
Sweet obsession: China’s manuka madness - phodo
http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20150828-the-golden-elixir-worth-more-than-gold
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ddeck
From the article:

 _From virtually no imports of New Zealand honey just seven years ago, China
has drawn level with Hong Kong as the second largest market in the world,
according to government statistics, importing nearly 1,500 tonnes in 2014 —
the large majority of which is manuka honey. Taken together, the China and
Hong Kong markets far outpace the UK, which has been the world’s largest
market for a decade but has seen imports steadily decline since 2009._

And from Wikipedia:

 _In the wake of the high premium paid for mānuka honey, the majority of
product now labelled as such worldwide is counterfeit or adulterated.
According to research by UMFHA, the main trade association of New Zealand
mānuka honey producers, whereas 1,700 tons of mānuka honey are made there
annually representing almost all the world 's production, some 10,000 tons of
produce is being sold internationally as mānuka honey, including 1,800 tons in
the UK.[1]_

Those number definitely don't add up. Presumably the vast majority of Manuka
being consumed in China is counterfeit.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C4%81nuka_honey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C4%81nuka_honey)

~~~
meatysnapper
Counterfeit goods sold in China- what a surprise.

It's like the counterfeit Champagne they have that is too pressurized, and
occasionally kills a billionaire when the cork flies into his temple.

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blinkingled
So no one has figured out what the chemical is in the Manuka that has
antibacterial properties and then tried to synthesize it? I have no idea if
this sort of thing is always doable or economical but sounds like it would be
a good business opportunity.

~~~
nabeshima
It wouldn't be Manuka honey then. You forgot the marketing angle, which is
sells more of the stuff than any actual antibacterial prowess. And the Chinese
consume all sorts of whacky stuff - rhino horns, tiger balls, ground-up
cockroaches, etc. With the right marketing you could get the Chinese to
consume anything.

I used to eat a lot of Manuka honey when I grew up in New Zealand. It is
strong-tasting. The Chinese have raised the prices and now I won't buy the
stuff in Australia because it is too expensive.

~~~
drzaiusapelord
>And the Chinese consume all sorts of whacky stuff - rhino horns, tiger balls,
ground-up cockroaches, etc

This is my thinking as well. This sounds like yet another Chinese health fad,
which often has roots in "traditional" and "alternative" Chinese medicine,
which has been shown to be almost all nonsense, with the rare exception that's
due more to luck than anything else.

The linked paper describes manuka as having antibacteria properties in regards
to dressing wounds. I'm not sure if eating it is giving anyone any benefits
and considering what we now know about gut flora and antibiotics, well, people
shouldn't just be eating antibiotics like tic-tacs.

> With the right marketing you could get the Chinese to consume anything.

Autocratic states generally don't have any sort of democratic movements for
medicine, industrial, air, or food safety, so they never get the proper
regulatory bodies to make this stuff safe. Case in point, my wife brought some
cold medicine back from Russia. It was chock full of mercury. There were a few
articles last year about some common cold medicine marketed to children in
China. It was full of lead. FDA advisory here:

[http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/ucm416220.htm](http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/ucm416220.htm)

~~~
p1esk
What was the name of the cold medicine from Russia? How did you know it was
full of mercury?

~~~
drzaiusapelord
It was listed as an ingredient. Apparently, mercury appeals to the
'naturalist' and 'folk cures' crowd which is big in Russia.

Don't recall name, this was four or five years ago.

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dghughes
>and help boost the immune system.

My BS detector goes off whenever I see a phrase like that.

The human immune system is just that a system and the word system seems to be
glossed over as if it's a thing not a bunch of separate parts.

From the smallest molecule to larger cells it's an incredibly complex bunch of
biological process and one food affecting all of it simultaneously is probably
not true.

~~~
halviti
I think that phrase was just mostly meant for the average reader of the
article.

If you read the study they link, it explains the immune boosting/modulating
functions of the honey.

Example: Furthermore, the ability of honey to reduce ‘reactive intermediates
release’[23] may well limit tissue damage by activated macrophages during
wound healing. Thus, the immunomodulatory property of honey is relevant to
wound repair.

I've seen this stuff work for wound repair first hand, and I've read enough
first hand accounts of people successfully treating gut-related diseases with
the help of this stuff.. so maybe don't dismiss it just yet, but if this gets
very popular, I don't think NZ will be able to keep up.. the prices on the
stuff are already a bit much for any average shopper.

~~~
splawn
Personally I dismiss any "medicine" that only has anecdotal "evidence" until
there is an actual successful clinical trial.. and even then just consuming
the raw honey is probably not the way to go since you can't know exactly the
concentration of whatever the active chemical(s) is/are. If you have a
disease, see a doctor.

~~~
halviti
The concentrations are actually known, there are rating scales, with UMF being
the most popular where the honey is tested for its bacterial killing
properties, and each honey is labeled accordingly.

Yes, the testing isn't perfect, but at least it's something, and for many
people with diseases like ulcerative colitis, where the doctor's
recommendation is to remove the entire colon, this honey has offered many an
alternative way to manage their disease and keep their colon.

Now, if it were me, personally I would try the honey first, even if it's never
been through clinical trials, before removing my entire colon. I mean worse
case I eat a bunch of honey.

I get where you're coming from, but until the science is there, there's no
reason not to try foods that we already consume regularly.

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ousta
comparing honey to ginseng is not accurate. ginseng is a root. honey is 40%
glucose 30% fructose and the good stuff is mixed with those high ammounts of
sugar. whatever good stuff there is in it believe me it won't matter compared
to what sugar will do to your liver

~~~
jonnathanson
It isn't meant to be a literal comparison. It's a comparison of the way
Chinese consumers and Korean consumers _view_ manuka honey and ginseng,
respectively.

