by ANYA SEBASTIAN

Honey, known to early civilizations as the ‘nectar of the gods,’ was the first sweetener known to man. European cave paintings dating back to 7000 BC show men collecting honey from a bee colony and honey has even been found, perfectly preserved, in ancient Egyptian tombs.

But the manufacturer of this miraculous product, the honeybee, is not native to the United States. The first hives crossed the Atlantic to the East coast in 1622 and did not reach California and other Western states until 1853. So while other countries have had centuries to get up, close and personally acquainted with the many, quite extraordinary benefits of honey, the United States has relatively little familiarity with it as anything other than a sticky and delicious sweetener.

“Honey is especially beneficial as a food at this time of year because it moistens the lungs,” says Dr. Kelly Murphy, a Doctor of Oriental Medicine, who has been in practice in Santa Fe for the past 14 years. “Every season has an environmental factor and in the fall, it’s dryness. Adding honey to the diet is a good way to protect the lungs and guard against the dryness in the air.”

But not all honey is created equal and, like any food product, quality plays an important part in its health benefits. The purer and less adulterated the honey, the better it is for you. Cheap honey often contains corn syrup as an additive (which nowadays tends to be genetically modified) so those little plastic packs generally found on airlines and in coffee houses won’t do much for you health-wise.

As a general rule, light colored honey tastes better and is milder than darker honey. Among those considered superior by connoisseurs are clover, heather, mesquite, orange and sage. In fact, honey devotees have sung the praises of this wonderful product for millennia and real honey aficionados, like wine lovers, use words such as woody, bold, smooth, cloying, earthy, to describe the effect on their taste buds. And while there are stores in the US that sell nothing but wine, few sell nothing but honey. In Europe, however, there are honey bars, where customers can sample different kinds of honey from around the world, a concept the Santa Fe Beeswax Candle Company is hoping to set up in their store in the De Vargas mall.

But honey also possesses powerful medicinal qualities, which, since it clearly (and thankfully) cannot be patented, are largely unknown to the general public. And, since it remains outside the realm of conventional medicine, honey does not readily attract funding for research.

However, there are many reports from countries outside the US on the extraordinary medicinal benefits of honey. As long ago as 1759 John Hill MD, a doctor in England, wrote: “The slight regard paid to the medicinal virtues of honey is an instance of neglect men shew to common objects, whatever their value: acting in contempt, as it were, of the immediate hand of providence, which has in general made those things most frequent, which have the greatest uses…”

On reflection, the association between honey and medicine is not as far-fetched as it may seem. Honey, after all, comes directly from plant nectar and the medicinal value of plants has been known since ancient times. It makes sense that, in order to survive, a plant species has to develop resistance to microbes as well as insects. These pre-existing medicinal properties are then enhanced by the honeybee, which adds beneficial enzymes to the nectar, condensing it into a form that maintains its medicinal qualities over long periods of time.

Honey keeps well for years (apparently even for centuries) without refrigeration, while jams, jellies and other foods spoil in a matter of weeks or even days. Obviously honey inhibits the development of bacteria and fungi, which is one reason why it is so valuable as a medicine. It can be used to heal infected wounds (band-aids impregnated with honey are sold over the counter in drug stores in New Zealand and Australia) and has also proved very effective in the treatment of a number of diseases, ranging from typhoid to pneumonia.

“Honey is especially effective in auto-immune disorders and really helps many people with arthritis, “ says Voyce Durling-Jones, an apitherapist and Ho Shin practitioner (Ho Shin is the Japanese art of bee sting therapy.) “It’s also a natural anti-viral and antibiotic agent, which is why honey is so good for colds, coughs and ‘flu. But be sure it comes from a good, clean source where nothing is sprayed and no chemicals are used. If possible, get to know your beekeeper!”

Santa Feans are fortunate in having a thriving farmers’ market, where some of the local beekeepers come to sell their products. Most are gathered from a selection of different flowers, which means that they cannot strictly be labeled organic. As Willem Malten, owner of Cloud Cliff Bakery & Café, explains, “Who knows where the bees have been? There’s no way of keeping track of them that I know of!”

Malten has been gathering honey from the several hives on Cloud Cliff’s roof for over 20 years but for his personal use only. It was not until this summer that he started offering it for sale to his customers. “We sold out pretty quickly,” he says. “I’m getting several more hives, so we should have a bigger supply and I’ll definitely be selling it again next year.”

And how about the often expressed theory that honey is good for allergies? “From my experience, I do find local honey helpful in dealing with allergies,” says Dr. Murphy. “It makes sense, since it contains plant pollens, that it would have a kind of homeopathic effect.” And, according to Durling-Jones, the bee pollen itself also helps. “It’s a good idea to have local bee pollen along with the honey,” she says. “It really does seem to make things better for allergy sufferers.”

Both Durling-Jones and Dr. Murphy emphasize that honey should, on no account, be given to infants less than 12 months old. “It takes a year before babies’ immune systems are fully developed,” explains Dr. Murphy. “Honey contains spores that their immature systems can’t deal with. It can be very dangerous, even fatal.”

Nursing mothers, however, can consume as much honey as they like, a good way of giving their babies all the advantages it contains without any of the disadvantages. And during pregnancy Durling-Jones also recommends eating royal jelly, the food reserved solely for the queen bee. “It contains neurotransmitters which are very important in pregnancy,” she says, “and it also has a lot of good vitamins. Just be aware that honey also has calories, so don’t go overboard and start eating a jar a day!”

So, as winter approaches, bringing with it the usual array of colds, coughs and flu, it might be a good idea to keep an ample supply of honey in the house. The best medicinal honey is Manuka, which comes from New Zealand and Australia. Since it is also the most expensive (about $26 for an 18oz. jar at Whole Foods) it may be as well to put that one in the medicine cabinet and use a more reasonably priced local honey in the kitchen.