# Health benefits of honey



## stevesmith (Feb 11, 2011)

Honey is a combination of sugar like glucose and fructose, and minerals.It also includes the vitamins like Vitamin B1, B2, C, B6, B5 and B3 this is due to nectar and pollen.
Thus honey is very much beneficial for health.. 

•It strengthens the heartbeat and prevents form heart attacks.
•It cures from arthritis. 
•It cures toothache.
•It also helps to increase life-span.
•It is very much beneficial for weight loss. 
•It makes a person more alert and flexible.
•It cures deafness.
•It also helps to treat bone and stomach cancer.
•It is a great source of antioxidants which plays an important role in the prevention of cancer as well as heart disease.
•It supports blood formation.


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## MichaelShantz (May 9, 2010)

That beats the snot out of my snake oil.


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## Gibbus (Apr 22, 2009)

I'm all about the health benefits as anyone, and it can help make a nice selling push, but, with the exception of the antioxidants, is there any actual research to back any of these claims? (I would think if it _cured_ deafness, toothaches, and arthritis, we wouldn't have deafness, toothaches, and arthritis around)
I am hesitant to claim anything positive that can be easily refuted later, as it will weaken my argument for the true benefits. (History is filled with this - smoking aides digestion, leeches, currative mercury, hair perms for men, Abba, etc, etc)


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

What is the prescribed doasge? How many milligrams of honey should I consume per day to address my desired weightloss?

What? Please speak up.


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

My guess is the op is a prank and this site would best served by ignoring it.


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## honeyman46408 (Feb 14, 2003)

Thats my feelings too Jim.



> I am hesitant to claim anything positive that can be easily refuted later


I tell people that ask questions about health benifits of honey that "it helps a lot of people but not all people"

Oh what was it you said my $4K herring aids arent working verry good today


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## Barry (Dec 28, 1999)

You forgot to put honey in your ear first, didn't you!


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

As Tom and Ray of Car Talk sometimes say, "Who screens these calls anyway?"


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## Bee Bliss (Jun 9, 2010)

Mark, 
Apparently, you will be more alert and flexible if you take honey and that helps with the weight loss. It translates to staying awake while exercising.  LOL


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## New Ky Beekeeper (Jun 27, 2011)

I read some where that honey will not spoil... only turn to sugar. is this true?


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## John Smith (Jan 31, 2006)

Obviously you guys need to read the book, “The Honey Revolution!”

Honey helps us get well and stay well, but no one said it was what Jesus used to raise Lazarus from the dead!

Eat your honey, enjoy great energy. Your life will be full of adventure and romance, and you will die one day too.

The main reason beekeepers (of long standing?) tend not to be “believers” in honey, is that they themselves are quite energised and healthy, and assume everyone else is too. Beekeepers take good health for granted, but the humble bee has already had a great deal of impact on their great energy.

The reason other medications and medical procedures pushed honey out of the medicine cabinet was that the people who made those medicines (and the ones who peddled them) SOLD the customers on the idea that the new ones were superior to honey. 

People buy what people SELL. So if you want to do a favour for your own industry, get proactive and SELL the idea that honey is the finest medicine in the world. Some of your patients will find it miraculous, others will die. It is the same at the best hospital in New York.

The simple fact that the New Zealand Manuka honey is now acknowledged to be the antibiotic of last resort against Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and is now widely being used to make surgical bandages and burn medication, should tell you something. There is a strong surge of new interest in honey as a health food, and for good reason. Unfortunately, most beekeepers are going to be caught sleeping when the demand for REAL honey really gets going.

But it is happening!

Cheers


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Read a book? What an idea.

Patients? I'm a beekeeper, not a Doctor. In the USA making unsubstaniated health benefit claims is illegal.

I don't know where you got the idea that beekeepers are healthier than the general public. What is your background? Beekeeping?


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## Gibbus (Apr 22, 2009)

I have read pieces of Honey Revolution and I dont doubt many of honey's beneficial properties - I just think that if you go around telling people it _cures_deafness, arthritis, and decapitation, they're not going to stick around to see what it can really do. Over-hype can backfire worse than underselling. 
Also, many of the 'studies' I have read are filled with invalid conclusions. They often point to people who take honey daily or use it in place of processed sweeteners, as having more energy, living longer, leaping taller buildings, etc. These people are also not smoking, eating their veggies and other variables that cumulatively account for many of these factors. 
(Now there _has_ been rather well-documented research done on the Manuka, and these studies conclusively show a specific medicinal property. The extent seems to be unique to the Manuka alone, but honey in general does have antimicrobial effect due to yada,yada,yada....) I just feel the first post does not help promote the homeopathic view but hinders it by being so over the top.
Personally, I just like the stuff for what it is.


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## John Smith (Jan 31, 2006)

There are plenty of good reasons to like and use honey. 

There was a time (not that long ago actually) when the simple advice about honey was mainstream, and no one took umbrage when they heard it. 

I am equally put off when I hear about all the surgery touted as being a health benefit. 

My background, squark, has been heavily slanted towards natural living, natural medicines, and philosphy. My beekeeping experience commenced some 55 years ago. But I have witnessed at close quarters the development of what is today called "Alternative" therapy. It is the REAL medicine, as far as I am concerned and the druged-to-the-eyeballs medical culture of today is a very POOR ALTERNATIVE.

Giving advice on how to live is not practicing medicine. It is called CULTURE. Practicing Medicine is when you charge for your services. So how about popping out the keys and take the handcuffs off me, OK? ................. But each to his own, of course.

Cheers


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

You are free to do as you wish and advise as you are moved to. Same as me. I choose not to tought benefits I am not certain of and medicinal properties is something I am not comfortable telling my customers about. Besides, my honey sells well enuf, so I don't need to make such claims. And people, the buying public, already have their own ideas, which benefit sales and, at times, don't.

There is this idea that honey from one's area helps one w/ allergies. Some people won't buy "local" honey, to address their allergy, unless it comes from their back yard, or their neighbors back yard. And I have even had a person looking for local honey for allergy reasons who wouldn't buy my honey because it didn't come from close enuf to wherew she lived and she didn't suffer from allergy.

The reason we have the medicines we have today is because the old stuff didn't work well enuf.

No handcuffs, just skepticism.


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## cg3 (Jan 16, 2011)

My flat feet don't seem to be improving...


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## Bee Bliss (Jun 9, 2010)

While I was making a funny off of Mark's comment,  I do believe in health benefits of honey. I used it this fall to get over what I felt may have been food poisoning. I was very very ill. In hind sight, I wish I would have also added a little apple cider vinegar. Honey does help in matters especially involving the gut. The acids from the vinegar and the antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal properties of honey would all help.

My cholesterol for the past 25 years was never below 220 to my knowledge. I started drinking a beverage every day once or twice a day and after some time was shocked to have a reading of 197. