I'm Eric Bakker, a naturopath from New Zealand.
Thank you for coming back and looking at my channel.
Let's talk about Manuka honey from where I live in New Zealand.
Manuka is amazing tree, beautiful smelling tree.
Leptospermum scoparium, so don't confirm the New Zealand tea tree the Manuka with the Australian
tea tree, okay?
That's Melaleuca alternifolia, that's Australian tea tree.
We're talking the Leptospermum scoparium so this is from New Zealand.
There's a lot of arguments with the Aussies and the Kiwis because the Kiwis believe that
it grew here originally, but the Aussies believe it grew there.
Then with the separation of the continents thousands of years ago, that we ended up with
the stuff that the Aussies had.
But who cares?
The thing is Manuka contains many different compounds, different glycerols and there's
one called Dihydroxyacetone.
There's all these compounds in it, which are amazing.
To pass as the definition to Manuka, the Ministry for Primary Industries in New Zealand, I think
this only came in January, I think about two or three years ago, it has to pass five particular
criteria.
The first one being the DNA of the honey has to contain Leptospermum scoparium.
I think most people watch this video would have never even tasted like real [riggi diggi
00:00:01:26] 100% Manuka honey.
Most of you guys out there are probably spending too much on crap that you diluted right down.
But me being a beekeeper and knowing people who have Manuka, I can tell you this stuff
is absolutely phenomenal.
It's thick.
It's almost like tar.
It's a really deep, yellow, brown color.
It's difficult to extract Manuka honey out of a frame, a beehive frame, and it's just
so expensive now.
When I came to New Zealand in 1998, it was still pretty cheap because not many people
knew the benefits.
But you know what?
Me being a bee keeper, to be perfectly honest, nearly all honeys are good for you to eat
in small amounts because I've got honey that's several years old.
It doesn't go off.
Honey contains bacteria [inaudible] properties that kill many bacteria on contact okay?
It's the perfect stuff to use on cuts or burns or any kind of problem.
It heals ulcers beautifully.
It tastes good.
But what about for SIBO?
Is it going to cure SIBO?
No, it's not, so don't think just by taking Manuka honey every day, you're going to cure
SIBO, okay?
It doesn't work like that.
Remember, all honeys do contain sugar, lots of sugar.
When people think they can eat tablespoons of honey a day and cure their gut problem,
it ain't going to happen.
Small amounts are beneficial, but how many people will take a tiny little bit of honey,
okay?
They don't because most people take a lot of honey.
How do you do this?
How do you start?
Well, if you get Manuka, I recommend that you buy a good quality Manuka that's been
certified.
If you can afford it, you get one with a high UMF Factor, okay?
What we call the unique ... It's a Manuka factor basically.
It will show you if the grade is a high grade or a low grade.
Look at the numbers.
The higher the numbers, for example, the higher, the UMF factor of that Manuka honey.
It certainly is medicinal, but I can tell you, there are a lot of Bush honeys or dark
or really dark, almost like black honeys that are just as good as Manuka.
If you live in a country or know a beekeeper, I'd recommend that you go and visit that person
and sample some of their honey, particularly if it's a really dark honey.
The darker honeys tend to have more of a, in my opinion, medicinal value than the really
pale honeys.
Yeah, we had a good season this year.
I think we ended up with about, I think, about 150 pounds of honey, so that's not bad [inaudible
00:04:00].
I'm going to try and make some meat up.
Of course, we've got tons of it stockpiled in the cellar under the kitchen.
We've been stockpiling honey for a while so nice to trade it with people.
It keeps for a long time.
There you have it.
Is Manuka honey good for SIBO?
I think it is in tiny amounts.
But remember, I think a lot of dark honeys work just as well as Manuka, okay?
You won't be paying dumb money for good honey.
Thanks for tuning in.
Keep bees.
It's worth doing.