Answer: Myth
With a little understanding of plant reproduction, the reason this is a myth becomes clear relatively quickly.
"The notion is that pollen causes allergy, and honey is made from pollen. Perhaps if you took the pollen and ingested it … then it might somehow build up a tolerance," said Douglas Leavengood, an allergist at Gulf Coast Asthma and Allergy in Biloxi, Miss.
The problem with that thinking, Leavengood said, is that the pollens creating allergy problems aren't the ones bees use for honey.
"It's the tree, grass and weeds that are the allergy pollens. They broadcast [their pollen]," he said.
Instead of wind, flowers, the source of the pollens in a bee's honey, have heavy, sticky pollens that require bees for transport in order for the plant to reproduce.
"The pollen the honey is made out of is not the pollen that causes the allergies. It's not tree pollen and it's not grass pollen," Leavengood said. "As far as allergy goes, it's just the wrong type of pollen."
Do you have more information about this topic? If so, please click here to contact the editors of ABC News.
