In this short article, we will answer the question “How do you say honey in Spanish?” and will share with you fun facts about this sweet and delicious elixir.
How do you say honey in Spanish?
Honey in Spanish is “miel”
What exactly is miel (or honey)?
A healthy food called honey is made from nectar that has been processed by digestive enzymes inside the digestive tract of worker bees and is then stored in combs inside the hive.
This substance is created to act as food for adult colony insects as well as growing larvae. Its composition, which has a sticky consistency and a sweet flavour, combines a number of ingredients, including:
- An abundance of sugars (glucose, fructose, and maltose);
- Lipids (fatty acids), including oleic, palmitic, and linoleic acids;
- Amino acids (alanine, arginine, glutamic, and aspartic acid) and proteins;
- In addition to mineral salts (including boron, phosphorus, iron, manganese, and copper);
- also vitamins (A, B complex, C, D and K).
In the wild, this substance is primarily produced as a food source that bees use to survive the winter.
However, this enriched nutrient, which had already been utilised by prehistoric societies, started to be exploited in a predatory manner due to its immunological, antibacterial, expectorant, and analgesic qualities.
As a consequence of the advancement and refinement of beekeeping management techniques, it can now be extracted sensibly and without doing much environmental harm.
How do bees generate honey?
Let’s start by discussing what nectar is. In essence, nectar is a liquid that includes carbohydrates and is utilised by plants to entice animals like insects, birds, and mammals.
Animals accidentally collide into pollen-containing flower structures while visiting flowers to obtain this substance. Pollination occurs when pollen, which is a flower’s male reproductive component, is spread to other flowers.
There are many plants that rely on insects visiting their blossoms to pollinate them to varying degrees. Fruit and seed production, which are necessary for the survival of the species, would not happen without pollination. And the best pollination specialists are bees!
Bees gather nectar from plants and transport it into their hive in an unique organ known as a honey vesicle or “honey crop.
During transport, the nectar already starts to be broken down into simpler sugars by the action of bee-produced enzymes, making it easier for bees to digest and less vulnerable to the attack of unwelcome germs.
This nectar continues to be subjected to the activity of bee enzymes inside the hive and is gradually dehydrated, turning into honey.
Honey fun facts:
- Ancient Egypt has the earliest records of honey usage, from 5,500 BC. At that time, the southern region of the nation was referred to as the “Land of Bees.” However, extractive consumption is thought to be even earlier.
- The Vedas of India, the Quran, and the Bible all reference honey. The Hebrews left Egypt in search of the promised land of milk and honey, according to the Old Testament.
- An average person consumes little more than 300 grammes of honey in Latin America, compared to 1 kilogramme per person in Europe, Africa, and the United States.
- The term “honeymoon” originates from an ancient Irish tradition from the Middle Ages. A “honeymoon” or full moon was produced by the bride and groom drinking a liquid made of yeast, malt, water, and honey for a month at the time.
- A minimum of 5 million flowers must be visited by bees in order to generate one kilogramme of honey. A bee makes approximately 5 grammes of honey per year.
- Around 250 kg of honey can be produced annually by a colony of 50,000 bees.
- An individual bee makes about 40 trips daily in pursuit of nectar.
- Bees collect nectar, which is then mixed with the enzymes (invertase and glucose oxidase) that turn it into honey in the digestive system of the insect. Therefore, to claim that honey is bee poop is not an exaggeration.
- It is untrue to say that honey does not break down. Over time, it usually ferments. The alcohol odour and the presence of froth are the two key indicators of expired honey.
- Honey can take a very long time to break down. So much so that honey pots have been discovered at Egyptian archaeological sites in comparatively good shape.
- Why, though, does honey take so long to break down? mostly because to its low water content (17%) and high sugar content (about 90%).
- Honey also contains the vitamins B, C, D, and E in addition to glucose and fructose. It works wonders as a healer and antibacterial.
- Many beauty salons utilise honey in their moisturising masks. Apitherapy is the term for its medical and aesthetic uses.
- Plant resin known as propolis has been modified by enzymes found in bee saliva. It is utilised to make the hive structure stiff. Croatian research has demonstrated that it can lessen the metastasis of some tumour types.
- The queen’s primary food source is the royal glacier, which is made by operary young bees. It is said to offer fantastic immune-stimulating and anti-fatigue qualities.
- China is the largest honey producer in the world.
Conclusion:
In this short article, we answered the question “How do you say honey in Spanish?” and also shared with you fun facts about this sweet and delicious elixir.