Can honey be poured with boiling water: useful or not, product properties in hot water
Healing and beneficial qualities of honey depend on many factors: storage temperature, nectar collection period, weather conditions, type of melliferous plants, nuances of eating delicacies. Many lovers of a sweet product are interested in the question - is it possible to pour honey with boiling water. Experts recommend using a slightly warmed product for medicinal and cosmetic purposes.
Benefits of hot honey
Delicacy contains more than 300 useful elements (vitamins, minerals, amino acids, essential oils). The set of substances is determined by the type of honey plants from which the bees collected nectar and pollen, the location of the apiary.
Delicacy is an important element of traditional medicine, because it helps to treat a number of diseases:
- insomnia;
- compromised immunity;
- disorders of the nervous system;
- colds and inflammation of the nasopharynx;
- disturbances in the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract;
- dysfunctions of the cardiovascular system.
To provide a therapeutic effect, the sweetness is dissolved in warm water or tea, any drink. Slightly warmed honey is also used to make masks and body wraps. The sweet product penetrates into the pores on the skin, retaining moisture on the surface while cleansing and nourishing.
Thanks to warm honey masks, the skin becomes fresh, its elasticity is restored, fine wrinkles are smoothed out.
The cosmetic anti-aging effect is especially effective on pale, aging skin. Of course, in order to preserve the maximum of active substances, nectar is not diluted with boiling water.
Harm and possible danger
It is believed that honey should not be heated too much, since this forms hydroxymethylfurfural (an intermediate product of the chemical decomposition of sugars). For the same reason, it is not recommended to dilute sweetness with boiling water. The substance is a carcinogen, its content in heated honey is negligible, but there is a possibility of its accumulation in the human body with regular use of hot tea with the addition of a natural product. Therefore, it is advisable to put a treat in a warm drink.
The quantitative content of hydroxymethylfurfural can be considered as an indicator of the quality of a sweet product.
The higher its content, the lower the medicinal properties of the treat. There are no uniform standards for the amount of a substance in a natural product (according to Russian GOSTs - 25 mg / kg, according to European requirements - 40 mg / kg).An increased content means a violation of the technologies for processing, packaging or storing nectar. Naturally, it is useless to drink drinks with such honey for medicinal purposes.
To what temperature can honey be heated?
Thanks to special studies, it was found that the product, heated to 45-55 ° C, retains its beneficial qualities. In order for a sweet drink to show medicinal qualities, it is important to prepare it correctly:
- for the preparation of a he alth product, it is advisable to choose well-soluble varieties of goodies (sunflower, rapeseed);
- before adding sweets, it is recommended to cool hot liquid (tea, herbal decoction, water, milk) to a temperature of 40-50 ° С.
When preparing a healing drink, it is important to maintain a sense of proportion. No more than 1-1.5 teaspoons of honey are put into the liquid.
When does a product lose its beneficial properties?
The enzyme diastase (amylase), which is part of honey, promotes the breakdown of starch, digestion of food, accelerating the process of its assimilation. An indicator of the naturalness and quality of nectar is the diastase number. It is this parameter that is taken into account when assessing the naturalness of a sweet product. It is believed that the diastase number of nectar without impurities is at least 8 units. In the process of research, it was found that temperature has a significant effect on this indicator:
- amylase is completely destroyed in 1-1.5 hours when honey is heated to 75-80 °C;
- rapid destruction is also observed when the temperature of sweetness rises to 45-50 ° C;
- Amylase is destroyed in about a year and a half when a sweet product is heated to a temperature of 25 °C;
- diastase number parameter does not change within 4.5-5 years if the delicacy is stored at a temperature of 15-20 °С.
Nectar can retain useful and medicinal qualities for a long period if the correct storage conditions are observed (glass / ceramic dishes, protection from sunlight is provided, the container is hermetically sealed). Of course, in order to manifest the therapeutic effect of the biologically active elements of honey, sweetness is added to the drink warm or hot (heated to 40-45 ° C).
The beneficial qualities of honey are beyond doubt. However, like any product, it requires compliance with the rules of storage and use. There is no consensus at what temperature the delicacy loses its medicinal properties. But it is definitely not recommended to add it to boiling water.
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