Health Benefits of Honey - Ted's Q&A

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Toxic When Cooked?

Posted by Suzanne (Grass Valley, CA) on 10/23/2006

I AM ACTUALLY TRYING TO FIND INFORMATION REGARDING THE AYURVEDIC THEORY ABOUT HONEY BECOMING TOXIC WHEN COOKED. ANY THOUGHTS OR INFO? THANKS

Replied by Ted
Bangkok, Thailand
392 posts

Dear Suzanne: Honey, when cooked in high temperatures, will react with proteins to cause glycation. Certain sugar, proteins and small amount of oils reacted will cause a cancer causing chemical called acrylamide. Most vitamins and organically active minerals get destroyed. So why is cooking dangerous? Often we heat them in stainless steels pots and pans and the nickel gets absorbed into the honey, as well as other metals such as iron, cadmium, mercury, that might be found in your frying pans. Small amounts of burnt materials that stayed on frying pans for year can be a peculiarly toxic substances as bacteria and toxins are accumulated year after year.

Therefore cooking honey is toxic from chemical changes that occur during cooking to create cancer causing chemicals as well as accumulates free radical heavy metals into your body.

Replied by Grace
Fort Worth, Tx
01/08/2012

Well, as a follow-on question, how is 'cooked' defined in terms of honey toxicity? If, for example, I put honey in tea that is about 200 degrees farenheit, is that considered cooked? Thanks!


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