You probably know that bees make honey from nectar they sip from the heart of flowers. What you may not know is just how hard the bees have to work to produce one spoonful of the nutritious gold.

To give you an idea, nectar contains 40 to 80 percent water. Fully ripened honey only contains 18 to 20 percent water. To produce a single pound of pure honey the bees must bring in around 75,000 loads of nectar and then process it.

Honey is not merely a golden syrup; it contains important vitamins, minerals and trace elements. In the vitamin category, honey offers vitamin A, beta-carotene, all of the b-complex vitamins, and vitamins C, D, E and K. Among mineral salts, it offers magnesium, sulfur, phosphorus, iron, calcium, chlorine, potassium, iodine, sodium, copper and manganese.