Honey is amazing, it’s the perfect natural source of sweetness and can help you on a variety of levels; from improving your skin to relieving inflammation. But did you know that honey is also an amazing food preservative? Check out the top things you didn’t know about eating honey!
We are writing this blog post mainly to satirically point out how ridiculous all these marketing campaigns for honey are, but it has a serious purpose. Many people including myself have been given a label of “allergic to sugar”, but are not allergic or sensitive to honey. I would like to clarify the difference between these two issues. There are very few people who have an actual hypersensitivity to honey, but those that have are not allergic to it, they are just highly sensitive.
Busting on the high myth of honey for the sugar content
Many people have been told by their doctors that they cannot eat honey because of its high sugar content; however in most cases that is not true, and if you keep reading on you will find out why. The main reason these labels were given is because the study I mentioned earlier had shown that when you consume high amounts of honey your blood sugar levels spike, therefore people with diabetes or any form of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) should avoid this food as it could exacerbate their condition.
Now I will discuss some of the main reasons why you should be eating honey instead of refined sugar, mainly because sugar is not something you want to consume in excessive amounts unless it’s for energy purposes. This will also help you to learn about how honey is an amazing natural preservative that can help with your acne, allergies and inflammation.
Here are some of the most common reasons to add a little bit of honey to your diet:
- Honey is great for acne prone skin, helping to reduce redness and swelling and can even be used as an all-natural mask. Here’s a post showing how: 2. Honey has been used to treat coughs and sore throats for centuries, as well as a natural antibacterial agent to fight off infections. Check out how honey is used in this post:
- Honey contains naturally occurring amounts of hydrogen peroxide, which makes it great for killing off germs and cleansing wounds! Check this out:
- Aside from the dietary fiber, antioxidants and bioflavanoids that you get from eating honey, it also contains vitamins B1 (thiamine), B2, B5 (pantothenic acid) and B6 (pyridoxine). [1]
- Can help improve your digestion by giving you natural energy and helping with inflammation, it can also help relieve constipation by improving the flow of bile through your body so that the toxins in your gut can be properly removed along with waste products and other unwanted materials in your gut.
- Honey is full of minerals including calcium, potassium, iron, magnesium, zinc and selenium. These nutrients are needed to maintain the health of your joints and muscles. Besides this, the antioxidants in honey reduce oxidative stress that could result in overall inflammation and tissue damage. 4. If you are suffering from allergies or inflammation, honey is great for reducing your symptoms. This is because it contains anti-histamine, anti-microbial and antioxidant properties that work to help reduce inflammation and allergies in the body naturally.
- This is where it gets interesting; honey actually has a property to prevent the growth of bacteria and fungi in the food you are cooking! So if you’re making homemade pasta sauce or gravy, try adding a bit of honey in there to really make sure that your food is free from harmful bacteria!
- Honey can be used to make pain relieving creams, balms and ointments for aches and pains in the muscles and joints as well for to relieve skin irritations such as eczema and psoriasis! This post contains great honey recipes!
How does your body react to honey?
Your reaction to honey depends on the individual, but the idea that it is high in sugar and could send your blood sugar levels soaring is far from the truth. In fact, most of the honey found in supermarkets is not pure honey at all; it’s been refined and stripped to remove most of its natural pollen and nutrients. This makes it a much more processed food item than what you would expect to find at Walmart.
Honey actually has nutrients in it, the main one being fructose, which when eaten is broken down into glucose by the liver. However this is not to say that honey is a rich source of sugar and therefore will make you crash, it won’t. This research also suggests that fructose can actually improve your health and help with weight loss. In fact, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has even listed honey as one of the healthiest sweeteners on the market!