Let’s face it, you’ve probably seen this trend and you’ve probably thought “WTF?” Yep, there’s a new TikTok challenge doing the rounds and we’re just as confused as you are.
The #FrozenHoneyChallenge is the latest social media craze that people are flocking to TikTok to try out, with hundreds of people uploading their outcome videos onto the video-sharing platform.
But what exactly does this so-called ‘challenge’ entail? Well, it involves leaving a bottle of runny honey in a fridge or freezer overnight until it becomes thicker, stickier, gooier and colder than ever before. When you take the bottle out of the fridge or freezer, you’re supposed to squeeze it so that a solid-looking shaft of golden honey oozes out.. but that’s not all. You’re then supposed to take a massive bite. Yum or yuck?
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Although at first sight you’re probably intrigued by this viral trend – you might even fancy giving a go yourself, because “it’s got to be yummy, right?” – well, you might want to weigh up the health benefits, or lack of them, before you start freezing jars of the sweet stuff.
Honey is mainly made up of sugar, and although famous for it’s benefits and contents like proteins, amino acids, enzymes, vitamins B, C and minerals like calcium, iron, zinc and potassium – too much of this sugary substance could actually do way more harm than good.
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People are taking huge bites of this sticky sweet gloop and munching on it – but it really is an awful lot of sugar to be eating in one go. Especially when you think that just one tablespoon of honey has around 17 grams of sugar – we dread to think what would be in the chunks that people are eating.
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Lisa Young, a professor of nutrition at New York University’s Steinhardt School has said, “Honey is great, but having it in small amounts to sweeten is really a healthy relationship with food, [but] using it to get a lot of followers and a lot of attention and having it in excess amounts is crazy.”
Some users have claimed to “feel sick” after trying the trend, with some even making a quick dash to the bathroom. An overload of sugar can upset your stomach, causing constipation, bloating, cramps, and diarrhea. It really doesn’t sound worth it does it?
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As well as stomach issues, eating too much honey can cause problems with our teeth too. Large amounts of frozen honey being bitten into can cause cavities and in the long-run if the cavities become deep enough you might even need root canal.
If you do succumb to this trend (which we do not advise, no matter how tempting it may be), be sure to brush your teeth extra well to ensure you don’t get a nasty surprise a few months down the line.
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Not only is all of the sugar pretty bad for our stomachs and teeth, but honey can sometimes contain spores of a bacteria called clostridium botulinum. Sounds grim, right? Well, this is why young children shouldn’t be given honey.
The bacteria produces botulinum toxin.. which is in actual fact more commonly known as Botox. Although harmless in small doses, a clostridium botulinum infection in the stomach is something that could cause a lot of harm.
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As tempting as this sweet snack looks, we won’t be trying it any time soon. We reckon sticking to frozen watermelon on lolly sticks will do the trick for us.
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