Waking up with a sore throat is just about the worst thing ever. The only thing that soothes my sore throat is tea with a ton of honey. Honey always seemed to do the trick for me. I was once told honey was good for us, and if so then why is honey good for us?
According to Benefits of Honey honey contains many vitamins such as B6, thiamin, amino acids, riboflavin, and many more. Honey also contains calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc, and potassium which all is very good for you. Not only does it contain these vitamins and minerals, but even the sugar in honey is not bad for you. The sugars help with digestion since they go in through the blood stream. I also found from research that honey helps cure the sick. Honey can get rid of the harmful chemicals that could possibly even result in cancer according to this website. Many people all over use honey to cure others. Honey is used also to help the skin with aging and dryness. It is used in different lotions and even hair care products to hydrate dry hair. Another website states that honey is now being used more commonly for treatment. Honey is even used to help wounds heal. Researchers looked at 18 different studies on honey that was used as treatment in the past 60 years and found that is helped people’s wounds heal even the ones that were infected. Is 18 studies enough to prove that using honey can be very beneficial? This might not have convinced me but as i read on i found that honey was even shown to help people who were burned. This article says, “Researchers in India found that when burn victims’ wounds were treated with honey, they experienced less pain and scarring than those treated with more conventional medications.” All of this had me convinced that honey was good for us, but is this really the case?
According to Authority Nutrition, honey may be better than sugar, but it is still not good for you. Studies have been done that prove that honey is not good for people who are diabetic because their blood glucose levels raised, but did help as far as cholesterol goes. Also, the amount of fructose in honey is very high. However, a study was done on rats showing that the rats who were fed honey were less likely to gain weight, less stressed, and had lower triglycerides than those that were fed real sugar and fructose. For the rats, honey seemed to not be so bad.
With this being said, then is honey good for you or bad for you? The answer would be honey in small moderations is not bad for you. Honey is a good substitute for sugar because it is healthier, but too much of it is never a good thing especially for diabetic and over weight people. As far as using honey to substitute for certain medicines, I say why not. Research proves that it can help your skin, help with wounds, and burns. Are you willing to try using honey?
Amanda you’re post immediately caught my attention because I am a big advocate for the benefits of honey, mainly because my mom works for a small organic honey company called Golden Blossom Honey so she’s taught me all about it. Growing up honey has been a sort of staple in my moms recipes as well as our household. Honey does have a lot of amazing qualities, uses and health benefits and I was happy to see that someone researched it and wrote a blog about it. Heres a link to my mom’s company’s website http://www.goldenblossomhoney.com/index.php. Check it out they have a lot of really great recipes, information on their 100% organic honey and other info about the benefits of honey!
While my grandmother always put honey in my tea, I always thought it just added sweetness. Now I know that the reason why my throat seemed to feel better is because of the nutrients in it. Too much of anything isn’t good for you, but it seems as if honey is a good substitute for sugar since it does contain nutrients and beneficial properties.
Reading through this was interesting to me, because I am one to also put honey in my tea. I went on Medical News Today- http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/264667.php and found an article “What are the health benefits of honey.” Immediately, the article says that honey is 70-80% sugar, which you can already tell isn’t the best thing for you. But then when you keep reading, the article says that honey has great antibacterial properties, which is the part that helps you feel better when you are sick.
Your blog just made me want some tea with honey! I like how you took the time out to analyze honey, I’ve never really thought much of it. Of course I knew that honey was good for me, the average cold taught me that but I never understood why. It’s so funny how technology can increase our use for something so small as honey and revolutionized it into being so much more, from food to hair care. Here’s an episode of survival medicine that talks about using honey to heal wounds http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OibVGmcCjFE