hives with insecticides and fungicides to prevent invasion of the hive, then, of course the bees and their products are coated with chemicals which has a long term negative effect on the bees as well as our bodies when we eat these chemicals.

Yes, vaccines. Some beekeepers even result to vaccinating their queen bees to help them not get diseased. We know that vaccinating only weakens the colonies hardiness, makes them dependent on drugs, and they pass on the mercury, aluminum, formaldehyde, MSG, phenoethanol, stabilizers, adjuvants, residual inactivating ingredients, residual cell culture materials, residual antibiotics and preservatives in the vaccines to us when we eat it.

Therefore, it’s highly important that you know your beekeeper, have visited the operation, or know someone has vetted them before eating their honey.

The difference between healthy honey and unhealthy is the difference between honey being a medicine versus a poison. 

Are their tests that help you know your honey is healthy?

If the honey gets cloudy and crystallizes, this is a GOOD sign. Honey that stays golden and fluid like syrup has likely been heated.

If you eat the honey and you have an allergic reaction or it makes you cough or wheeze or increases your heart rate. It likely is in a sugar form and/or has chemicals.

It’s very hard to maintain absolute organic especially since the bees can fly up to five miles to collect nectar. If there is a sprayed vineyard or GMO crop they are susceptible to ingesting these chemicals as well. It’s the chemicals that are causing colonies of bees to die not anything else. 

How important is it to eat local honey?

Local is always better, not only because it helps build our tolerance to allergies that are triggered by local pollens, but also because it is more environmentally sustainable to acquire all our food from more local sources. It helps the community economy by supporting U.S. farmers rather than purchasing honey from Australia, India, or China. As far as the beneficial effect of local pollen versus non-local has on the enzyme activity, it is negligible. However, one thing to be aware of, is that shipping honey long distances, especially in shipping containers across the ocean, it not likely to be unheated by the time it arrives to your kitchen. 

What about Bee Pollen?

Bee Pollen is the ball or pellet of field-gathered flower pollen that sticks to the legs of the bees as they fly around collecting nectar. It is used as the primary food source for the hive. Bee Pollen is the primary source of PROTEIN for the hive. 

What is the purpose of bee pollen in the Primal Diet?

Bee pollen is very small molecules of protein. Therefore, when mixed in the Pain Formula, it rapidly enters the intestines and the blood stream and is directed right away to areas in our body that are in repair. This rapid injection of protein builds new cells quickly to replace dead cells that have either run their course or been damaged. 

What is healthy bee pollen?

Again, it comes from a source that does not heat the pollen, does not use chemicals on the bees of the hive, and is fresh. You can tell if the pollen is fresh because it crushes into a powder between your fingers. Old, stale bee pollen will be hard balls that doesn’t crush easily. These do not break down in digestion and just go right through your system. It’s best to store pollen in the fridge.

Where can I get healthy Honey?

It’s very difficult to find. After you have asked all the right questions you will find that most honey, even honey that you buy at a health food store is not healthy.

Tatara Ridge Bee Farm

Leland and Trace at Tatara Ridge are second-generation beekeepers dedicated to producing the highest quality honeybee products in alignment with principles of ecological regeneration. Their apiary is located on a 30 acre Tennessee mountain property, adjacent to National Forest, maximizing their bees’ pesticide/herbicide/insecticide/industrial pollutant-free bio-diverse wildflower harvesting area.

They use natural beekeeping methods, encouraging their bees to be as wild and independent from human inputs as possible. Their hand-crafted Layens beehives are double-walled and insulated with raw wool to closely mimic the form of a natural hive and reduce cold stress in winter. They use the purest available GMO-free 100% beeswax foundation for their frames. Tatara Ridge bees and hives have never been fed processed sugars, or treated for any parasites or pathogens, including varroa mites. Their queen bees have never been vaccinated. The nectar gathered by the bees comes from a variety of wildflowers, including sourwood, black locust, tulip poplar, blackberry, clover, sumac and other botanicals.

Honey is only harvested when the hives have a surplus sufficient for overwintering without supplemental feeding. While inspecting or harvesting, they rarely use a smoker to avoid distressing the bees unnecessarily, and only use organic fuel sources. During extraction, the honey is kept in its raw, unaltered state, without heating, pressurized filtration, or dilution. All revenue supports the health and resilience of the bees in Tatara Ridge’s mountain sanctuary.

You can purchase their honey from Phoenix or contact Leland and Trace leland@tatararidge.com $35 per quart; $20 per pint; $10 per ½ pint and they are happy to ship anywhere (shipping costs added). 

They will have bulk pollen available next year. It’ll probably be a master mix, and not separated by seasonal or individual plant blooms.

Leland, are your hives fabricated from non-toxic materials?

While I’d like to add a line about the hives being built completely out of non-toxic materials, they’re made of cabinet grade plywood, have an exterior coat of paint and are internally unfinished… I’ve made hives out of cedar dimensional lumber, with no metal fasteners, food grade glues, a linseed oil finish, etc., but with time and materials they cost over $7,500 each (yikes!). My only other beehive alternative is log hives, which I’d like to experiment with, but this is a tangent… The bees do completely seal the interior surface of the hive with resinous propolis, minimizing anything that could possibly leach out of the plywood.

Backyard Hiveis another source of honey, bee and bee-keeping products that has been vetted by our Primal Diet Community.

If you have any other sources of honey or bee products, please let me know so we can add them to our resource list.

Some final thoughts from the deserted island, honey tastes really freakin’ good. If I wanted any kind of dressings, toping, sauce, or flavor enhancer on my wild rabbit or frog legs, honey would be the only sweet sauce that is truly health- giving. Without access to refrigeration, honey can preserve food for a very long time. Honey has been found in pyramid tombs from 5000 years ago and still yummy to eat today.

Besides food, enzyme, and food preservation, honey is an excellent antimicrobial and antifungal wound healer. I apply it topically and it works wonders on cuts and Athlete’s foot. And, as I mentioned earlier, the honey and bee pollen are vital ingredients in the Pain Formula. (p. 141 Recipe for Living Without Disease, Aajonus Vonderpalnitz)

I hope this gives you a better understanding of the value of honey and a great source for purchasing this golden medicine for your family’s kitchen and first aid kit.

In Optimal Health, 

Phoenix
Primal Diet Coaching  
Primal Diet.net
Blossom and Be Wellness