By reading this you can understand the following.
- Is honey toxic when heated?
- Can you mix honey with warm water, milk?
- Can you use honey in your coffee, green tea?
- Can you bake with honey?
People are often in a dilemma as the ancient Indian texts mentioned that honey should never be heated, while many practitioners of natural medicine recommend using honey with warm water, lemon. Also, many people use honey as a healthier alternative to sugar in coffee, tea, sweets etc.
What Happens When Honey Is Heated?
Two key changes happen when honey is heated.
- It’s HMF content will rise
- Sucrase, diastase, – two important enzymes present in honey—may destroy
What are HMF, diastase, sucrase?
HMF
HMF (Hydroxymethylfurfural) is a substance that is generated when food (including honey, sugar) is cooked or heated or dried. Some argue that HMF causes cancer while others argue that HMF is beneficial. Scientific researchers have so far NOT found any relevance between HMF and cancer in humans.
Whether it’s is beneficial or harmful, HMF is also present in many food items we already consume such as dried fruits, coffee, bread, biscuits and other baked products, wine, sweets. Some of them have much higher levels of HMF than heated honey.
In summary, HMF generated by warming or heating honey does not pose significant risk to human beings. Or, at least it is not more dangers than mixing sugar with hot water / milk / coffee or other items we are already consuming safely.
Sucrase, Diastase
Enzymes are actually proteins that speed up biochemical reactions.
Sucrase helps convert sucrose (table sugar) into simple sugars glucose and fructose. In humans sucrase is produced in small intestine and helps digestion. Similarly, diastase is found in our saliva and important for digestion of starch.
Honey has such beneficial enzymes which come from the bees, nectar or pollen. Unfortunately, excessive heating of honey for long duration weakens or destroys enzymes.
What temperature and duration is bad enough for honey to lose enzymes?
For a comparison check the following,
| Substance | Degree Celsius (°C) | Fahrenheit (°F) |
|---|---|---|
| Bee hive internal temperature | 35 | 95 |
| Normal human body temperature | 37 | 98.6 |
| Fever | 38 | 100.4 |
| Warm water or milk | 45 | 113 |
| Hot coffee or milk | 65 | 149 |
| Water boiling point (water turns into vapor) | 100 | 212 |
As per the American Agri beekeeping handbook, at 71.1 °C (160°F), half of diastase will destroy in 2.5 hours, half of sucrase will destroy in 40 minutes. At lower temperatures, enzymes will stay good much longer.
As the temperature of warm water or milk is much below 160 °F, mixing honey with them does not destroy enzymes significantly. Temperature of hot coffee or milk is close to 160 °F. It means, honey mixed with them should be consumed quickly (within 10 to 20 min) to avoid losing enzymes.
Baking with honey destroys its enzymes as baking happens for longer duration and at higher temperatures. Still, there’s no reason to believe baking makes honey toxic or to believe it’s dangerous than baking with sugar. Just enzymes are lost during baking.
Conclusion
Honey does not become toxic when mixed with warm / hot water, milk, coffee or green tea. When subjected to high temperature for long duration, it starts loosing its beneficial enzymes. To avoid that, honey mixed with hot substances should be consumed quickly (10 to 20 min), before enzymes are lost. When baked, honey loses its enzymes but does not become toxic.
Read honey basics (5 min) to know honey types, what influences quality, what’s organic honey, what causes bubbles in honey, migratory-beekeeping etc. all of which could enable you to find the best honey.