The Study
Natural plant toxins in honey: An ignored threat to human health.
This study is like a summary someone wrote about dangerous stuff that can be in honey. It doesn’t do new experiments or count how many people got sick. It just talks about what other scientists have found before.
Analysis score
Maximum 5 for a narrative review.
Where the score came from
Even though honey is natural, it can sometimes be made from flowers that are poisonous. Bees can bring toxins from these flowers into the honey, which can make people sick if eaten.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 51 / 100
Quality score
Based on clinical experience or non-systematic literature reviews. The lowest level of evidence as they are most susceptible to bias and personal perspective.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes, it matters because people think natural foods are always safe, but this shows some can be harmful.
- 2Some honeys have toxins that cause vomiting, nausea, and dizziness.
- 3In rare cases, it can be deadly.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Journal of hazardous materials
Year
2021
Authors
Sha Yan, Kai Wang, Yahya Al Naggar, Y. Vander Heyden, Lingling Zhao, Liming Wu, X. Xue
Related Content
Claims (6)
Even though honey is natural, it can sometimes contain toxins from poisonous flowers that bees visited, and eating that honey might be harmful to people.
Even though some bad stuff in honey can make people feel similarly sick—like having nausea or dizziness—they might actually harm the body in different ways behind the scenes.
We need the same global rules for testing honey at borders using high-tech tools so people don’t end up eating honey that’s secretly poisonous.
Plants make natural poisons to protect themselves, and if we eat them, these can sometimes harm our bodies.
Eating honey that's been contaminated with natural plant toxins can make people really sick — with vomiting, nausea, and dizziness — and in some cases, it can even be deadly.
LC-MS is a good way to find plant toxins in honey, but we need other tools too if we want to check for lots of different toxins at the same time.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.