I don't trust anyone well not when it comes to businesses (especially if it's food related or something that could impact my health) far too many seem to be interested in just making money

I am surprised I am not obese at the amount of honey I have consumed this past 12 months

Can you overdose on honey is there any downside to taking too much?

It dose raise your blood glucose levels (but not as bad as processed sugars) and it will feed candida (hence why you really ought to be having a good quality live yoghurt when on it - for the probiotics)

So to be honest I would only use it for medicinal use - but it's certainly better than anything containing processed white sugar imo, so if you have sugary stuff anyway, I would say it's an healthier alternative.

You know the expression "if you do not ask, you will never know"? Yad Mordechai is a no-no as in 2003 Strauss purchased a 51% stake in their Apiary so all their honeys are standardised according to Strauss.

But - I have just spoken with someone at the Ein Harod Apiary in the north somewhere. It is an independent Kibbutz and their honey types include citrus blossom, wildflower, avocado blossom, and Sisyphus [Middle Eastern Acacia] blossom. No manuka though! Said they do heat their honeys before being packed in jars but only to a very low temperature in order to comply with regulations, so as to keep it as near raw as possible, whereas all other apiaries heat to a higher temperature

Normally they do not sell raw unprocessed honey, and they do not take orders either on the telephone or from the website as they are producers/wholesalers, but she said she would get some for me before it is processed and mail it to me, and will phone me later today to give me details.

I will let you know what happens...

She phoned back to say that they will pack some raw unprocessed honey for me within the next few days, and asked for my full address for mailing it to me. So fingers crossed!

I did a quick bit of research last night on this manuka, and I found that there is a Spanish company who can take samples of each type and decipher the amount of actual antibiotics in each one, but then when I saw some had 28 different ab's in them one of which starting with an *amoxy* I thought, no thanks, I'm allergic to any kind of penicillin, so I'm now scared to eat this type of honey - I'm sticking with my clover!

I'll use it on dog wounds though

That's ace Malka! I am going to see if I can find any RAW honey around here too, might even give bee keeping a try one day

I've not heard of allergic reactions to Manuka honey before Helena... could the article have been comparing it to those ABs?

I don't know Azz, I can find it again maybe, but it did state that they "found" 28 antibiotics in one brand, so to me, ab's are ab's are ab's kind of thing?

Afterall, our own ab's are plant, soil based aren't they, and with bees collection from here, there and everywhere, who knows what they pick up to make their honey, bacteria will live wherever they are put won't they? Ab's are just that, bacteria which fight other bacteria. It just got a bit too iffy for me with my acute anaphalaxys to anything related to penicillin, I don't want to have 20 mins to live ever again thanks, got the t-shirt on that one.

I'm now manuka phobic!

lol you nutter you will have to try and dig out the article cos we're all interested now

Here you are Azz - two articles and a pdf report from which the articles got their information:

The Times of India

Digital Journal- article from New Delhi, India

Centre for Science and Environment - New Delhi, India