Honey

Honey - Is it Worth the Hype?

Raw Honey. Unfiltered Honey. Local Honey. Honey in a squeeze bottle. Honey in a jar. Organic Honey. If you're like most consumers, you buy the honey in the cute little bear plastic squeeze bottle and use it as a sweetener. But did you know the potential health benefits? 

"My son, eat thou honey, for it is good" Proverbs 24:13

• Honey is full of antioxidants! 
• That means it can help reduce your risk of some cancers as well as heart disease.
• Honey is great for your digestive track! 
• Helps with ulcers as well as gastroenteritis (stomach flu)
• It fights germs!
• Honey is anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-fungal (due to the enzyme in honey that makes hydrogen peroxide) making it a great booster for your immune system
• Helps coughs and sore throats!
• Honey, particularly buckwheat honey, helps to suppress coughs and soothe sore throats. This is a particularly great treatment for children! (Please do not give honey to infants less than 1 year old)
• Balances blood sugar!
• Honey is the perfect combination of fructose and glucose which helps the body to regulate its own blood sugar levels.
• Get your probiotics!
• Honey has a very large amount of the good bacteria our bodies need, similar to what you find in yogurt.
• Lots of other benefits!
• Honey is known to help those who suffer from eyesight problems, need to lose weight, have urinary tract disorders, deal with bronchial asthma, or need help with nausea and diarrhea.

So what's the best way to buy honey? Ideally you want raw honey from a local beekeeper. By buying raw and local, you are eating honey from bees where you live! This helps boost your immune system even further and helps protect you from seasonal allergies. This honey is available 'completely raw' which will contain chunks of comb and is not filtered. There is also 'unfiltered raw' or 'strained' which is more easily available but may crystallize faster than other honey. Finally there is 'filtered raw honey' which has been just slightly heated to allow it to pass through a fine filter leaving it more clean but may negatively impact some of the enzymes. Check out your local farmer's market to find this honey for purchase. Some major supermarkets and health food stores are beginning to carry more local products so you may have luck there.

If you don't have access to local honey, the next best is 100% honey from the store. I would choose organic whenever possible. Unfortunately, without it being raw, the honey has most likely been super-heated which causes it to lose much of its enzymes. These will unfortunately be most of your grocery-store purchased honey. Now, I would still encourage this over white sugar or corn syrup as a sweetener but you will lose much of the immune system boosting benefits. 

So next time you are looking for a natural and sweet way to heal your body, check out raw local honey! Your friendly local bees are working hard to help you!