【精英翻譯】的部落格

Honey: A Miracle Food and Medicine

蜂蜜的神奇功效

精英翻譯社轉自https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0058/348679/web/

Honey is popular the world over, whether it is used in cooking or in a good cup of tea. But there’s a lot more to the story of honey than most people know.

蜂蜜在世界各地都很受歡迎，無論是用於料理或在一杯好茶中。但蜂蜜有很多故事，不只是大多數人所知的而已。

People have been using honey since before recorded history. The earliest evidence is from a cave painting in Spain that dates back 8,000 years, and mentions of honey appear in the earliest writings found in Egypt, India, and the Middle East.

人們在有歷史記載前就已經在使用蜂蜜了。最早的證據是來自西班牙的一個石洞壁畫，可以追溯至八千年前；而在埃及、印度和中東發現的最早的文字作品中有提到蜂蜜。

How honey is produced is amazing in itself. One beehive can make between 30 and 100 pounds of honey annually, but it takes a lot of work—and bees. To make a single pound, bees must fly more than 55,000 miles to get nectar from some two million flowers.

蜂蜜如何生產，本身就令人嘖嘖稱奇。一個蜂箱每年可以生產三十到一百磅的蜂蜜，但很費工，而且需要很多蜜蜂。要生產一磅蜂蜜，蜜蜂必須飛行超過五萬五千英里，從大約兩百萬朵花中採集花蜜。

One reason people like honey is it never spoils. It has little moisture and contains chemicals that keep bacteria from growing. In fact, it stays fresh long enough that it was once used as a form of currency in Europe. And in ancient Egypt, when a couple got married, it was common practice for a husband to promise to provide his wife with honey.

人們喜歡蜂蜜的一個原因是它不會變質。它的水分含量低而且含有防止細菌滋生的化學物質。事實上，它的保鮮期長到足以曾在歐洲作為一種貨幣來使用。而在古埃及，當新人結婚時，丈夫承諾提供妻子蜂蜜是常見的作法。