Summary
A small jar of this sticky stuff can cost anything from around ten pounds to over a thousand. Some brands claim it can help with sore throats, skin problems, hay-fever and poor sleep. Other producers curiously make no health claims at all about their manuka products. So what’s the buzz about and is there any science behind it?
Listener and beekeeper David got to get in touch to ask whether manuka honey can boost the immune system, and if it has any benefits over and above the ordinary honey from his bees produce.
Greg Foot gets stuck in to find out, talking with two microbiologists to learn why manuka honey is different and if there’s any truth to some of those sweet sounding claims.
This series, we’re testing your suggested wonder-products. If you’ve seen an ad, trend or fad and wonder if there's any evidence to back up a claim drop us an email to sliced.bread@bbc.co.uk or you can send us a voice note to our new WhatsApp number: 07543 306807
Presenter: Greg Foot Producers: Julian Paszkiewicz & Kate Holdsworth Researcher: Darcy Tapley
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, podcast fan. |
| 0:03.0 | Consider this your invite to the UK's biggest podcasting party. |
| 0:06.7 | We're heading to Sheffield from the 4th to the 6th of July |
| 0:09.0 | for the BBC Sounds Fringe at the Crossed Wires Festival. |
| 0:12.8 | We'll be joined by some of the biggest names in podcasting, |
| 0:15.3 | including Sarah Cox, Charlie Hedges, Russell Kane, |
| 0:18.4 | and some bloke called Greg James doing his Radio 4 show called Rewinder. |
| 0:23.2 | You can watch live shows of your favourite podcasts, and the best part is free. To book your free tickets, |
| 0:29.1 | go to crossedwires.com.Fringe. Hello, I'm Greg Foote and welcome to the show that investigates the bold claims being made by promising sounding wonder products. |
| 0:46.9 | Are they the best things since sliced bread or marketing BS? |
| 0:51.5 | Thank you for sending over so many brilliant suggestions for me to investigate. |
| 0:55.8 | Please do keep them coming. Our email is sliced.bred at BBC.co.uk. Or you can send us a |
| 1:03.0 | WhatsApp voice note to our new number 07543-306-807. And here is listener David Teesdale, who sent us a voice note while outside with his bees. |
| 1:18.8 | Hello Greg, I'm an amateur beekeeper who lives in North Staffordshire and in a good year our bees produce a surface of honey. |
| 1:28.1 | Does manuka honey boost the human immune system? |
| 1:31.5 | And secondly, does manuka honey offer any other health benefits |
| 1:35.3 | over and above the honeys produced by local beekeepers? |
| 1:38.9 | Thank you very much. |
| 1:41.0 | A great suggestion from David there. |
| 1:43.7 | You've probably spotted jars of manuka honey on the supermarket shelves and I've got one here. |
| 1:49.3 | Okay, get the spoon in. |
| 1:51.3 | Right, the honey is darker than normal honey. |
... |
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