I have just finished harvesting my delicious honey for the year! Contrary to my husband’s idea of having bees, they are a lot of work. Actually, the bees do a lot of work, too. They are an amazing creation! The longer that I work with my bees, the more I learn, and realize that I only know a drop in a bucket of what there is to know about these powerful incredible workers.

Honey is the only food that includes all the substances necessary to sustain life, including enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and water; and it’s the only food that contains “pinocembrin”, which is an antioxidant associated with improved brain functioning. It is the only food that does not spoil.

Most of the honey found in grocery stores is not “raw” honey but “commercial” honey. Most of it has been pasteurized (heated, followed by rapid cooling) for easy filtering and bottling so that it looks cleaner and more appealing on the shelf, and easier to handle and package. When honey is heated, its delicate aromas, yeast and enzymes which are responsible for activating vitamins and minerals in the body system are partially destroyed. With this in mind, you always want to get the honey that you eat from a bee keeper. That way, you know you will be getting unprocessed honey.

Volumes have been written on bees and their honey, and the benefits of both for good health and for beauty products. I saw this article a few months back and wanted to share it with you.

This power food, I’m sure, was found in The Garden! 🙂

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The Honey Phenomenon – How This Liquid Gold HEALS Your Ailing Body

from: The Alternative Daily written by Dr. Joshua Levitt
What is the number 1 sugar that fights disease and chronic conditions?

They’re prescribing it to treat life-threatening diseases, heal chronic conditions, and keep people looking and feeling their very best.

If you guessed honey, then you’re absolutely right. For we’ve all heard about how honey is a remarkable substance. We’ve heard about how it “doesn’t go bad,” and about how archaeologists found unspoiled, 2000-year-old honey in an Egyptian tomb.

Honey contains a concentrated dose of vitamins, minerals and nutrients that nourish and re-vitalize your body.  It also possesses unique antimicrobial properties that help you fight off infections.

Throughout history, honey has been used to treat…

• Coughs
• Wounds
• Indigestion
• Skin infections
• Fatigue
• Flu’s
• Burns
• And more!
  For example, honey was the most popular ancient Egyptian healing remedy (and was mentioned over 500 times in 900 remedies.)

Hippocrates (the father of modern medicine) used honey as a treatment for pain, dehydration, and fever. And this isn’t just some “folk remedy” discredited by modern science either. Researchers (in thousands of peer-reviewed papers) continue to uncover just how healing honey can be.

In fact…
I personally prescribe this “healing super food” to my patients.

This often surprises people though.

I still remember how one patient, Rachel, just stood there, staring at me with her mouth open.

“Hold on. Let me get this straight.” she said. “Did I really just hear my doctor tell me to give my seven-year-old son honey?!?”

I nodded. “Just a spoonful before he goes to bed. The cough will clear up in no time.”

Her son, Kevin, had just recovered from the flu. And while the fever and nausea had faded, his cough hadn’t.

Overcome by a fit of coughing every five minutes, he couldn’t sleep at night (which made him cranky and miserable all day.)

Rachel was at her wit’s end. The sleepless nights left her exhausted. And she’d done everything she could think of to help her son… Lots of water… Cough syrup… Even antibiotics.

And here I was, a physician, prescribing something you’d normally drizzle over oatmeal or spread on toast.

Truth be told though, I could sympathize with her skepticism. For when I first heard about honey’s life-giving properties…

I Didn’t Believe the Science

See, I’m a naturopathic physician. What that means is that I treat real patients for real illnesses. I’m responsible for helping them get better.

I don’t take that responsibility lightly.

That makes me a fierce skeptic when it comes to “miracle cures”. If you’re going to trust me as their doctor, I intend full-well to repay that trust and prescribe treatments that will work.

I demand to see peer-reviewed studies.

I go out of my way to talk to leading doctors and health experts.

In fact, my strict standards for evidence are a key reason why I have the respect of not just the alternative health world, but the traditional western medical community as well.

Take, for example, the endorsement of Yale University (a leading, Ivy League medical institution.) I teach classes there. And I help them develop their curriculum.

In addition, I am also…
A Doctor for Doctors.

Many of my current patients are doctors and nurses.

After seeing the results I get for their patients (I tend to get referred “problem” cases that traditional medicine can’t solve), doctors often come to me and say, “Whatever you did to that guy, I want you to do it to me too.”

All this is to say…

I’m very serious when it comes to medicine.

And when I first heard the claims people were making about honey’s healing abilities, I was rightly skeptical.

After all…
Aren’t Sweets Bad for You?

We’ve all heard about how sugar causes obesity, diabetes, and a bunch of other chronic diseases.

We’ve also heard how it costs the United States over $150 billion dollars each year in medical expenses.

Or how leading health figures like the Dutch health minister, Paul Van der Velpen, proclaim sugar to be worse than alcohol, tobacco, and cocaine combined.

It’s all true.

Sugar can be extremely hazardous to your health.

