Raw Honey vs Regular: What Is the Difference?

Honey, whether raw or regular, has been a part of our food chain for thousands of years. Being a superfood, it is equally liked by adults and children all over the world. Everybody loves honey regardless of its types.

Raw honey is a thick, sweet syrup loaded with the compounds of healthy plants. Raw honey is basically unfiltered honey without any heat treatment and known as raw unpasteurized honey. It is thought to be healthier than pasteurized or regular honey as it contains elements that make it more nutritious.

The honey harvested and produced in British Columbia by BCB Honey, is among the best in the world and has been recognized as the best honey by the International Honey Quality Competition and International Honey Commission. .

Nowadays, it is hard to find pure honey due to the availability of certain honey replacements in the market. But our unpasteurized, unprocessed honey produced in British Columbia can be the best solution in this regard as its nutritional elements are unique in their properties.

How is raw honey different from regular honey?

• Raw honey can be defined as the honey straight from the hive. It is extracted from the hives and is filtered to remove any impurity or dead bees from the actual product.

• A nylon cloth may be used to filter raw honey. If raw honey is slightly heated while processing, it is called raw unpasteurized honey. As this honey has not been heated to a high temperature, most of the properties of raw honey nutrition are still intact in raw unpasteurized honey as well.

• On the other hand, regular honey is prepared by passing raw honey through multiple steps such as pasteurization and filtration. Pasteurization involves heating honey to a high temperature, and during this heating process, most of the benefits associated with raw honey nutrition are lessened to some degree.
  
  
• Pasteurization and filtration of raw unpasteurized honey have their pros and cons. For example, Filtration gives a smooth consistency to the regular honey, but it also filters out some key ingredients of raw honey nutrition like antioxidants and pollens.

• Some manufacturers even make the raw unpasteurized honey go through ultrafiltration, which further reduces the number of beneficial enzymes and antioxidants in the honey, thus affecting the nutritional profile of regular honey.

Nutritional profile of raw honey

The above discussion hints that there are more nutritional benefits associated with raw unpasteurized honey, than the regular honey available in the market. Let’s take a detailed look into the nutritional profile of raw honey and see how it differs from regular honey.

• Raw unpasteurized honey contains almost 30 bioactive plant compounds that act as antioxidants and are very beneficial in the body’s metabolism. These bioactive compounds are called polyphenols. Taking these antioxidants lowers the risk of heart diseases and certain cancers in the human body. They are also associated with reduced inflammation in individuals having an ample amount of these antioxidants.

• Apart from antioxidants, raw unpasteurized honey also contains more than 20 amino acids and more than 30 minerals. Several vitamins are also present in trace amounts.

• Regular honey is filtered. The pollen that is one of the most beneficial ingredients of honey is almost absent in such honey. Pollens are a paramount part of raw honey nutrition as they contain almost 250 nutritious substances like micronutrients, essential fatty acids, vitamins, etc. Filtering out pollens means reducing the health benefits of raw honey.

• Similarly, a study was conducted on the number of antioxidants in raw unpasteurized honey and regular honey. The study revealed that raw honey contains antioxidants and minerals four times more than the processed honey. Moreover, processed honey can have artificial sugars and sweeteners added to it, which can have adverse effects. Thus raw unpasteurized honey is more nutritious and beneficial than regular honey.

• Additionally, the raw honey produced by BCB Honey contains 100% of the pollens and royal jelly that are in the hives, maintaining all of the medicinal benefits of our honey and setting our products apart from other brands of honey found in the market.