Honey

‘Nothing is better for the human being than to add the right amount of honey to his food.’
Rudoff Steiner

The ancient Egyptians known for their grand pyramids and lavish wall art had a great respect for this golden elixir and made sure they had plenty to accompany them into the afterlife. Centuries later it is still edible.

Now I’m not advocating that we all go shopping in King Tut’s hypermarket and scoff down 3000 year old honey, I’m pretty sure it’s not in stock. But we can however enjoy a taste of honey in the modern world; we can reap the benefits of the life giving properties it has but also garner an appreciation of what a miracle we have at our disposal when it comes to medical science.

Honey has been valued since the Stone Age when Denisovans took up art and painted our fuzzy little friends onto cave walls.

Hippocrates the father of medicine would prescribe honey for a plethora of ailments. His favourites included creating an ‘oxymel’ (easy translation, mixing acid and honey) this was reported to treat pain, or a simple concoction of water and honey to make a refreshing drink. He also suggested it for baldness; given the marble busts depicting him I’m not sure he took his own advice with that one.

Ancient Vedic civilizations in India considered honey as a sublime gift to mankind. It was used for skin disorders, wounds and burns, palpitations, insomnia and those troublesome tickly coughs. And you thought the pharmaceutical companies thought that one up and put it into convenient bottles.

Honey in diabetes

Having a diabetic in the family involves changing your eating habits and those most defiantly include desserts, this is where raw honey comes into its own.

As well as being lower on the good old Gycemic Index than glucose and sucrose honey has been proven to decrease blood glucose levels as the sugar molecules in honey are easily absorbed and used in the body. This may be due to the enzymes (or essentially tools) honey contains; these enzymes help with the absorption of other sugars and starch.

Honey promotes glycogen storage in the liver (this is spare energy from food). This extra storage is good because if this storage is full up then the liver will release stress hormones and this is bad. When this happens glucose our main energy source can lead to insulin resistance.

Honey as a Band-Aid

The antibacterial qualities of this liquid gold have only recently been looked upon with fresh medical eyes. Never mind that it has been used for thousands of years. Recent studies have been gathering momentum and getting down to the nitty gritty of why applying raw honey as a dressing has offered remarkable healing activity.

It would seem honey draws out moisture from wounds; this dehydrates those nasty bacteria who want to multiply and get up to mischief. For wound management this is a game changer especially where antiseptics have failed in their mission and antibiotic resistant bacteria such as MRSA (Staphylococcus Aureus) want to get in on the party.

Honey as an Antioxidant

More studies are showing the antioxidant properties of honey. You may have heard of those pesky free-radicals or oxidants. Here honey can help to disperse the trouble makers. And if you have high cholesterol then honey can help out here too. A blood test called a lipid profile will tell you if you have high levels of bad fats in your blood (triglycerides) these tend to be very badly behaved and will clog up your arteries like smokers standing in a doorway.

Honey in menopause

One close to my heart here as woman of certain age and those dreaded power surges and belly fat.

Recent studies have suggested that honey could be an alternative to HRT. Estrogen plays a vital role in belly fat accumulation during pre-menopause, (so that’s where my abs went!) Women on HRT have reduced symptoms including the jiggly belly; honey contains compounds called flavonoids which have an estrogen like quality, which help with the little grey cells and to control those power surges too.

As honey contains amongst other things gluconic acid (I know doesn’t’ sound too nice but it’s what the medical science calls it), this helps with the absorption of calcium, which as we’re all familiar with helps with strong bones and teeth useful for us clumsy clots, honesty I could fall over my own shadow.

Raw v’s refined

This is really a no brainer when it comes to choosing your source. Local honey is always going to best as it does not go through the mill so to speak. It’s taken straight from the honey comb (oh yes please) and bottled by the beekeeper. No two honeys’ will taste or look the same this is due to the environment where the bees do their bussing about.

Bear in mind the cheaper the brand the less goodness it will have, usually these refined honey’s have been pasteurized to remove any impurities and can be mixed and subject to a little processing which can eradicate all the nutrients especially those nice little antioxidants we’ve been told about.

This is just the first in many posts I’ll be writing on honey as it is such an enthralling subject.

Thanks for reading and don’t forget to have a look at my dessert recipes.

References

Cardioactive and Vasoactive Effects of Natural Wild Honey Against Cardiac Malperformance Induced by Hyperadrenergic Activity

Effect of Honey and Royal Jelly against Cisplatin-Induced Nephrotoxicity in Patients with Cancer 

Hypocholesterolemic efficacy of royal jelly in healthy mild hypercholesterolemic adults 

Greek-origin royal jelly improves the lipid profile of postmenopausal women

Effects of royal jelly supplementation on glycemic control and oxidative stress factors in type 2 diabetic female: a randomized clinical trial

Natural honey lowers plasma glucose, C-reactive protein, homocysteine, and blood lipids in healthy, diabetic, and hyperlipidemic subjects: comparison with dextrose and sucrose

Honey as a Potential Natural Antioxidant Medicine: An Insight into Its Molecular Mechanisms of Action 

10 Surprising Health Benefits of Honey

Manuka honey: an emerging natural food with medicinal use. Nat. Prod. Bioprospect. 3, 121–128 (2013)

Antioxidant protection of Malaysian tualang honey in pancreas of normal and streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats

Exposing The Myths. The Healthy Diabetic