Los Angeles Times reports on use of honey on burns on children in Iraq

The Los Angeles Times newspaper has published an article about the use of honey is war zones. It talks about the case of a childrens burn centre set up in Iraq, that is using a special honey made by Comvita (who are New Zealand's leading manuka honey producer).

This article highlights honey's potential for use in disaster type situations, including war zones and earthquakes, where clean running water can be scare. The healing properties of some honey offers a way to still treat people suffering from wounds and burns in these circumstances.

Observations from an emergency physician who spent some time overseeing the Smith Gate Burn Clinic in Iraq, that was set up to treat children with burns, are included in the article.

You can read the Los Angeles Times report here.

New Website Now Live

The New Zealand Honey Shop new website is now live!

This new site allows us to provide you with a lot more information, and feature articles, and add new news stories.

It also allows us to offer our manuka honey, Living Nature skin care, and other products to other European countries too, not only the UK.

The New Zealand Honey Shop website will operate as a specialist site, as part of World Of NZ (http://www.worldofnz.co.uk). So effectively a specialist division. However you can be assured the same real people behind it will make sure your orders are despatched out quickly.

This is the next step in our efforts to make our manuka honey and other products more accessable to you. We are still searching for a suitable location for a physical store, and would rather wait for the right location rather than jumping at whatever happens to be first available. It remains part of our plans.

Have a look at the new website, which will continue to be expanded.

Substitute honey for sugar in recipes

Using honey in your cooking recipes is a great way to add some taste in a healthy way. In future we'll be looking to add some actual recipes here on the blog. But to start with, simply look to use some honey instead of processed sugar next time you are cooking something suitable. This is simple and easy to do in many cases, just so long as you have some honey to hand. Often in cooking a more runny, or liquid form of honey will be better.

And for a breakfast or a dessert idea, make some fresh fruit salad, using whatever seasonal fruits you have to hand - at the moment I'm using banana with strawberries and blueberries - and add a tablespoon or two of honey over the top. Easy and delicious.

Honey Wound Dressings Get FDA Approval

Advanced wound dressings produced by Comvita, the primary New Zealand manuka honey producer, have now been given marketing clearance from the USA's FDA.

These unique manuka honey based dressings had already been approved in other parts of the world, such as Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

They use active manuka honey with natural antibacterial properties, which has been proven to fight bacteria causing stomach ulcers, and aid in wound healing. Wound treatment products using the honey have become increasingly important as they have also proven effective against some antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria.

This makes New Zealand based Comvita and its patented "advanced wound care dressing" has become the first using manuka honey for wounds and burns to receive marketing clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

In the UK, these Apinate Dressings (the name they are marketed under) are already available.

Ways to take manuka honey for health

If you are wanting to use manuka honey to imrpove an aspect of you health, then there can be several ways to take it, depending on the severity of you condition. For wounds, burns, external ulcers and other skin conditions, then spreading the honey over the affected area is appropriate.

When it is an internal issue, or general health that you are using it for, then you have a few more possibilities. For a more severe condition, it will be better for you to take directly 1-2 teaspoons of it.

However, if your condition is less severe, then you may want to condsider putting a teaspoon or two of it over your cereal, or over a bowl of fruit (this is great whether it is breakfast, lunch, or dessert). Some people prefer to mix it into a drink - adding it to a cup of tea or warm water. Others do more traditional things such as have it on toast.

Play around and try different ways, there is plenty of possibilities.

New standards for certifying manuka honey in future

This week has seen the annoucement of a partnership between a New Zealand manuka honey producer and a German University, with the aim of establishing a process to certify the levels of the compound responsible for manuka honey’s anti- bacterial activity. It comes after the Technical University of Dresden has indentified the compound methylglyoxal and its high levels in some manuka honeys. (part copy of the news release here)

With the unfortunately more common misleading promotion of lesser quality manuka honey that has been occuring in places such as the UK, a new certification process is potentially good news. We have to wait to see how it will actually work, and how it will complement the existing 'UMF' trademark that is consumers best assurance of quality at the moment.

In the meantime, there are efforts such as the 'Campaign For Good Honest Manuka Honey' to inform what makes genuine UMF manuka honey, to help inform people on the different levels of potency of this natural healer.

The other benefit of the new research findings form the German university, is will lead to more research into other areas of health where manuka honey may be helpful.

UK Honey Sales Soar

"Shoppers Make A Bee-Line For Honey As Healthy Image Creates A Buzz". This is the headline from a recent artcile in the UK's Evening Standard Lite newspaper.

It reports that honey has overtaken marmalade into 2nd place in the sweet spread market, with sales soaring due to its reputation as both a natural sweetener, and remedy. With sales in the UK up 14% in the past 2 years according to Mintel statistics.

It is also pointed out that the growth is not just from people spreading it on their toast, but swallowing it by the spoonful for sore throats and other uses.

The article mentions Manuka Honey, and that the growing awareness of it has helped boost sales.

Unfortunately, like many press articles, it does just mention manuka honey in a general sense, and fails to point out that the antibacterial properties this New Zealand honey has become famous for, are actually only prevalent in some batches of the honey.

The article can be found here