Oh Honey!

Every year when allergy season rolls around, I think of what a friend once told me; eating honey from local bees can help your body build up a tolerance to local pollen.  Science has yet to definitively prove this, however this does not take away from the immense amount of other health benefits honey boasts.  Some of the main ones include skin care, heart health and better digestion.  The sweetness it adds to baked goods, midday teas, and yogurt with granola, is just the icing on top.  However you choose to consume or topically apply, your body will thank you and so will your sweet tooth.

If you’re anything like me, you experience the occasional sunburn.  Okay, okay, so for me it has been more than occasionally in my lifetime.  Honey has been used for centuries as a way to heal burns and wounds, and while it may seem sticky to apply some to a sunburn, the relief is well worth it.  On top of helping take the sting out of the burn, it will also help heal it, and (yes, and) honey is a natural humectant, which helps keep your skin moist but not oily.  Adding a little honey into your skincare routine can do wonders, as it works as a clarifying agent, opening up pores, and its enzymes work as a gentle exfoliant.  Our skin is our largest organ, it’s important we treat it sweetly.

Onto another organ that needs a loving touch, our hearts.  Honey has been proven to lower triglycerides, reduce LDL (bad) cholesterol and increase HDL (good) cholesterol which have all been linked to affect heart disease.  Now, a buzzword, antioxidants.  With 90’s trends growing in popularity, it’s no wonder that the word antioxidant has been on our tongues and ears for the past few years.  They came to popularity in the 1990’s and since then we’ve identified even more foods that host these super helpers.  Adding honey to your diet, in moderation of course as it is still a high caloric sweetener, can benefit your health and your tastebuds.

Digestion, another hot topic.  With people being more aware of gut health, we are seeing a movement towards improving the bacteria we put in our bodies.  Our brains and guts are connected.  I mean they are obviously both in our bodies, but aside from that there has been substantial research done indicating that our guts and brains communicate.  For years it was thought that gut issues were often brought on by anxiety and depression.  In recent studies it’s been found that often these mental distresses can be brought on by imbalances in our guts.  Honey is an antifungal as well as a prebiotic.  It can help to ease some stomach issues and aid in rebalancing your guts bacteria.

I absolutely love to bake and honey has become a staple in my pantry.  It adds sweetness and moisture to baked goods when used to replace traditional sugar.  Knowing that its addition to my diet can help to keep me and my family healthy just makes it that much better.  Summer is a great time to tour local farms, which can be excellent places to source local honey.  So get out in the beautiful sunshine and get that honey glow inside and out.

Photo by Alexander Mils on Unsplash

by Catie Zimmerman