Honey Health Benefits

Honey is a natural sweetener with proven bioactive antibiotic and antiseptic properties. It’s best to get honey that was produced in your area if possible. Honey is made from flower nectar. The nectar turns to honey with the help of invertase, an enzyme bees mix with it. Honey contains vitamins and enzymes necessary for the proper metabolism and digestion of glucose and other sugar molecules.

Many beauticians use honey to extract blackheads. They apply a thin coat of honey to the area with blackheads then lightly pat the area repeatedly until the honey pulls the offending blackhead out of the pore. Disgusting, but it works.

Honey is twice as sweet as sugar and has very high glycemic load food so should be avoided in large amounts if you have diabetes, Candida, or other sugar issues like hypoglycemia. The flavor of the honey varies according to the flower source.

Honey is an excellent source of potassium. It also contains thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pyridoxine, and ascorbic acid, not to mention calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, and sodium. I love the darker honey because it has a “snap” to it. The darker honey is also higher in minerals.

Honey and Babies- The National Honey Board (www.nhb.com) warns that honey may contain spores that can cause infant botulism if given to children less than one year of age. Adults and older children are routinely exposed to botulism spores in dust, soil, honey, and other uncooked foods, but are almost never affected by them.

In immature infants’ digestive tracts, however, the spores are able to germinate and release the botulism toxin.

Symptoms of infant botulism include constipation, lethargy, poor feeding, weak cry, droopy eyelids, and occasionally, respiratory arrest. By the age of 12 months, infants develop a digestive tract mature enough to handle the toxin.

Local Honey Useful for Allergies? We don’t really know why direct exposure to pollens causes hay fevers whereas small doses of honey (up to two teaspoons per day) does the opposite. Some people think that the tiny doses of pollens in the honey act as a homeopathic. A homeopathic dose of something works in the body by allowing it to recognize a particular foreign body within the body (like a pollen) and get rid of it by attacking it and eliminating the harmful toxin through the kidneys, liver, bowel and skin.

I have allergies and eat honey every day, but I don’t really know how effective this is, but it’s cheaper than allergy shots. The more local the honey, the better. Getting it from local sources insures that the honey will have those pollens in it that you are allergic to. We get ours at the local outdoor Farmer’s Market.

Links and References:

What is Organic Honey?  http://www.beekeeping.com/articles/us/organic_standards.htm

Honey Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey

Apitherapy (using bee venom for arthritis and other diseases): http://apitherapy.org/

Page Last Edited 05/14/08

Diet & Nutrition Handouts in this section:

Amino Acids & Best Bet Foods

Antioxidants & Best Bet Foods

Bitters & Choline for Gallbladder

Blood Type O Best Zone Choices

Blood Type O Good Zone Choices

Blood Type O Poor Zone Choices

Blood Type A Best Zone Choices

Blood Type A Good Zone Choices

Blood Type A Poor Zone Choices

Blood Type AB Best Zone Choices

Blood Type AB Good Zone Choices

Blood Type AB Poor Zone Choices

Blood Type B Best Zone Choices

Blood Type B Good Zone Choices

Blood Type B Poor Zone Choices

Celery Health Benefits

Diet & Nutrition Home Page

Eat 4 Your Blood Type & In the Zone

Eggs—Eat Your Yolks

Eicosinoid Survey

EFA Deficiency

Fats & Oil List

Feeding Soy to Children

Food Cravings

Germanium Holy Trace Mineral

Ginger Health Benefits

Ginseng Types & Benefits

Honey Health Benefits

How to Choose Great Tasting Fruits

Iron Deficient Anemia

Just Like Sugar

Lithium Sources for Depression

Making Nutrition Work Notes

Milk that Doesn’t Spoil

Mineral Best Bet Foods

Mineral List 

·        Boron 

·        Calcium 

·        Chromium 

·        Copper 

·        Germanium 

·        Iodine 

·        Iron 

·        Lithium 

·        Magnesium 

·        Manganese 

·        Molybdenum 

·        Phosphorus 

·        Platinum 

·        Potassium 

·        Selenium 

·        Silicon 

·        Sodium 

·        Sulphur 

·        Vanadium 

·        Zinc

MSG Sources

NutraSweet

Parsley Benefits

Raw Foods and Thyroid Disease

Salt Fun Facts

Seeds & Nuts: Keep them Fresh

Soy Hazards

Sugar Copper Deficiency

Sugar Substitutes

Sugar Substitutes Licorice Root

Sugar Substitutes Stevia

Sulfites

Vitamin Best Bet Foods

Vitamin List 

·        Biotin 

·        Choline 

·        Folic Acid 

·        Vitamin A 

·        Vitamin B1 (Thiamin) 

·        Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin) 

·        Vitamin B3 (Niacin) 

·        Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic acid) 

·        Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine) 

·        Vitamin B12 (Cobalamin) 

·        Vitamin B15 

·        Vitamin C 

·        Vitamin D 

·        Vitamin E 

·        Vitamin K

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