How raw local honey can help curb seasonal allergies.

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March 10, 2023

Seasonal allergies (aka hay fever or allergic rhinitis) affect 10-30% of people worldwide. And some kind of allergy to a “foreign protein” affects 40% of people worldwide. Although most allergies, especially seasonal allergies, are not life threatening, it can be a miserable condition that lowers someone’s quality of life.

An allergy is when your immune system reacts to a “foreign substance”. With seasonal allergies, your body is overreacting to pollen.

When a person with allergies comes into contact with pollen, bee venom, bioengineered proteins, dander, etc, their body creates antibodies to defend itself, even if the substance isn’t innately or usually harmful. In other words, an allergy is an immune system overreaction. It can inflame your skin, sinuses, airways, or digestive tract.

For someone with seasonal allergies, pollen from certain types of plants triggers an allergic response. Pollen is a fine powder produced by cone-bearing plants when they are flowering. The pollen gets released and travels in the air or on bees to fertilize other flowers so the plant can make seeds.

As Mary Poppins says, “a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.” What if there were a natural “medicine” for seasonal allergies? What if that solution was sweet and delicious? What if the solution was raw seasonal honey?

One method of helping curb allergies is called “exposure therapy”. By exposing your body to small doses of the allergen you’re reacting to, in greater and greater amounts over time, it can help you build a tolerance. It can help your body understand that a specific allergen is not foreign or harmful. It prepares your body for the next exposure, so it will not overreact… at least not as much.

Raw honey naturally contains pollen. Eating raw honey is a way to practice exposure therapy for seasonal allergies and lessen your symptoms.

Bees need both pollen and nectar for survival. They need pollen as a vital source of fat and protein for young and adult bees. Nectar, on the other hand, is a carbohydrate and an energy source. Bees turn nectar into honey, which is their food storage for winter.

Bees are hairy. When they travel to harvest nectar, pollen gets stuck to their hair. When they deposit nectar at the hive, the pollen gets in the honey in incidental and accidental ways.

Ethical bee farmers like ours make sure the bees have plenty of nectar to forage. And then, they periodically remove most of the honey from the hive, leaving the bees enough honey to keep them happy and fed (no high fructose corn syrup for our bees!).

If you’re interested in using honey to curb seasonal allergies, there are some important things to look for:

RAW: The honey needs to be raw, NOT pasteurized. Honey that’s raw will contain unaltered pollen and living enzymes that are needed to protect your body from a histamine overdose.

UNFILTERED: Many honey makers filter honey to give people that smooth, luscious texture. It helps delay crystallization and creates a clear, brilliantly transparent goo. But, when honey is filtered, it takes most of the pollen grains and wax out. You want the pollen in there!

SEASONAL: If you have spring allergies, you should use honey harvested in the spring. If you have fall allergies, you should use honey harvested in the fall.

ALLERGEN SPECIFIC: The honey should be made from bees harvesting from the plants you are allergic to. That way the honey will contain the specific pollen you are reacting to. So specific honeys (raspberry, blueberry, knotweed, etc) will likely not work. You should be looking for wildflower honey, where the bees forage from a variety of plants that grow in nature.

And guess what? All of the honeys that Miller’s offers are raw and unfiltered. We also offer a variety of honeys from different seasons.

We work with Welsh Mountain Apiaries. They move bees to wild foraging areas around the US that are free from pesticides and GMOs. They bees are not fed high fructose corn syrup, and they do mite control without chemicals. All of their honey is 100% raw and unfiltered.

Have you tried raw seasonal honey to curb your allergies? What was your experience?

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Our bone broth tested negative for heavy metals 🥳 NATURAL AND CLEAN