But this depends on two critical factors…

1. How much sugar you consume.

2. What kind of sugar you eat.

Consumed in moderation, sugar is a helpful source of energy. That is… provided you get it from the right sources.

We humans evolved to get our sugar by eating whole foods like fruits, vegetables, and yes, even honey. Your body knows how to extract the maximum benefit from these whole foods.

Honey, in particular, has three critical healing effects…

First, honey supports your immune system and fights off harmful bacteria.

As you know, your body is under constant assault by numerous viruses and bacteria that threaten to tire you out, make you sick, and even kill you.

Fighting off this threat is key to staying healthy.

One of the vital components in honey is an enzyme called glucose oxidase. This enzyme, when exposed to oxygen, produces hydrogen peroxide — a strong acid that dissolves the cell walls of bacteria. (Most human cells have thicker cell walls and can resist the low amounts of acid honey produces.)

This makes honey a powerful tool for fighting skin infections, healing wounds, and otherwise supporting your immune system. (And it’s why honey is able to last for so long in your cupboard without going bad.)

Second, it supplies the “building blocks” for healthy cells.

In addition to giving you sugars, honey equips your body with a complex array of proteins, enzymes, minerals, vitamins, antioxidants, and other nutrients. The second these nutrients hit your body, they go to work…

• Tuning up your heart, lungs, stomach, brain, eyes, and skin…
• Controlling cancer-causing free-radicals and stopping cell damage in its tracks…
• Detoxifying your body of harmful pollutants and other toxins.

This is all good News!

However, honey still has a very high sugar content (70%-85% depending on the type of honey you get.) And as just about any health official will tell you, sugar is a major cause of obesity, diabetes, and all the other chronic illnesses we see in abundance today.

So shouldn’t we avoid honey despite its antimicrobial and nutritional properties?

Well, that brings me to the third healing effect of honey. It turns out…

Honey burns differently in your body than other sugar!

You’ve probably experienced just how rapidly most sugar burns in your body — how it gives you a sudden surge of energy followed shortly by a complete crash.

Yet when you eat honey, you don’t get that same “flare effect”. Instead you get a slow, even burn of energy — which you can put to use for things like working, playing sports, or spending time with your family.

That’s because all the extra enzymes and nutrients in honey not only help the body rebuild itself — they also regulate how the body uses the sugar.

It’s kind of like the flame on your stove.

Contained and controlled by the burner, valves, and the rest of the stove, you can safely use the fire for cooking.

But take that flame out of context — by putting it on your living room floor for example — it can quickly burn out of control and cause all kinds of damage.

In the same way, sugars eaten outside their normal context of whole, complete foods run riot in our bodies — leaving us exhausted, overweight, and sick.

Honey is the ultimate treatment for wounds, burns, and infections.

Did you know that hospitals all over the world are turning to honey as the medication of choice for a number of conditions… including for wounds and burns?

This is in response to the growing body of research highlighting how effective honey is at killing dangerous infections and accelerating wound healing.

A recent study in New Zealand found honey heals burn wounds twice as fast as traditional dressings.

Honey protects and beautifies your skin.

Follow in the footsteps of Queen Cleopatra, one of the most magnetic and seductive women in human history. Her big beauty secret? Honey.

Historical documents say she relied on honey to keep
her skin smooth, fresh, and moist… even in the scorching hot, dry Egyptian air.
Honey sucks moisture from the air and stops your skin from drying out (giving you a healthy, youthful glow).

Honey fuels your metabolism.

Honey’s “slow release” effect provides your body with a stable, even burn of energy. (No more dangerous blood-sugar crashes that leave you miserable and cranky.)

Honey improves fat metabolism and disposal… and lets you quickly burn away unwanted fat on your belly, thighs, and face.

Honey can clear up coughs, colds and even allergies!

Honey inoculates you against many seasonal allergies.

Certain fungal infections in the sinus can cause serious inflammation and pain… and traditional nasal sprays only make matters worse. Use a homemade, honey-based spray instead.
Got a persistent, annoying cough keeping you awake at night? Reclaim your sleep with a “honey and coffee” cough syrup. (It clears even the most stubborn cases.)

Honey helps fight against cancer!

Everyone knows that when it comes to cancer, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And the very best prevention is helping the body maintain healthy cells.

A single spoonful of honey is packed with over 16 types of antioxidants — all of which rebuild the cells in your body, fight free-radical damage, and combat aging.

• Honey is the sweetener of choice for those with cancer (including colon cancers, leukemia, breast cancers, and more).
• The “super-power” antioxidants found in honey helps your body stop cancer before it starts. (Even trace amounts of these antioxidants promote rapid growth of healthy tissue.)
• The preliminary studies in animals that show how honey may help inhibit the spread of leukemia cells.
• Side-effects of cancer treatments can sometimes be as painful as the cancer itself. Honey can be used to treat and prevent painful radiation damage.

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Add this “super food” to your diet today and begin experiencing the healing power of honey!

As always, share with a friend who could benefit from this.  🙂