Question: Do you think honey could be used as a cure for illnesses? I heard local honey cures hay fever..

Martin Wallace answered on 16 Mar 2012:

Honey has been used for thousands of years for is healing properties and is widely regarded as being a much healthier form of sweetener than sugar.
The honey that we get in this country is good for you, but that is nothing compared to some of the honey that is produced in New Zealand. Bees make honey using flowers from the surrounding area, and if the honey is made from the flower of the manuka bush – a native plant of New Zealand – the anti-bacterial properties of the honey is so much greater (there is an article on the topic here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/3787867.stm).

You do have to be careful though about where your honey comes from, because honey made from some plants is poisonous to humans – in this case the honey would definitely not be good for your health!

I have heard that local honey can help with hay fever, but it’s something I’ve never tried. Hopefully I’ll be able to see for myself as I have hay fever so will test it out with the honey that our bees make this year.

Another interesting fact about honey is that you can store it for a very long time, sometimes for many years if kept correctly. I read a news story a while back about an egyptian tomb that had been found with a jar containing honey. It was thousands of years old, and apparently it was still edible!