Health Benefits Of Honey



The health benefits of honey have always been considered important as part of your healthy diet. Honey has distinctive flavours and is often preferred over other sugars.



Health Benefits Of Honey: What Is Honey?


Honey is collected from Honey Bee hives.
Worker bees collect, in small sacks on the body, nectar from flowering plants, and deposit the collected nectar in the bee hive.
Nectar is processed into predigested sugar (honey) by other worker bees. This honey is a very sweet carbohydrate with very low water content and is the food for developing bees.
The flavourful honey is at this point collected for human consumption...although there is always enough honey left in the bee hive for the developing bees.



Health Benefits Of Honey: Properties Of Honey

  1. Honey, being a predigested sugar, provides easily digested energy for the ill and weak.    
  2. Honey has a low Glycemic Index (GI), is absorbed gradually into the body, so extra insulin is not produced.
  3. Honey naturally absorbs and retains moisture from the air.  Used on open skin wounds, it keeps the skin moist which helps prevent scarring. Honey was used for this treatment before modern medications.
  4. Honey is used for treating dry skin in modern skin care products.
  5. Honey has antibacterial properties. It can attack the bacteria which cause acne.
  6. Open skin wounds covered in honey prevent bacteria entering the wound.
  7. Honey contains antioxidants which aid the body to destroy the destructive bacteria linked to many diseases.
  8. Antioxidants provide nutrients for healing the skin.
  9. Antioxidants protect the skin from sun damage when used in skin care products.
  10. Honey is fat free.
  11. Honey is cholesterol free, and contains natural minerals which help eliminate excess unhealthy cholesterol.
  12. Unlike cane sugar, honey has nutritional values.
  13. Honey is sweeter than sugar, so has more calories. However, you need less honey than sugar, and so calories are limited.
  14. Honey has no expiry date when it is in its natural, low moisture condition.
  15. Diluting honey with water will shorten its effective life.
  16. The digestive system of babies under 12 months old is too immature to inhibit toxins present in honey. Toxins can cause food poisoning, known as botulism.                                                                                                
  17. Do not feed honey to very young children.


Health Benefits Of Honey: Summary


There are significant health benefits of honey, nutritional as well as medical.

Honey, rather than cane sugar, is the healthy choice when you wish to sweeten food.

IMPORTANT: Do not feed Honey to babies & very young children.


This article covered aspects of the health benefits of honey.