Honey ‘I eat my peas with honey, I've done is all my life. It makes the peas taste funny - but it keeps them on the knife-’ anon. One of the first things that Man learned to domesticate during his transition from hunter-gatherer to farmer was the honey-bee, it is thought by some scholars that the first use of honey originated in Central Asia, as a lot of the early names for honey are similar to both the Chinese Myit and Sanskrit Madhu. Although, this was most certainly in very deep pre-history as Stone Age cave paintings near Valencia in Southern Spain depict scenes of a man robbing a wild bees’ nest. As with many core foods, honey was regarded as holy - a gift from God and, accordingly, was endowed with mystical attributes. Honey is produced specifically as a food , as is milk, the first food for all mammals, so it is natural that much of Man’s mythology links the two. The Greek God, Zeus was hidden from his murderous father Kronus, by his mother, Rhea, and fed upon milk and honey. Milk and honey were also the two basic foods which awaited the Israelites in the Promised Land, symbolising God's promise that His children would want for nothing. Ambrosia, the food of the Olympian Gods, was often assumed to be honey as both were believed to promote longevity. Following this belief, Democritus, the ancient Greek philosopher and physician developed a diet which included honey, to promote eternal life, and, supposedly, lived to 109 years old. The ancients offered honey to their gods, usually in the form of honey cakes, which they placed upon their shrines - although Rameses III of Egypt went a little further, offering the equivalent of 15 tons of honey to the Nile God, Hapi! The Ancient Egyptians also used honey in cosmetics, and beeswax for, amongst other things, a heat-setting process which set the paint on their sarcophagi. There were even taxes levied, payable in honey. Small wonder that the first-known records of man-made hives are from Ancient Egypt, in the temple of Ni-weser-Re, dating from around 2,500BC. Ancient Mesopotamian texts relate how Shamash-resh-uzur, the governor of Sukhi and Ma’ar introduced bee-keeping there some 3,000 years ago, probably imported from the Hittites, who were known to be ardent bee-keepers. Charlemagne, the Frankish King, demanded that bees be kept and that 2/3 of the honey and 1/3 of the beeswax produced be paid in duty. The French continued taxing hives until as recently as the 1930's. The link with God and Truth is enduring and seems to have been a world-wide development. The Hebrew word for bee is dbure, meaning word, as the bee is said to bring the Divine Word. In places as diverse as Africa, Germany and India, honey was placed upon the lips of infants to endow wisdom and happiness. The Koran states that honey is a 'medicine for man' and The Prophet Mohammed said that the bee should be treated with deference, as it is the only animal to be addressed by the Lord himself. In Christianity, the Roman Mass is supposed to be celebrated using only beeswax candles, as the bee was blessed by God after the Fall of Man. In English Country Lore, every event in the family was ‘told’ to the bees - especially a death - before dawn of the next day, or the bees would die too, and the bees were often taken along to the funerals too. In medicine, Aristotle and Hippocrates both studied the bee and Hippocrates prescribed cures using honey for skin disorders, ulcers, sores, respiratory complaints, sweats and fever. One medical use dating back as far as 2,500BC, is in the treatment of burns and open wounds. It apparently works by forming a protective barrier, preventing further infection. It is also believed to contain a natural antibiotic, inhibine, and that it draws out water from bacteria, causing them to dehydrate and die. Field surgeons used honey and cod liver oil dressings for open wounds quite effectively in WWI. Another Old English cure, this time for ear ache, calls for a piece of onion, dipped in honey, to be placed in the ear. Honey has also been used to induce sleep and Ancient Roman physicians used it as a digestive curative and cleanser. There have also been more modern claims that common gut bacteria, such as Salmonella and EColi are unable to survive in honey, and an article in one medical journal claimed that a 25% addition of honey to a remedy for diptheria was found to act as an antiseptic and prevented the bacilli from propagating. Ayurveda classifies honey as an astringent, rather than sweet, taste for its effects. It is energy giving, stimulates the digestion and is cooling. It is used to clean and heal sores and also to help in the healing of fractured bones. It is thought to strengthen sight and voice; act as heart tonic; cure nausea, hiccups, poisoning, asthma, bronchitis, swelling and diarrhoea. Homeopathic practitioners use local pollen-laden, unrefined honeys to boost resistance to hayfever and it is believed that honeys made from the nectars of health-benefiting plants can help in the same way as the donor plant. i.e. eucalyptus honey may be beneficial in treating respiratory complaints. However, this also works both ways, as pollen from the Rhododendron produces toxic honey which can cause paralysis. But the best known medicinal use for honey is for soothing the throat and even today, some proprietary brands of cough cures still rely on a honey base. Honey is one of the few foods that has always been used world-wide. The Guayaki Indians of Paraguay do not cultivate the land or trap animals, and only use fishing and hunting in the most primitive forms. Honey is their basic food and their whole culture relies on it. The Maya of Yucatan used several bee ceremonies in their rituals and, like the Egyptian Pharaohs, the Aztec rulers were also offered honey as tributes and a form of taxation. Warriors of the Masai tribe, in Easy Africa, would traditionally take nothing but honey with them on their long journeys. Maybe because of its sweet quality, honey has long been associated with youth and love and is yet another one of the long list of foodstuffs which has been attributed with aphrodisiac powers. The ‘Honeymoon’ was the European tradition, a month during which the newlyweds could enjoy a sweet period in each other’s company before the ‘real’ marriage began. Some Hindu marriages also used a similar analogy: a bowl of honey was placed before the couple, with the groom telling his bride, “Honey, this is honey; the speech of thy tongue is honey; in my mouth lives the honey of the bee; in my teeth lives peace.” Honey is produced by bees from plant nectar. It takes the nectar from approximately 1,500,000 flowers to make just one jar of honey. It is usually made up of around 38% fructose (usually, the clearer the honey, the higher the fructose level), 31 % glucose, 2% sucrose, 17% water, and very small amounts of thiamin ascorbic acid, riboflavin, pantygiothenic acid, rydoxine, niacin, pollen and traces of wax, although modern heat treatments can destroy these, and it is for these nutrient values that it has become more valued than the ‘empty’ calories provided by refined sugars. It is also thought to be more easily digested by invalids, the sugars having been partially broken down by the bees. Athletes through the ages, from the first Olympic Games onwards, have used honey as an energy booster, the two main sugars acting in tandem to give two levels of energy: the sucrose being almost instantly absorbed for an instantly, the fructose providing a more sustained supply. Great beauties throughout history, including Cleopatra, have used honey to prevent wrinkling and to soften the skin, and Queen Anne of England used a ‘secret’ preparation of olive oil and honey for her famously lustrous hair. Honey has been used in fermented drinks world-wide and these were said to have been drunk by Dionysius, the Greek god of wine and his Roman alter-ego, before the cultivation of the vine. Historians have found references to mead, the English version, dating back to 334BC and it remained the staple drink in this country until well into the 19th century. Honey was vital to the European economy until the Renaissance and the influx of sugar from exotic parts, until finally sugar replaced honey as the common sweetener and the new practice of using hops and grains for flavouring beers and ales overtook that old favourite, mead. Oh, and by the way, it's great in cooking, too!