In the cold season, without much thought, we often add honey to hot tea, happily cook cookies with it or bake pumpkin. However, there is an opinion that honey in no case should be heat treated, because after that it not only loses all its beneficial properties, but also becomes dangerous to health.
In our new heading, we decided to look into this issue and find out if honey can be heated.
What happens to honey when it is heated?
Honey has been used in cooking for centuries. Moreover, it is most often used for medicinal purposes in warming drinks.
The question of the dangers of this product began to arise relatively recently. The main danger of honey is associated with a substance called 5-hydroxymethylfurfural or oxymethylfurfural. It is a potential carcinogen and is actually formed in honey after heating as a result of the breakdown of sugars. However, its content in the product is negligible and does not pose a threat to human health. Oxymethylfurfural is found not only in honey, but also in many other products, such as sweet pastries or coffee.
According to another popular opinion, it is not worth heating honey, because under the influence of high temperatures it becomes absolutely useless. To some extent, this statement is true. Honey, like almost all products, loses some of its beneficial properties after heat treatment.
To eat or not to eat heated honey?
Question of the week: can honey be heated
In conclusion, we can say that pouring boiling water over honey is still not worth it. If you are preparing a warming drink, the water temperature should not be too high. Even doctors for colds recommend using a warm drink, not hot.
Honey can be added to baked goods without fear for your health. At 180 ° C, of course, it will lose some of its nutrients, but it will definitely not become harmful.
Eat honey with pleasure and do not get sick!
