7 Reasons Raw Honey is Good for You ...

When mixed with lemon, raw honey converts stored fat into energy the body can use. I like to take a teaspoon or two of raw honey and lemon each morning. Honey is also easier for the body to absorb and it does so at a much steadier pace too. The human body can only store about 500 calories worth of sugar at a time. This sugar is gained from the food you eat. All foods are converted to sugars, since this is what the body uses for energy. Honey is already an inverted sugar, so it doesn’t sit in the stomach and ferment the way other sugars do. The body is able to use honey more readily, so it’s less likely to produce fat from it.

Don’t expect to use honey in place of sugar for preserving everything though. Honey doesn’t last as long as sugar, when used for preservation of food. It will ferment a lot quicker and cause the preservation to fail. However, if you are making something with yeast or bacteria cells in it, the honey will force water out of the cells and preserve the item it surrounds. As a preservation when canning, be sure to use seven-eights of a cup of honey for every cup of sugar. If you try to replace cup for cup, the excess liquid in honey will make jams and jellies runny.

The body is able to get quick energy from honey, since it doesn’t have to convert it to sugar to receive the energy. There are carbohydrates in honey that get rid of muscle fatigue. This is why I add it to my toast and tea in the morning. Maybe it’s all psychological, but I’d swear I can feel the added boost honey gives me in the morning. Honey is not only sweeter than sugar, but the effects are felt almost instantaneously.

Honey has been used to treat wounds and other skin ailments for centuries. Since honey drives the water out of cells, it starves the bacteria from oxygen and causes them to die. This is perfect for superficial skin wounds. Rubbing honey directly on the wound will help to seal it from outside dirt and bacteria. It will also create an environment that isn’t suitable for bacteria to grow in. Raw honey contains a resinous compound called propolis, which actually kills some types of bacteria. It is the same stuff that honey bees build their hives out of.

I personally never had morning sickness with my pregnancy, so I have to go by what my friend told me. She swore by a tablespoon of honey in the morning to ward off morning sickness. You can even add in some powdered ginger to the raw honey for additional benefits. Ginger is another great upset-stomach reliever, so combining it with honey gives you double the benefits.

Eating honey from local sources is supposed to reduce the effects the local weeds have on allergy sufferers. This is partly due to the honey being made with pollen taken from these local weeds and flowers. By ingesting small amounts of the raw local honey, the body slowly builds up immunity to the weeds. Many homeopathic remedies recommend starting this procedure with kids when they are little, so they will build up immunity by the time they reach adulthood. I have friends who swear by a tablespoon of honey during allergy season, in order to keep their allergies from getting out of control.

When I was a little kid, my grandmother would heat up a mixture of lemon juice and honey for me when I had a cough. I would keep a little glass bottle under my pillow and take a swig of the mixture during the night when I woke up coughing. I still use this remedy today, both myself and with my own kids. If I have a sore throat, I will also add in some powdered cayenne and ginger to the mix, as well as a tablespoon of vinegar and three tablespoons of water. I gargle with this mix before I swallow it. One small batch tends to last me all day.

I like honey on toast for breakfast, in my tea, and in anything I can think of. I enjoy knowing that it not only tastes good, but is also good for me. Do you prefer to use honey instead of sugar? When did you first discover the benefits of using raw honey as a sweetener? If you don’t already use honey to sweeten foods, then I hope these 7 reasons raw honey is good for you will get you started in doing so!