Honey as Nutrient and Functional Food: A Review

As the only available sweetener honey was an important food for Homo sapiens since his very beginnings. Indeed, the relation between bees and Homo sapiens started as early as stone age . In order to reach the sweet honey, man was ready to risk his life (Figure 1). Already the first written reference to honey, a Sumerian tablet writing, dating back to 2100-2000 BC, mentions honey’s use as a drug and an ointment , see chapter 1 of the Bee Hexagon book on Honey and History. In most ancient cultures honey has been used for both nutritional purposes and for medicine 33, 99, 101, . According to the bible, the wise Solomon has said: “Eat honey my son, because it is good” (Old Testament, proverb 24:13). The belief, that honey is a nutrient, drug and an ointment has been carried into our days. For a long time in human history it was the only known sweetener, until industrial sugar production began to replace it after 1800 . In the long human history honey has been not only as a nutrient but also as a medicine . A medicine branch, called apitherapy, has developed in recent years, offering treatments for many diseases by honey and the other bee products (see Chapter 7).