Health Benefits of Honey

Honey is made by honeybees from plant nectar. It is syrupy liquid and sweet by taste. It is used in many recipes and foods. There are countless varieties of honey. The taste, color and smell of honey are varying from each other, based on the different types of the flowers from which honey made.

Essentially, honey is pure sugar. It has no fat and it only trace amounts of fibre and protein. It contains some amount of nutrients. But people do not use it in their daily life and do not consume its enough quantity as it is a significant dietary source of the minerals and vitamins.

• Types of Honey

The most common types of honey are discussed below:

1. Raw Honey: It has the most antioxidants and least processed. It comes straight from
3. Pasteurized Honey: It can be spiked with added other sweeteners such as corn

Syrup. It improves it shelf life and has been processed to

Eliminate the imperfections.

• Origin of Honey

Honey is originated probably in Tropical Africa. It spread out from there to East into Asia and Northern Europe. Americans who are called Native Americans did not even know what honey is. The first European colonists brought the sub-species to the Americas in 1962.

• History of Honey

Honey was one of the most reliable sources of sweetener. In 550 B.C.E, the written reference to honey abounds in antiquity and oldest reference to honey dates back to the Egyptians.

In front of Historical record of man, honeybees are far older. Honeybees were making honey probably 40 million years ago before the Homo sapiens evolved 50,000 years ago. As a group, honeybees appeared to have their origin in Southeast Asia. After that day by day many types of honeybees were found across the world. At that time, honeybees were not able to cross the Rocky Mountains. In early 1850s, they were carried and brought by chip to California. Honeybees are ubiquitous today. In most countries, honey is produced such as in every state of the U.S. Florida, California, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota and South Dakota account for the 62% of the U.S. production.

• How Honey is made?

Honey is a sweetener liquid that is made by bees. Fist of all, bees collect the nectar from the flowers and after that they take the nectar back to the hive and after taking back to the nectar in the hive they regurgitate it. After this, the other bees chew the nectar until it becomes honey. Then the bees deposit that honey into the tiny and waxy storage units which are called honeycombs. After this process, they fan it through their wings for the sake to dry it out. This process makes the honey stickier. From its chemical makeup, honey gets its sweetness.

• Nutritional Information of Honey

One tablespoon of honey contains the following nutrient.

• Protein : 0
• Calories: 61
• Riboflavin : 1% of Daily Value (DV)
• Fat : 0 grams
• Fibre : 0 grams
• Carbs : 17 grams
• Copper : 1% of Daily Value (DV)
• Use of Honey in Medicine

Famous Ancient doctors used honey for the treatment of various ailments and diseases. Because bees were supposed at that time as a messengers of ALLAH and be a source of poetry and wisdomin Greek mythology. Even Hippocrates (466 to 377 BC) also prescribed the honey for wound treatment, injuries andfever.

• Health Benefits of Honey

Honey is very beneficial for our health in following ways.

1. Contains a Variety of Nutrients

Honey naturally contains a following variety of minerals and nutrients.

• Riboflavin
• Zinc
• Niacin
• Phosphorus
• Pantothenic Acid
• Potassium
• Calcium
• Manganese
• Magnesium

2. Rich in Antioxidants

Honey, which is high in quality, is minimally fresh, processed, and unheated, contains antioxidants such as phenolic and flavonoids. Darker varieties of the honey tend to offer large amount of antioxidants than the lighter variety of the honey.

3. Better for Blood Sugar Levels than Regular Sugar

Honey offers some benefits over regular sugar. Although honey raises our level of blood sugar just like the other types of the sugar do, but it contains antioxidants which help to protect against the type II diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

4. May Improve Heart Health

Honey is very beneficial for our health as it may improve heart health and help to prevent heart disease. According to numerous researches, it may help improve blood fats levels, prevent the death of the healthy cells, lower the blood pressure and regulate our heartbeat. These all factors are necessarily to improve our heart health and heart function.

5. Promotes Burn and Wound Healing

Since ancient Egypt, topical honey treatment had been used to heal the burns as well as to heal wounds. Still, the practice is common today.

6. May Help Suppress Coughing in Children

Honey is found to help suppress the coughing in children. Coughing is the common problem for children with some type of respiratory infections. These infections can easily affect the quality of life and sleep patterns for both the children as well as parents in a negative way. However, common medicines for cough are not beneficial for all individuals. It affects them in negative way as those are having negative effects too. With evidence indicating by numerous researches, honey may be a good alternative to treat the cough.

7. Easy to Add to Our Diet

Honey can be easily added in our diet. In purpose to get the small boost of the antioxidants which we get from honey, we can use it in many ways as we are typically use sugar in our diet. It is good for sweetening tea, coffee or plain yogurt etc. We can also use honey in baking and cooking.

Summary

To sum up, it can conclude that, honey is very beneficial for our health as it offers many beneficial compounds such as propolis and antioxidants. It can also concluded that honey is a great alternative to sugar but it can only be use in moderation level because it still behaves as a sugar in our body.