Health Benefits of honey.

Honey is one of the oldest sweeteners on earth and its health benefits
are well-known facts. Honey is a food that should be in every woman's
kitchen and every home. It is a reliable substitute for sugar (from
sugarcane).

How honey is produced:
Bees search for a source of nectar. When they find a suitable flower
they go in and swallow the nectar into their 'crop' [like a stomach
for honey]. Then they regurgitate it (vomit it back up). The bees then
chew the regurgitated nectar, mixing it with saliva to add enzymes.
Then they swallow it again and regurgitate it again. This process is
repeated many times.

Health Benefits:
1. Prevent cancer and heart disease:
Honey contains flavonoids, antioxidants which help reduce the risk of
some cancers and heart disease.

2. Reduce ulcers and other gastrointestinal disorders.
Recent research shows that honey treatment may help disorders such as
ulcers and bacterial gastroenteritis. (Honey is used for diarrhoea and
stomach ulcers caused by infection with Helicobacter pylori (H.
pylori) bacteria).

3. Anti-bacterial & Anti-fungal:
"All honey is antibacterial, because the bees add an enzyme that makes
hydrogen peroxide," said Peter Molan, director of the Honey Research
Unit at the University of Waikato in New Zealand.

4. Increase athletic performance.
Ancient Olympic athletes would eat honey and dried figs to enhance
their performance. This has now been verified with modern studies,
showing that it is superior in maintaining glycogen levels and
improving recovery time than other sweeteners.

5. Reduce cough and throat irritation:
Honey helps with coughs, particularly buckwheat honey. It has been
found to be at least as effective as the cough suppressant
dextromethorphan in typical over-the-counter doses.

6. Blood sugar regulation:
Even though honey contains simple sugars, it is NOT the same as white
sugar or artificial sweeteners. Its exact combination of fructose and
glucose actually helps the body regulate blood sugar levels.

**The secret behind its ability to do so lies in its balance of
fructose and glucose. When you eat honey, the fructose portion allows
the glucose to be taken in by the liver to form glycogen -- which
becomes available for the brain, heart, kidneys, and red blood cells.
This enhances the functioning of those essential organs and tissues,
while removing glucose from circulation and thus lowering blood sugar.
Studies have shown that honey does not raise blood sugar or insulin
levels, and produces more liver glycogen than any other food on a per
gram basis!

7. Heal wounds and burns:
External application of honey has been shown to be as effective as
conventional treatment with silver sulfadiazene. Honey seems to reduce
odors and pus, help clean the wound, reduce infection, reduce pain,
and decrease time to healing. In some reports, wounds healed with
honey after other treatments failed to work. Also it is used in cases
of diabetic ulcers.

8. Probiotic:
Some varieties of honey possess large amounts of friendly bacteria.
This includes up to 6 species of lactobacilli and 4 species of
bifidobacteria. This may explain many of the therapeutic properties of
honey.

9. Beautiful skin:
Its anti-bacterial qualities are particularly useful for the skin,
and, when used with the other ingredients, can also be moisturizing
and nourishing.

Honey Warning
Do not use raw honey in infants and young children under 12 months of
age due to the chance of botulism poisoning. This is not a danger for
older children or adults.

**Honey can become contaminated with germs from plants, bees, and dust
during production, and also during collection and processing.
Fortunately, the germ-fighting characteristics of honey ensure that
most contaminating organisms cannot survive or reproduce. However,
bacteria that reproduce using spores, including the bacterium that
causes botulism, may remain. This explains why botulism has been
reported in infants given honey by mouth.

Honey Trivia
**To make 1 pound (454 g) of honey, a bee colony must visit over 2
million flowers, flying over 55,000 miles, at up to 15 miles per hour
to do so.

**During a bee's lifetime, she will only make approximately one
teaspoon of honey, which is essential to the hive for times when
nectar is scarce, such as during winter.