Honey – a Tasty Health Booster
Honey is not just a delicious sweet treat, but also one of the most useful products for health. It is great for the prevention and treatment of many diseases. In ancient times, honey was so valuable that it was equivalent to gold. Since ancient times people used ‘the liquid gold’ for eating and treating health disorders. It has great taste qualities and is the only natural sweetener that does not require purification and treatment. Honey has medicinal, dietary, tonic, anti-inflammatory properties.
History of Bee Keeping
Beekeeping was known by ancient Romans, Greeks, Slavs, Indians and Chinese. People believed honey could prolong youth and boost vivacity. World-famous Greek mathematician Pythagoras claimed that he lived to a very old age, because he always ate honey. And more than a hundred years old Democritus advised to preserve the health by consuming “honey inside, and oil – outside”.
Approximately the same recommendation was given by the outstanding physician-naturalist and poet Ibn-Sina (Avicenna). He said: “If you want to preserve youth, then you must eat honey.” This especially applies to people over 45 years old.
Composition and useful properties of ‘liquid gold’
Honey has unique complex composition with lots of diverse healing properties. There is a lot of glucose, fructose, vitamins C, E, PP, and group B in honey. It contains vital acids and minerals, sodium, zinc, chrome, boron, silicon, titanium, nickel, osmium and other useful substances.
As its medicinal properties are so diverse, honey helps to harmonize the work of almost all the internal organs of human body, it is a great preventive and curative remedy for many diseases. The Asian Pacific Journal of Biomedicine underlines excellent qualities of honey as a protective barrier to prevent infections. Here are just a few of its other healing properties: gives energy to the body, restores strength and immune system, perfectly helps to cope with colds and insomnia, regulates metabolic processes in the body, used for the treatment of burns, skin diseases, fungal infections, honey is a powerful antibiotic, helps to cope with many pathogens. It is used in the treatment of gynecological diseases and protects the human body from early aging. Doesn’t it sound as a pure magic?
How to choose high quality honey?
The easiest way to distinguish high quality honey is as follows: take a spoon of honey and pour on a saucer. If it forms a ‘hill’, it means that the honey is good, and if a hole – then this honey is immature. The high quality honey drags behind the spoon, and the false flows down and drips.
How to use honey?
Honey is best to consume in the fresh form. It is prohibited to heat honey at a temperature above 40 degrees, while in it useful substances are transformed into toxins harmful to the human body. A great soothing effect has warm milk with honey, it is well absorbed and also helps at colds when the body simply needs vitamins and liquid.
Undoubtedly honey is very beneficial for human health, but you should know how to select a good quality honey, store and use it correctly, especially bearing in mind that honey can be quite dangerous for allergic individuals. People, who have honey in their diet on a regular basis, enjoy good health, beauty and longevity.