Honey, Wonderful Honey!
Being a beekeeper, I have watched in wonder how these amazing creatures, the bees, go about tirelessly making honey for us & pollinating all of our food. They are really a community that lives in complete love & cooperation. But today I want to let you know the benefits that honey has for you.
First, and most importantly, it is one of nature’s greatest strengthening foods, especially for the elderly and children. One spoonful a day will give you great inner strength. But make sure it is pure honey, raw, and certainly from blossoms; not from bees fed on sugar or worse, corn syrup. One way to ensure this is know who your beekeeper is, and if that is impossible, buy certified Organic Raw honey, with the name of the type of blossom it has come from, not some mixture of who-knows-what. One reason for this is that this is the only type of sugar that has already been predigested by the bees, and so its energy goes directly to where it is needed without putting further strain on your body to digest.
Honey has always been regarded as a food which provides health advantages, and as a product which has ‘healing qualities.’
Medical evidence of honey’s importance as a health food has not existed until recent times, although its value as part of folkloric medicine has always been recognised. Today, reputable research organisations around the world now take seriously both the health benefits and healing properties of honey.
HONEY, a most assimilable carbohydrate compound, is a singularly acceptable, practical and most effective aliment to generate heat, create and replace energy, and furthermore, to form certain tissues. Honey, also supplies the organism with substances for the formation of enzymes and other biological ferments to promote oxidation. It has distinct germicidal properties and in this respect greatly differs from milk, which is an exceptionally good breeding-ground for bacteria. Honey is a most valuable food, which today is not sufficiently appreciated. Its frequent if not daily use is vitally important
Honey is a quick, safe and natural energy-giver because its simple sugars are quickly absorbed into the blood stream. Honey contains many vitamins and minerals.
Honey is made up of:
natural sugars, 80% (mainly levulose, dextrose and glucose)
moisture, 17%
mineral traces, 3%.
There are many recipes which use honey for flavour; there are probably more than 100 different ways honey can add flavor to a food.
HONEY FACTS
As a natural, unprocessed and easily digested food, honey can be regarded as an important part of our diet.
Try these suggestions for uses of honey:
Use honey instead of other sweeteners. The flavour of cakes and biscuits, particularly those which use fruit, is enhanced with honey and their keeping qualities are improved.
Substitute honey for sugar in a cake. Use the same weight measure of the sweetener but reduce the liquid in the recipe by one quarter. For example, you would use ¾ cup of milk instead of one cup. Reduce recommended cooking temperature by 15oC.
Add honey to plain cuts of meat to make exotic dishes. Vegetables will always be more exciting if basted in honey or tossed in honey and butter.
Add honey to creamed cheese as a spread, use it on grapefruit or as a topping for ice cream for extra goodness and flavour. Use it in your tea or coffee, cordial or cocktails.
Take honey by the spoonful to give yourself extra energy in training. Honey in water makes an excellent healthy sports drink with the honey replacing glycogen levels.
The universal and natural craving for sweets of some kind proves best that there is a true need for them in the human system. Children, who expend lots of energy, have a real "passion" for sweets. This is really instinct. Proteins will replace and build tissues but it is the function and assignment of carbohydrates to create and replace heat and energy; and to provide what we call Honey, which contains two invert sugars, levulose and dextrose, has many advantages as a food substance. While cane-sugar and starches, as already intimated, must undergo, during digestion, a process of inversion which changes them into grape and fruit-sugars, in honey this is already accomplished because it has been predigested by the bees–essentially, already inverted and concentrated. This saves the stomach additional labor. For a healthy human body, which is capable of digesting sugar, the actuality that honey is an already predigested sugar has less importance, but in the case of weak digestion, especially in those who lack invertase and amylase and depend on monosaccarides, it is a different matter and deserves consideration.
Among the many health benefits of honey, what is most impressive to me is, it can be a powerful immune system booster. Honey’s antioxidant and anti-bacterial properties can help improve the digestive system and help you stay healthy and fight disease. Start every brand new day with this cleansing tonic if you want to see this health benefit of honey: before breakfast, mix a spoonful of honey and lemon juice from half a lemon into a cup of warm water and drink it.
Honey Remedy for Ailments
FOR CUTS AND BURNS:
For thousands of years, honey has been recognized as one of the most natural home remedies to treat a wide range of ailments and complaints including yeast infection , athlete foot , and arthritis pain. Its antiseptic properties inhibit the growth of certain bacteria and help keep external wounds clean and free from infection. Honey has been used as a natural cure in first aid treatment for wounds, burns and cuts, as it is able to absorb moisture from the air and promote healing. Its antibacterial properties prevent infection and functions as an anti-inflammatory agent, reducing both swelling and pain, and even scarring. It is widely believed that UMF Manuka is the preferred honey for wound dressing, due to its strong antibacterial property.
FOR HANGOVERS: When you get a hangover from drinking too much alcohol, combat its effects by applying a honey remedy. Honey is gentle on the stomach and contains a mix of natural sugars such as fructose, which is known to speed up the oxidation of alcohol by the liver, acting as a ’sobering’ agent. Follow this recipe: 15ml (just under 3 teaspoons) of liquid honey with 80ml (just over 1/3 cup) of orange juice and 70ml (just under 1/3 cup) of natural yogurt. Blend them together until smooth.
FOR SORE THROATS:
One of the better-known health benefits of honey is that it is able to help treat sore throats. Thanks to its antimicrobial properties, honey not only soothes throats but can also kill certain bacteria that causes the infection. Professional singers commonly use honey to soothe their throats before performances. The Chinese believe that excess "heatiness" in the body causes sore throats and that taking honey drink can be helpful. Direction: Take a spoonful of honey to soothe the inflammation or gargle with a mixture of two tablespoons of honey, four tablespoons of lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Personally, whenever I have a sore throat or cough, I especially like to take warm water mixed with Manuka UMF honey which is well-known for its anti-bacterial healing properties.
FOR SLEEPLESSNESS:
Unable to sleep? Use the famous Milk and Honey Remedy. Take a glass of hot milk with a teaspoon of honey to calm the soul and induce sleep. Or, add 1 or 2 teaspoons of honey to a cup of chamomile tea and sip.
That is why "the Land of Milk and Honey" is a saying cited for the elderly and the young.
