The Benefits of Honey: A Remedy for Sore Throats, Wound Care and More
(Page 3 of 4)
February/March 1999
By Nancy Eischen
Eating locally produced honey may also help to minimize the symptoms of hay fever and related pollen allergies, which leave so many of us sniffling and sneezing at this time of the year. John Heinerman, a noted medical anthropologist and author of Heinerman’s Encyclopedia of Healing Herbs and Spices (Prentice Hall, 1996), notes that the best course of treatment is to take one tablespoonful of local honey after each meal, beginning a month before pollen season starts. He also recommends chewing some of the comb between meals. Being a hay fever sufferer himself, Heinerman says, “Although [honey and honey comb] have never actually cured my hay fever as such, I can testify that they have reduced the misery and aggravation of watery eyes and runny nose by at least 80 percent during the allergy season.”
RELATED CONTENT
Poultry and pig, together at last on Thanksgiving. Recipe for bacon-wrapped roasted turkey...
Inherited obesity: A fat woman's womb may nudge her children toward becoming obese later on...
By making your own soap, you can get what you want without spending a fortune on natural products. ...
This glue-it-yourself project is perfect for the short-sighted and short-funded snorkler....
Plagued by worrisome wrinkles? Honey softens and moisturizes for a healthy complexion. Beekeepers’ hands are often noted as being soft and smooth during honey season. To take advantage of honey’s skin softening potential, splash warm water on your face to open the pores. Then apply a thin honey mask, wash it off, and finish with a bit of cold water to the face. Dry skin cells plump up and wrinkles tend to smooth away. Dairy cream, whipped egg white, fresh lemon juice, apple cider vinegar or any fruit juice may be mixed into your honey mask.
Add to all of the above the fact that honey is just plain good for you. It’s chock-full of nutrients, albeit at low levels. Honey is an excellent source of potassium. It also contains thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pyridoxine and ascorbic acid, not to mention calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorous and sodium, too. “Table sugar has no nutrients or antioxidants at all,” notes Percival. “So using honey as a sweetening agent has its advantages.”
Darker honeys contain higher amounts of minerals than lighter honeys. Enzymes also do their part to make honey far more nutritionally complex than other sweeteners. With so much going for honey, isn’t a teaspoonful on your breakfast toast or Band-Aid a simple solution to healing wounds inside and out?
Honey and Babies
The National Honey Board warns that honey may contain spores that can cause infant botulism in children aged one year and younger. Adults and older children are routinely exposed to botulism spores in dust, soil, honey and other uncooked foods, but are almost never affected by them. In immature infants’ digestive tracts, however, the spores are able to germinate and release a toxin. Symptoms of infant botulism include constipation, lethargy, poor feeding, weak cry, droopy eyelids and, occasionally, respiratory arrest. By the age of 12 months, infants develop a digestive tract mature enough to handle the toxin.
