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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!prls!amdimage!amdcad!cae780!weitek!mmm
From: mmm@weitek.UUCP (Mark Thorson)
Newsgroups: net.cooks
Subject: Honey is not sucrose syrup.
Message-ID: <272@weitek.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 21-Sep-85 18:24:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: weitek.272
Posted: Sat Sep 21 18:24:05 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 25-Sep-85 07:03:00 EDT
Organization: Weitek Corp. Sunnyvale Ca.
Lines: 22
Keywords: honey, sucrose, invert sugar


Mr. Gould is incorrect.  Honey is not a sucrose syrup.  Honey is mostly
a syrup of invert sugars (broken down complex sugars, monosaccharides as
opposed to disaccharides like sucrose).  It also has a raft of other stuff,
like pollen, bacterial and fungal spores (so DON'T feed it to baby), various
bee juices, etc.

Honey is preserved by its dryness (high osmotic pressure) and bee enzymes.
Yeast will grow in honey with a moisture content above 17%, but not much
else will.  Honey absorbs water from the air (hygroscopic), so keep the jar
covered.  In sealed jars it retains its wholesomeness virtually forever.

As an aside on sugars:  the terms glucose, fructose, dextrose, and levulose 
are often confused.  Glucose and fructose are the common names of particular
chemicals.  Dextrose and levulose are terms used to describe mixtures of
sugars which rotate polarized light to the right and left, respectively.
A dextrose will usually be rich in glucose and a levulose will usually be
rich in fructose, as these are the most common types of simple sugars.  But
the term glucose should not be used interchangably with dextrose nor fructose
with levulose.

Mark Thorson (...!cae780!weitek!mmm)


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