Why Eating Frozen Honey Can Be Dangerous
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For better or for worse, TikTok has turned into a cultural tastemaker. If you’re wondering why a weird old song is suddenly popular or everyone is eating food in a different way, you can usually trace this back to popular TikTok videos.
Now, the latest viral TikTok crazy involves eating frozen honey. This trend first popped onto our own radar with a video made by Dave Ramirez (who goes by @daveyrz on TikTok).
In the video, he shows us that you can pour honey into a water bottle and pop the bottle in the freezer. So long as you are using pure honey, the substance does not actually freeze. This gives you honey with a jelly-like consistency that you can use as a topping or just eat right out of the bottle.
As of this writing, the #frozenhoney hashtag on TikTok has received over a billion views. Unfortunately, this hot (or should that be cold?) new trend is surprisingly dangerous.
Here’s why freezing and eating your honey should be the last thing you do!
Room for failure
Consuming honey in this way, especially in large amounts, can lead to a wide variety of short- and long-term health issues. But one of the simpler reasons that you should avoid this trend is that there is a lot of room for failure.
While Ramirez recommends “pure honey,” various TikTok users have experimented with honey syrup, corn syrup, and sometimes even weird mixtures of the two. While plenty of users get the desired results, plenty more end up with honey that crystallizes and freezes.
Such failures can be a result of the honey you use, the container you choose, and even the temperature of your freezer. And when all is said and done, you may be left with a sticky mess to clean up.
But what if everything goes right? Even then, you should avoid this experiment for the sake of your health. Here are the main reasons why.
RELATED: 8 Things That Happen To Your Body When You Eat Honey Every Day
Tummy troubles
Many TikTok users enjoyed their experience of chomping into that cold, jelly-like bottle of honey. But some of them began to experience stomach troubles soon afterward.
Soon, users were reporting issues with bloating, diarrhea, and stomach cramping. And the only thing these users had in common? The fact that they had been scarfing down frozen honey!
To be fair, the culprit here isn’t the freezing technique. Instead, it is the honey itself. Honey is very high in sugar, and consuming too much of it can lead to a variety of digestive problems.
Sugar can cause painful inflammation in your GI tract. Furthermore, your body will send water to your GI tract after you have eaten plenty of sugar, which is what causes that sudden onset of diarrhea.
Long story short? If you are eating honey, frozen or not frozen, you should do so in smaller amounts.
Spike in blood sugar levels
Now that you know that honey is high in sugar content, the next negative effect should not be a surprise: consuming honey (frozen or otherwise) can cause a spike in your blood sugar levels.
What does this mean for you? You may feel hyper for a bit and then crash a few hours later. After the crash, you may feel tired, hungry, and weak, and you may even suffer headaches and have trouble concentrating.
Of course, this has always been a risk of eating too much honey. But the TikTok trend effectively encourages people to eat a lot of honey very quickly. And all it takes is four tablespoons of honey for you to exceed your recommended sugar intake for the entire day!
RELATED: 4 Ways To Naturally Lower Your Blood Sugar
Risk of botulism
Some of the risks of consuming frozen honey are smaller than others. But the risk being small doesn’t mean you should take it any less seriously!
Honey is generally safe to eat for people age one and up. But, there is a small risk of developing botulism when you consume honey. Honey may contain spores from a type of bacteria called Clostridium botulinum, which can cause botulism.
Botulism is a type of food poisoning that can be fatal. Symptoms include difficulty swallowing, facial weakness, and paralysis. Children under 12 months old are at the highest risk of developing botulism from honey, because they don’t have the same defenses as older children to fight the spores in their digestive system.
Honey of any type, whether raw or pasteurized, should never be give to a child under one year old, due to the risk of botulism. Even pasteurization does not destroy the botulism-causing spores that may be found in honey.
Long-term consequences
So far, everything we have touched on has been a short-term danger of consuming frozen honey. But there are also some long-term consequences to watch out for, especially if you will be regularly eating honey this way.
For example, remember when we said that the sugar in honey can cause inflammation in your GI tract? Regular and frequent inflammation means you are at a higher risk of heart disease and other major health issues.
Regularly consuming honey means you run the risk of tooth decay as well. If you have too much of a sugar tooth, then you might not have as many teeth in a few years!
Finally, frozen honey is full of calories, and the TikTok videos encourage you to eat too much honey all at once. This can lead to weight gain and obesity that may compromise your quality of life and even negatively affect how long you live.
So, have fun on TikTok, but use caution and common-sense when jumping in on the latest trends!
RELATED: How To Stop Your Addiction To Sugar
