Hay Fever and Honey: Is the ‘local honey’ cure a hoax?
We love a bit of honey in the shop. We have a range of raw Spanish honeys: Orange Blossom, Lavender and Chestnut. Each have a subtle flavour from their respective bee-pollinated sources and provide the perfect sweetness to spread on toast or stir into tea. We have English ‘Hot Honeys’: Scotch Bonnet, Sriracha and Gochujang. We have Italian truffle honeys, with real shavings of truffle for the perfect decadent treat. We have a honey-infused fresh goats cheese log. We have honey milk chocolate which has been handmade in England, from cocoa grown in Colombia. We even have a honey vinegar; fragrant, acidic and perfect for salad dressings. So as you can see, we have no shortage of honey products. Yet, the most common honey-related question we are asked in the shop is “Do you stock any local honey?”, and the answer is always “No”. Now this is a perfectly valid question. There are lovely locally-made honeys out there, and supporting local businesses is always a good thing. (I will explain why we don’t stock them further down). We have come to the realisation, however, that this question is always rooted in the belief that local honey can significantly improve symptoms of hay fever. This question is asked so frequently that I’ve decided it’s time to investigate and find out once and for all whether or not local honey really is the remedy for your stuffy nose and watery eyes.
I must say I have never had the displeasure of experiencing hay fever and feel very lucky for it. If I had, maybe I too would be running into every shop desperately searching for something to help. Belinda suffers badly and would absolutely stock Ealing-made honey if she thought it really helped. She is often the one to break the news to people that it will not help as she knows from experience, but I can tell from each customer’s raised eyebrow that they are unconvinced and will continue their quest to clear their congested conk. I can understand why people believe local honey would improve symptoms. Maybe it is a similar idea to when parents are encouraged to feed their young children small amounts of peanuts to prevent allergies? Maybe it is like a vaccination, whereby a small controlled dose of local pollen is put into the body to encourage your immune system to form hay-fever-fighting antibodies? If you’re getting your body used to the pollen around you that’s making you unwell, why shouldn’t your hay-fever improve?
Well the truth is …there is no evidence that local honey improves hay fever at all. I’m sorry, I’m sure I’ve caused a few eyes to water writing that sentence, maybe even a few sad sneezes. A study was done at the University of Connecticut in 2002 where they performed blind trials on hay fever sufferers. The participants were fed local unfiltered honey, nationally-produced honey and a honey-flavoured sugar syrup. The findings showed no difference between the three in reducing symptoms. The reason being that bees find their pollen in flowers, like the Orange Blossom and Lavender honeys we stock. This type of pollen is heavy and is not what causes your nose to run or your eyes to itch. The type of pollen that causes hay fever is light and able to be carried to us through the air we breathe. It is found in trees and grass where bees do not collect their pollen. We’ll have to wait for heavy pollen to start getting to us or for bees to start pollinating grass before we can use local honey as hay fever medicine. If you still don’t believe me, I guess there’s always the placebo effect.
The placebo effect is a strong one, as demand for local honey definitely increases in the summertime. I’ve heard rumours that this myth was started by local honey businesses in an effort to increase sales. If true, it has certainly worked. We used to sell local honey but due to the incredibly high demand, the limited number of pots produced and the sky-rocketing prices, we were unable to continue stocking them. They must be skilled honey producers and very clever, yet cheeky, businessmen and women. Maybe I should start some myths of my own. Have you heard that if you drink wine bought from Harrison’s it significantly reduces your risk of catching a common cold? Did you know that cheese bought from Harrison’s has been proven to improve symptoms of depression? (There is no evidence to suggest that this is untrue).
I hope this has helped debunk the honey hoax, and that you will no longer neglect our wonderful honey products just because they are not local. Don’t let our delicious, aromatic, sweet honeys sit on the shelf any longer, they are dying to be enjoyed. Honey is to be slathered on warm toast, to be sandwiched in a two-layer cake, to be eaten by the spoonful. Honey is a natural and delicious form of sugar, full of antioxidants and other health benefits… but it will not cure your hay fever!
Further Reading:
https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/is-local-honey-a-cure-for-hayfever
https://www.itv.com/news/channel/2023-06-05/fact-or-fiction-debunking-the-myths-surrounding-hay-fever
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11868925/
