Honey is full of Nutrition and Health Benefits

Surprising health benefits of honey

• Regular use of honey helps to increase appetite also solves the indigestion problems in kids.
• Mixed with lukewarm water, it diffuses immediately into the bloodstream helps the brain to use more amount of glucose thus helps in overcoming fatigue.
• If honey is taken with lime juice, it helps to cleanse the bowel thereby strengthen the digestive system.
• To have relief in hyperacidity, a mix of honey + ghee is given for better results.
• For obesity and weight loss, a glass of warm water +1 tsp of honey should be taken on an empty stomach in the morning times. If used regularly, it shows good results.
• Honey is beneficial to release phlegm out and acts as an expectorant.
• For sore throat licking of honey is recommended.
• For sore throat, gargling should be done with a solution of honey, oil, and salt.
• Deficiency of vitamin B leads to impair vision, calf muscle pain, for this, bran bread is given with honey and ghee along with a glass of milk.
• Being a good source of vitamins such as nicotinic acid, Vit-C, B2, etc, it is highly beneficial for eyes related problems like corneal ulcers, retinal hemorrhage, congestion of sclera, etc.
• Hippocrates advocated honey for longevity and has used it till his 109th years of life.

How honey is useful

• Honey helps to improve complexion improver within 25-30 days.
• The paste of honey + ghee + rock salt is applied over the insect bite area.
• Honey heals the wound if applied regularly.
• Itching problems can also be minimized by applying honey to the concerned body area.
• For excessive salvation, continuous hiccups, it is good to take the paste of ginger powder + honey. For hiccups, honey is also given with lime juice and salt.
• For stomatitis, a solution of salt, water, and honey is used for gargling.
• Feeling of vomiting, take the powder of chebulic myrobalan along with honey.
• For constipation, a teaspoon of honey is recommended with 2 tsp of ghee daily.
• Honey is also used as preservation for fruits like apples, figs, and Indian gooseberry.

Medicinal benefits of honey

• Cleansing of wounds with water and honey prevent secondary infections and also helps in healing. Honey protects the wounded parts from pathogens.
• In case of acute burns, a mix of honey and ghee is applied on the affected area.
• Teeth cavity pain can be reduced by keeping cotton soaked honey on it.
• If a person suffering from earache, few drops of honey can be used as eardrops.
• For conjunctivitis, honey is used as a local application.
• It is extremely beneficial for mouth ulcer people. It is applied on the affected parts to get relief.
• Honey + long pepper powder is used in the case of asthmatic patients.
• Kids suffering from fever cough and cold; powder of meusa + long pepper +, Pistacia integerrima + garden cress is given along with honey.
• Honey has the ability to draw water content from the wound by osmosis due to its higher sugar content helps in wound contraction.
• Being low Ph value, it inhibits bacterial growth.

Honey nutritional facts

• The nutritional composition of honey is
• Water-23%
• Glucose-35%,
• Fructose- 36%,
• Sugar- 3%,
• Minerals-2%
• Vitamin-0.8%
• Protein-2%

Minerals like potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, manganese, sulfur, chromium, nickel, tin, silver, and gold are abundant in Honey. Honey contains vitamins like Vit-B1, B2, B6, C, niacin, nicotinic acid, and pantothenic acid. Phenyl amine, aspartic acid, gluconic acid, leucin, valin and asparginil protein are present.

The best use of honey

Recent collected honey is unripe, hence not of maximum use. Store honey is considered as good quality and used in the form of medicine and food. Ideally, one-year-old honey is considered to be the best for use. Honey is used in the baking industry, breakfast-cereal manufacture, snack food manufacture, confectionaries, salad dressings and sauces, dairy product industry etc. It is also used in the beverage industry and as an energy booster for athletes due to its rapid assimilation. It has anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory effects, so used for various disease purposes.

How honey is prepared?

Honeybees have to do hard work for the formation of one drop of honey. After extracting the honey from the flowers, the bees store it in the stomach where it with the help of the invertase enzyme convert sucrose to fructose and glucose. The ripening process of honey starts by lowering the content of water thereby honeybees store it in its honey-comb.

What is a honeybee?

There are three types of honeybees-honey collector, supervisor, and queen. The female bee or the queen lays about 2000 eggs every day. Out of these eggs, the queen gets matured in 16 days and its lifespan is 2-3 years. The lifespan of collector and male bees varies from 2-4 months. The collector bees are maximum in number and sting if needed only once in a lifetime. After stinging once, it loses its stinging power. The main duty of the male honey bees is to make the queen pregnant. After the copulation over, they die immediately. To gather 3 kilogram of honey, the bees have to visit about 7, 50, 000 flowers.

How to recognize, identify and test honey?

Honey sinks down when added to a glass of water. If dropped on dry cloth, doesn’t stain it. When honey mixed with 3-4 parts of alcohol formed a turbid mixture that shows the purity of it. Boil one part of honey with 5 parts of water, cool it, adds some quantity of iodine and the blue discoloration shows the impurity in it. Colour consistency along with good taste is some of the features of good honey. It is hygroscopic in nature to maintain its original weight.

The best quality of honey

• Pure honey is yellowish in nature just like cow’s ghee.
• The taste of honey depends upon the flowers from where nectar is sucked.
• Honey brunt completely and noiselessly and doesn’t leave any residue.
• When honey rubbed between two fingers, it becomes more liquid.
• Where pure honey is stored in a bottle, after some time, sugar crystal may be seen at the bottom.

What are the different types of honey

Types of honey depend upon species of the bees, and flowers from where it sucks nectars or honey. As per Ayurveda, there are eight types of honey
• Bhramar
• Kshaudra
• Pauttik
• Chhatra
• Aarghya
• Daala
• Auddalaka
• Makshika.

Prevention and Precaution for Honey

• Honey should never be heated and consumed.
• It is better to avoid having honey in the summer season.
• Pitta type person should avoid honey.
• Honey on overheating becomes toxic to the body because of the formation of Hetroxy Methyl Furfural.
• Excessive use of honey causes diarrhea.