2 1GT Thursday August 20 2020 | the times

times

New research suggesting it may treat

respiratory tract infections is just the

latest sign of its powers, says Peta Bee

The buzz

about honey:

is it really a

miracle food?

F

or centuries honey has

been used as a traditional

remedy to soothe sore

throats and ease suffering

from coughs and colds.

Now it gets the green

light from scientists who

say it may be better than

antibiotics — and comes with none of

the side-effects — when it comes to

treating a range of upper respiratory

tract infections (URTIs).

With existing evidence that honey

helps childhood coughs and colds —

and with the National Institute for

Health and Care Excellence and

Public Health England already

advising that adults and children

over the age of five take a couple

of spoonfuls of honey in place of

antibiotics to ease an acute cough —

the latest findings suggest honey

should be recommended as an

alternative to medication for

adults with coughs, sore throats

and other URTI symptoms.

Reporting in the BMJ

Evidence Based Medicine

journal, researchers at the

Oxford University Medical

School said that a spoonful of

honey might be a better

option when doctors

want to provide a

safe treatment.

“Honey is a

frequently used

lay remedy that is

well known to

patients,” the team

wrote. “It is also

cheap, easy to

access and has

limited harms.

When clinicians

wish to

prescribe for

URTI, we

would

recommend

honey as an

alternative to antibiotics.” It’s sweet

news for honey lovers, but honey is

not a cure-all. Here’s what it can do

for your health:

Don’t expect it to help your hay fever

A spoonful of local honey containing

microscopic amounts of local pollen

is believed by many to provide some

protection against hay fever, but that

is something of a myth. One double

blind study at the University of

Connecticut compared locally

produced honey with mass-produced,

filtered honey and honey-flavoured

corn syrup to see if there was any

difference between the three in

reducing hay fever symptoms. Neither

honey variety reduced symptoms any

more effectively than the corn syrup.

“Grass pollen is a common allergen

that aggravates hay fever in some

people, but honey is produced

from flower pollen so won’t

have an effect,” says Holly

Shaw, a nurse adviser at

Allergy UK. “There’s no

scientific evidence that honey

will help your hay fever.”

Try it to power your workouts

Honey is a mix of 80 per

cent sugars, 18 per cent

water and 2 per cent

mineral, vitamin,

pollen and proteins; a

blend that makes it a

natural alternative to

commercial and

highly processed

energy gels. A study

published in

Strength and

Conditioning

Journal by

researchers at the

University of

Memphis Exercise

and Sport

ALAMY

I

t may be that you are not

paying attention to the

foreign pages of this

newspaper as assiduously as

before. It may be that you

are too distracted by all the

news on our doorstep while

wondering what it would

take, exactly, for Boris Johnson

to interrupt a holiday. An unholy

A-level mess? Thousands of

young people cast adrift?

Well, I suppose we now know

what it doesn’t take. It might,

I suppose, be different if he

were holidaying nearer home.

However, he is in Scotland.

But back to the foreign pages,

which I have been keeping

an eye on, even if you haven’t

— seriously, do I have to do

everything around here? — and

what leapt out this week was a

law being introduced in Germany

that will oblige dog owners to

walk their dog for at least half an

hour twice a day.

Although this reform is chiefly

aimed at puppy farms — these

dogs are never walked, so the

new law will make such farms

more liable to prosecution — it

will still apply to everyone and it

seems like an excellent idea. In

fact, it’s such an excellent idea, it’s

as if a dog thought of it. Hang on.

What if dogs did make laws?

What laws would they make?

I asked a dog and here’s what the

dog told me.

First. Bins will be low for dog.

Dog will like low bin. Dog will

be happy. Dog get chicken bones

easy. Dog get kebab wrapper

easy. Dog get pizza box and

shred it. Dog overjoyed. Laundry

bin also low for dog. So dog get

sock easy. And dog get thong

easy. Dog like chew sock and

thong, yum yum. Dog like to

bring down thong and chew in

front of “guests”. That is dog’s way.

But you never say dog is “bad,

bad boy”.

Dog will always be “good

boy’’ and dog will get belly rub

and even when dog raid picnic

and you be getting cursed —

“people like you should not have

dog!” — the dog will still be

“good boy” and get belly rub.

Dog has only three-ounce brain,

but dog already come up with

top first law.

Give dog breakfast when dog

wake up. Not when you wake up.

Do not make dog paw at your

face when you in bed. Do not put

duvet over head and make dog

burrow down to do paw. This is

boring for dog. Also, dog no like

your morning breath. Is stinky.

We serious about this. There will

be big prison for humans who do

not give dog breakfast when dog

wake up. Very big. Enormous.

“Dog... sit!” “Dog... paw!”

“Dog... play dead!” “Dog... get

your nose out of there. That part

of my body does not concern

you!” Always you telling dog what

to do. Dog do this, dog do that.

Never: “Dog, let’s go movie.” Or:

“Dog, I get what you love about

rope toys.” Now dog tell you what

to do. Dog say, “Lid up,” so dog

can drink toilet. Dog say: “You

turn three times before lying

down. Is the best.” Dog say: “Dog

no like cleaning Hoover thing.

Dog spooked by it. Turn off!” Dog

also say: “What, no salad garnish

with that?” Dog only joking. Dog

never say that. (Power not gone to

dog’s head. Dog still have GSOH.)

Now you work from home

you stay working from “home,

home, YOU’RE HOME!!!!!!” This

not stop.

When dog hump leg, new law

say: lean into it a little. It won’t

kill you. Heck. You may like it.

Dog will say what is “cute”. Dog

will say humans with flat face

“cute”. Dog will say: breed these

humans that are “cute’’ so we can

sell for lots of lolly. These “cute”

humans will not breathe right and

their spines will go “pooooof”, but

dog will say: “Such cute snuggle

monsters!” And this make it OK

for dog to do this bad thing. Even

though dog is always “good boy”,

dog knows it done bad thing. But

dog will think of the lolly.

Cats is toast. This is great law.

Dog very pleased with this law.

Dog has three-ounce brain, but

dog done excellent job.

Cover your

eyes, anti-

maskers

Last Saturday I wrote

a column about my

frustration with “anti-

maskers”, a frustration

that boiled over into

calling them “terrible

people”. So they all

went for me, mostly on

social media, citing

“civil liberties” and

“no evidence”, which

is fair enough. Except

it isn’t.

OK. Here is my

position in a nutshell,

or any other shell

of your choosing.

I wouldn’t wish to

violate your “personal

freedoms” on the shell

front. So if I were told

that stabbing a fork

deep into my eye could

help to prevent the

spread of Covid-

I would need to see

hard evidence for

that before complying.

Definitely. I would say:

“Show me the studies

that prove this is so.

Otherwise I will not be

stabbing a fork deep

into my eye, thank you

very much.”

However, if merely

asked to put a bit of

cloth over my face,

in certain situations,

I’m not so bothered

by the evidence. It may

be weak. It may be

strong. We don’t yet

properly know. But

since it costs me so

little, and does me no

harm, and there are

no grounds on which

I might be exempt,

I’m happy to be

civic-minded and give

it a punt. Don’t want to

end up on the wrong

side of history and all

that. Or dead.

So I just don’t get why

some are kicking up

such a fuss. It’s not a

fork in your eye! As for

the guy on the train the

other day who was

asleep with it over his

eyes? That’s classy,

fella. Well done.

Deborah Ross

What if dogs made

laws? This is what

one told me

Scarlett Johansson