A Health Writer's Notebook

Manuka honey, from my second homeland of New Zealand, is made by bees gathering pollen from the manuka bush – which is either the exact same species or very close to Australian tea trea. You may know that honey can have very different flavours depending on what plants the bees are spending time at – so buckwheat honey, for instance, has a very earthy flavour, and clover is very light.

Honey in itself is antibacterial, and manuka more so because of the plant base. So I wasn’t surprised to see a new study pop up today showing that manuka honey can not only treat chronic wound infections, but also help prevent them. And some of these chronic infections are drug resistant (just what the world needs), so this actually offers a new, extremely useful treatment.

This makes me think of the other potential uses of manuka honey around the house. For instance, you could put it on a cut before applying a band-aid, or even use it as a natural antibacterial face mask (I’m going to try that). Just be careful to store some separately from your other spreads so you don’t end up with toast crumbs on your face.

As a side note, did you know that a lot of honey sold in the United States is so highly processed it’s not really honey anymore – and may be packed with fillers, too? This is one case where cheaper isn’t better, and it’s worth spending some cash – even if it’s just honey for your toast. Best yet, buy it from the farmer’s market.

Have you tried manuka honey? What did you think?