Mother Nature’s one of the finest gifts to humans is honey. Honey carries the very essence of nature’s importance in our life. Flowers produce nectar that is delicately harvested by magnificently colonized bees into their hives.
Surely it’s the one of the tastiest delicacies that nature has to offer but there’s more than that meets the eyes. Honey is beneficial to humans in in numerous ways, apparent and non-apparent.
Honey is rich in carbohydrates and thus has a direct effect on body metabolism. Athletes have been known to take honey from ages since it instantly replenishes fatigued muscles and boots up the performance and endurance. Pure honey obtained from nature has a unique mixture of simple and complex sugars. Simple sugars break down almost immediately after consumption and dissolve into our blood stream and cause an insulin surge which provides us with energy almost instantly. The complex sugars take time to break down and therefore provide us with a constant level of energy all day long.
So the next time take a spoon of honey before you go for jogging and you can surely add up a kilometer to your daily distance.
When you feel tired and fatigues have a glass of honey water instead of energy drink or soft drinks.
When it is becoming difficult for your child to cope up in school and maintain the strenuous activities at that time honey might just do the trick. A spoon of honey just before bed time improves the sleep cycle and provides optimal sleep. At this age you child might not know the benefit he’ll earn from honey but he’s surely going to thank you once he grows up.
Excellent cough reliever
By research it has been proved that honey is a great substitute for dextromethorphan (an active ingredient of most cough syrups). The part of our brain that register the sweet taste is located very near to cough center and thus affect each other. It can be an excellent home remedy for children since they could never say no to honey.
There is a Indian belief that if the new born child is fed honey as soon after birth then he/she shall grow up strong. As noble the idea is in itself is equally fatal. This is because honey can, very occasionally, contain a spore of a bacterium called clostridium botulinum. This can cause a rare form of food poisoning (botulism) in babies.
Immunity Builder
Since the time of the Egyptians honey is being used as an excellent wound healer. Several researches conducted have been proved honey to have anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties. Thus it is an excellent immune system booster and can help to fight several diseases and a delicious way to stay healthy. It’s also help in effective digestion by improving metabolism. A cup of warm honey and lemon drink will do miracles when taken before breakfast daily.
Anti-cancerous
Research conducted by The National Center for Biotechnology Information USA show that honey has anticancer effect through its interference with multiple cell-signaling pathways, such as inducing apoptosis, anti-proliferative, anti-inflammatory, and anti-mutagenic pathways. Honey modulates the body immune system.
In other words it can arrest this dreadful disease at several stages of its progression. Though this is still a laboratory based inference but one can definitely benefit from it. It may be used as an adjuvant therapy with ongoing anti-cancer treatment.
Honey Glow
Honey has unique effects over our skin reducing black circles, blemishes, acne, black heads etc. By applying honey over skin like a pack certainly helps and gives an additional glow to the skin. This is due to bioflavonoids, generally known as antioxidants, have powerful influences when entered into the body’s cells. They immediately increase the antioxidant levels within cells, “decrease capillary permeability and fragility. They scavenge oxidants and inhibit the destruction of collagen in the body.There are several more medical uses of honey. To list a few:
1. Gastritis
2. Stomach Ulcers
3. Tonsillitis
4. Sinusitis
5. Skin ailments like eczema, hives, rosacea,
rashes
6. Building Body Immunity
7. Facial masks
8. Common Flus, Coughs and Colds
9. Cuts and Burns
So honey can prove to be a very helpful first aid material. Do always keep a bottle ready at home.
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Honey vs Sugar
Sugar before reaching us goes under numerous manufacturing processes and so what reaches us lack the minerals, vitamins and compounds. Whereas honey carries them all and can easily replace artificial sweeteners.
One tablespoon of Sugar nearly contains 46 calories and Honey has nearly 64 calories. Thus one spoon is sufficient enough rather than ending up with more calories when you take more than 1 spoon of sugar.
Honey has all the vitamins intact with both simple and complex sugars. Sugar breaks down immediately giving instant energy but it is not long lasting but honey will provide whole day long energy to go on.
Honey – Diabetes
It’s so very natural of people when once something is off limits they tend to opt for more of that. All the diabetics surely ask if they can take honey. A doctor will immediately respond with a big NO but one cannot ignore the health benefits of honey. So if you have complete control of your sugar level and do a regular monitoring of your blood sugar levels at home then you can definitely consume small amount of honey. You should know how much your daily requirement of glucose and how much honey should you take. Low blood sugars are known to be even more fatal than high blood sugar levels thus keeping a bottle of sugar in times of emergency nearby will be an excellent idea. This will provide with exact amount of sugar almost instantaneously to stabilize your blood sugar level. Just one teaspoon will do the trick.
Honey Recipes
Honey has shown to have yield marvelous results when consumed with other food products like vinegar, lemon, warm water, cinnamon, ginger and many more. All these recipes can be found over the internet.
Overall honey is truly mother nature’s gift to us