Over the past few months a bunch of people asked us if we tested our bone broth for toxic heavy metals. When we get the same question a lot, we of course look into it. My first question was --- Is there an issue with toxic metals in bone broth? As it turns out, yes, there "can" be an issue! Heavy metals are naturally present in our environment. We need the "good" heavy metals to thrive: iron, zinc, magnesium, copper, etc. But, we can 100% do without the toxic heavy metals: arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, etc. Too many toxic heavy metals can lead to a host of pretty awful issues: nervous system damage, cardiovascular issues, cancer, endocrine disruption, kidney damage, and so on. Our body is designed to excrete heavy metals through urine (and a little bit through sweat, hair, and breastmilk too)... but only so much. There's a limit. If you're overloaded, your body will store those heavy metals in your bones, blood, tissues, and organs. Similarly, if an animal is exposed to heavy metals via food, water, air, dust, or soil, those heavy metals accumulate in the bones. Maybe the farm's soil or air is contaminated from a nearby factory. Maybe the pipes for the water has lead solder connecting them. Maybe the feed a farm is buying was grown on contaminated soil or processed on contaminated equipment. And, of course, a main purpose of bone broth is drawing out as much as possible from the bones. If there are heavy metals in bones, they will make their way into the broth. This is especially true when you pre-soak with apple cider vinegar and simmer for 48 hours to make it thick and gelatinous (like our broth). And that led me to my second question --- Should I be concerned about every bone broth? Where is the fear coming from? Well... it seems it might be a little political. There was a study done in the UK in 2013 that scared a lot of people. It's titled "The Risk of Lead Contamination in Bone Broth Diets". This study found high levels of lead in organic chicken bone broth, which is quite concerning. And, in fact, this one study is still cited in articles written today! Let's dig a little deeper. Let's go farther than the short abstract. Here are the broths tested in the study and their test results for lead: (9.5 parts per billion): Broth made from tap water plus skin and cartilage(7.01 parts per billion): Broth made from tap water plus bones(2.3 parts per billion): Broth made from tap water plus meat(0.89 parts per billion): Tap water alone cooked for the same amount of time as a control. But, they only used organic chicken from one farm. And, there's zero information about that farm, their practices, the feed, and the broth recipe. Did they use vinegar or wine in the broth? Was the chicken's water contaminated with lead? What was the quality of the feed and the soil? Were the chickens raised indoors or outdoors? So many unanswered questions! All we get is that it was one "organic chicken" that created a lead issue with broth. Another curious thing is that the broth with skin and cartilage contained more lead than the broth made with just bones. Bones are where lead is stored, so why wouldn't the broth made with bones only contain more lead? It's an odd result. Moreover, the abstract of the study specifically called out "bone broth diets" like GAPS and paleo. They even go so far as to write, "In view of the dangers of lead consumption to the human body, we recommend that doctors and nutritionists take the risk of lead contamination into consideration when advising patients about bone broth diets." That's quite curious. Why are they worried about these diets? Are the researchers anti healing through food? Who funded the research? Is it political? My opinion? This study is not comprehensive. It does not speak to all bone broths. But it does cover a potential issue if the water or animals are overloaded with heavy metals. What I glean from this study is that we need more research. We don't need fear to spread and people to stop drinking broth from this one study. Regardless of whether the fear was fabricated or legit, we tested our bone broth anyway. After all, it's always nice to validate that your food choices are as clean as you think. For Miller's, here were my concerns before testing: What if there's mercury in the fishmeal in our chicken feed?What if the soil that our animals live on is contaminated?What is the well water that the broth is made with is contaminated?What if the Celtic sea salt has lots of heavy metals? As it turns out, my fears were thankfully unfounded. Our bone broth tested NEGATIVE for arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury 🥳 🥳 🥳 You can find the test results right here! You'll notice that, for every sample, the results are "<0.01 mg/kg" and "<0.02 mg/kg". I asked the lab what the "<" means. They said that it indicates their limit of quantitation (LOQ), the lowest concentration that can be accurately tested using the test procedure in that sample type. So the results simply report that none of the metals tested were found in the sample above the specific reporting LOQs. Whether or not they were present below this LOQ is information that is not provided by the test. It's also important to note that a "mg/kg" is the same as a part per billion (ppb). It means that our broths contain less than 0.02 ppb of arsenic and lead and less than 0.01 ppb of cadmium and mercury. I don't think a lower LOQ is needed. I mean, I think we can say it's basically zero. What about you? For some reference, the EPA says that less than 15 ppb of lead is safe in drinking water. Not saying that I agree, but it's a good reference point. FYI ---> We also tested our ground beef, and it was negative. Why test ground beef? Because if there was an issue with the broth, I wanted to identify right away if meat was an issue too. We of course do not want to give out food contaminated with toxic heavy metals! We'd take immediate action is that were the case. You know what this also means? Someone asked recently about the fishmeal in our chicken feed. Given that fish nowadays can have high mercury content, they were worried about mercury in our eggs and chicken. Since our fishmeal is made from sardines, a small fish that doesn't have time to accumulate mercury, I wasn't overly concerned. But now with these results, I'm definitely not concerned about mercury in our chicken products! If it's not in the bones and the broth, then it's pretty safe to say that it's not in the eggs or the meat. Do you worry about toxic metals (or other junk) in your food? Where have your fears stemmed from? I'd love to hear from you. You can comment below (no account required) or contact us 😊 ----- Sources The risk of lead contamination in bone broth dietsBone Broth and Lead Toxicity: Should You Be Concerned?Bone Broth and Lead Contamination: A Very Flawed Study in Medical HypothesesBone Broth, Collagen, and Toxic Metals: A Research Review

Celebrating the Heritage of Corn on National Popcorn Lovers Day

You've probably heard a lot about GMO corn and its controversies, but did you know that corn, or maize as many Native Americans call it, is a cherished heritage food? Let's take a closer look at corn and learn about its history.

