honey

The Many Benefits of Honey

Honey may seem like a guilty pleasure. It’s sweet and sticky, it makes tea delightfully sweet, and it cascades on waffles just like pure maple syrup. It even comes in a creamy form, just like pure maple syrup.

But honey is just another one of nature’s many miracles. Though we, as humans, play at thievery and take many things from nature, honey is probably the best thing to steal, if one is to steal.

You probably already know that beeswax is used for plenty of household products such as candles and chapsticks, but it is also a handy ingredient to have when making your own health care products like deodorant, hair care products, or lotion.

Unlike beeswax, however, honey is tasty and gooey. Honey is antimicrobial, as well as anti-inflammatory. It soothes, heals, tastes a lot better than “cherry-flavored” cough medicine, and it’s a lot safer than using over-the-counter anti-itch creams for those mosquito bites and poison ivy.

The best honey and the most beneficial honey is honey from your local region. Because bees collect pollen from the vegetation within their flight range, the honey they produce will be rich with extracts from the plants and flowers nearby. This is important because consuming honey from your direct region increases the healing powers of that honey.

Here are some of the ways honey can help better your life:

Honey can…

  • control seasonal allergies.
  • boost your immune system.
  • soothe a sore throat.
  • be used as a topical ointment for relief from burns, insect bites, and acne, as well as poison ivy, oak and sumac.
  • Honey can be used as a sleeping aid mixed with warm milk – an ancient concoction.
  • be used as an energy booster, all on its own or added to smoothies and shakes, yogurts and kefirs.
  • be used as a substitute for sugar in baking and cooking.
  • be used in tea, coffee, or just plain hot water with lemon.
  • be used with apple cider vinegar for cold relief.

Basically, use honey forever and always.

© Thomas Jurkowski | Dreamstime.com – Honey