Drink honey and lemon water on an empty stomach to lose weight… Use a honey mask for glowing bright skin… Consume honey if you have a sore throat and the list of health benefits of honey can go long..
The benefits of this golden potion are endless. But before we dive deeper into the sweetness of honey, let us begin with the basics!
Table of Contents
What is Honey and how is it Processed?
Honey is a natural liquid sweetener that is 80% sugar and 20% water (of course not to miss other minerals and proteins). The natural liquid is made by the plant nectar that honey bees collect. This nectar collected by bees is then converted into honey due to the activity of bee enzymes.
This natural sweetener has been used since the Stone Age. Though all kinds of honey look the same but depending upon color, composition, texture, and source, it can be of many types. It is a super food that offers many health benefits.
Interesting Facts about Honey
- Honey is the only complete food containing essential nutrients required to sustain life.
- It is made from plant nectar collected by honey bees.
- To make one pound of honey, bees need to collect nectar from at least 2 million plants.
- One bee is capable of producing 1/12th teaspoon of honey.
- Despite being high in calories, it doesn’t pose any serious health side effects if used in moderation.
Health Benefits of Honey
1- Healthy Skin with Honey
When it comes to better skin health, home remedies are the best options followed by occasional skincare treatments such as hydra facial. Honey is a skin-nourishing ingredient that offers many health benefits to your skin. It is anti-inflammatory in nature and is a natural moisturizer for your skin. There are many different ways in which the goodness of honey can be used for supple soft skin. Apart from healing the skin, here are some other beauty benefits of honey.
- It fights acne and other skin-related conditions due to its antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties.
- This nectar syrup is a natural exfoliate and is capable of removing dead skin cells leaving you with brighter skin.
- It also helps to lighten the scars on your skin due to its skin healing abilities.
To avail all these benefits of honey for your skin, you can add it to your skincare routine.
Beauty Tip: Apply it directly or mix it with yogurt, cinnamon, or other skin-healthy ingredients.
2- Improves Digestive Health
Honey is capable of curing many of your digestive health problems. Fresh honey contains good bacteria that inhibit disease-causing bacteria in the gut. In this way, it is beneficial for our digestive health.
Not only it improves digestion but can resolve problems like constipation etc. If you want to use it to support your digestive function, simply mix 1 tablespoon of honey with lemon juice in warm water and consume it on an empty stomach early in the morning.
3- Honey Helps Weight Loss
When it comes to shedding extra pounds, people try many things; from fad diets to the use of home remedies. We see people using kalonji for weight loss, trying diets, and what not. In the same manner, honey has also been around in such mayhem of weight loss questions.
Is honey good for weight loss? Can I use this as a sugar substitute? Will it add to my calories? We often see weight loss strugglers asking such questions.
Despite being high in calories (want to know about calories in honey? See the nutritional information below), this natural sweetener suppresses the appetite. Consuming honey enables our body to burn more calories than normal. Thus, by improving digestion and by boosting our metabolism honey can help with weight loss.
Calories in Honey
One tablespoon of honey (21 g), contains the following nutrients.
| Calories | 64kcal/ 267.7kJ |
| Carbohydrates | 17g |
| Proteins | 0.1g |
| Fats | 0g |
| Fiber | 0g |
| Sodium | 0.8 mg |
| Potassium | 10.9 mg |
Honey is high in calories and mostly contains sugars. Being higher than average calorie products, they should be consumed in smaller quantities.
4- Soothes a Sore Throat
Tired of your sore throat and cough? Among many other advantages of honey, it is also widely used to treat sore throat. It not only fights the infection-causing bacteria in your throat but acts as a cough suppressant. Altogether, these make this sweet syrup a good option against sore throat.
5- Fight Oxidative Stress
Oxidative stress is bad for your body. Not only is it damaging for your cells and cellular content but it is also associated with a variety of conditions. Oxidative stress is responsible for aging and is associated with conditions like diabetes, cancer, poor brain and eye function.
Honey can help to fight the oxidative stress responses in our bodies and ensure better health. Regular use is advantageous because it keeps your organs working well.
6- Aids in Stronger Immune System
No one wants to get sick and for this, we rely upon our immune system. A stronger immune system determines your frequency of getting sick. However, several foods can help to boost your immune function. Honey is one such food that strengthens your immune system.
Honey aids the production of immune system cells including lymphocytes, leukocytes, etc. More immune cells will generate a quicker and stronger immune response. So, the consumption of honey is beneficial if you want to have a stronger immune system.
7- Natural Anti-Inflammatory Agent
Just like oxidative stress, inflammatory responses are also bad. The joint pain you experience due to arthritis is a result of inflammation in your joints. Inflammation in your air pipe causes asthma and so on. Inflammation is bad for you, no matter where it is. It affects your organs and compromises their ability to function naturally.
Honey helps to fight inflammation in your body. It suppresses the immune responses in our body that cause inflammation. Regular use can save us from health issues due to organ inflammation.
8- Heal Wounds
Next among the advantages of honey, comes its role in wound healing. It tends to suppress inflammation and due to its antibacterial activity reduces the spread of infections.
Apparently, this natural sweetener is acidic that promotes wound healing by improving oxygen release. Moreover, it also has an osmotic effect and is capable of drawing water out from the wounds. A dry wound heals faster. In all these ways, honey can aid wound healing.
9- Use Honey for Better Heart Health
The health benefits of honey not only extend to healthy skin or gut but many other things. It keeps your triglycerides level low, helps with low cholesterol, and controls your blood pressure. Regular use can help you to have better control over your cardiac health.
10- Boost your Sexual Performance
Want to last longer in bed and improve sex time? This natural sweetener can spice up your sex life. This one food can improve your testosterone levels as it contains Boron and Vitamin B. Being an aphrodisiac, helps to improve your sperm count and make you more fertile.
Let’s Wrap Up!
Honey is a natural sweetener and comes with several health benefits. The benefits of honey can range from better digestion to protecting brain function at an older age. Honey being a natural substance comes with little or no side effects. You can consume it early in the morning, add this to your herbal teas, or make it a part of dressings to your pancakes.
Whenever consuming honey, make sure you consume it in moderation because it is quite high in calories. In case of excessive consumption, you may experience nausea, dizziness, sweating, irregular heartbeats, fainting, etc. Thus, it is always better to consult a nutritionist regarding the safe usage of honey.
You can consult top certified nutritionists across the country via Healthwire.pk or can call at (042) 32500989.