If animals eat wheat, does the gluten transfer to the eggs and meat?

We've been getting this question a good amount lately --- If your chickens and pigs eat wheat, which contains gluten, then do your eggs, chicken, and pork contain gluten, too? Super interesting question. I mean, the saying "you are what you eat" holds true to some extent. But... digestion is the opposite of simple. The short answer is --- Gluten in animal feed does NOT transfer to eggs or meat. Eggs are meat are naturally gluten-free. You see, just like you, when an animal eats gluten, the gluten is broken down into amino acids during digestion. Then, those amino acids are reassembled into a variety of things that support life and growth - proteins, hormones, neurotransmitters, etc. We have anecdotal evidence, too. There are many Miller's customers with Celiac disease or gluten sensitivities that handle our eggs, chicken, and pork without any issues. In fact, some say that our eggs and meat are the only they can tolerate - wow! A little caveat --- cross contamination. Here are two scenarios: What if a butcher uses products on meat or surfaces that contain gluten? I mean the list of approved sanitizers is loooong. This isn't a worry with our foods. Our eggs and chicken only ever touch water. And our pork is washed in organic apple cider vinegar.Can gluten be added to foods like sausages or pies or lunchmeat? Yes. Some baking sodas and spice blends contain gluten. And some trace ingredients (that don't need to be on the label) like maltodextrin or modified food starch may contain gluten. This isn't a worry with our foods. We try to keep things as pure as possible. Intolerances and sensitivities can be complicated. Some people react to parts of gluten, not the whole molecule. During digestion, gluten is broken down into peptides in your intestinal tract. Then, those peptides are broken down into amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks of life. They're reassembled (with other things like broken down vitamins and minerals) into important stuff that your body needs - proteins, tissue, enzymes, hormones. People with confusing (and sometimes inconsistent) reactions might be having a reaction to a specific peptide or part of a molecule. It might now be the whole molecule that's giving you trouble! That's why many people with gluten sensitivity do fine with sourdough and/or einkorn (in fact, we even have a customer with Celiac disease that loves our sourdough einkorn crackers). Sourdough partially digests the gluten for you and possibly changes the way your body breaks it down. And einkorn is a heritage grain that contains a completely different kind of gluten compared to conventional wheat - gluten AA. There's actually a certain test you can take to give you more info. It's called a Zoomer test. Instead of simply seeing if you're reacting to a whole protein, it sees how your body responds to individual peptides. Neat! Or maybe people aren't reacting to wheat itself. Rather, they're reacting to chemicals sprayed on wheat. Many people with gluten sensitivity go to Europe and eat all the bread. Why is this? Well, maybe it's because glyphosate is banned in Europe. But here in the US, we're still spraying it on conventional wheat to dry it out quickly and get it ready for harvest. It could be that some people are reacting to a chemical on wheat... not the wheat itself. I mean, glyphosate is known for disrupting the gut! This could explain why some people don't do well with some eggs and meat but do just fine with ours. After all, we have the highest natural standards and aim to give you the purest food possible, down to the nitty gritty. What have you experienced? Are you sensitive or allergic to gluten but can handle eggs and meat? How do our eggs and meat feel for you? I'd love to hear from you. Comment below (no account required - just start typing) or contact us 😊 ----- Sources Are Eggs From Grain-Fed Chickens Safe to Eat on a Gluten-Free Diet?Zoomers Food Sensitivity Testing 101: Your Path to Food Sensitivity AwarenessIs RoundUp Giving You a Pain in the Gut?

How raw local honey can help curb seasonal allergies.

An allergy is when your immune system reacts to a “foreign substance”. With seasonal allergies, your body is overreacting to pollen.

As Mary Poppins says, “a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.” What if there were a natural “medicine” for seasonal allergies? What if that solution was sweet and delicious? What if the solution was raw seasonal honey?

Raw honey naturally contains pollen. Eating raw honey is a way to practice exposure therapy for seasonal allergies and lessen your symptoms.

If you’re interested in using honey to curb seasonal allergies, there are some important things to look for:

And guess what? All of the honeys that Miller’s offers are raw and unfiltered. We also offer a variety of honeys from different seasons.

Have you tried raw seasonal honey to curb your allergies? What was your experience?

More from the blog

Our bone broth tested negative for heavy metals 🥳 NATURAL AND CLEAN

Celebrating the Heritage of Corn on National Popcorn Lovers Day

If animals eat wheat, does the gluten transfer to the eggs and meat?

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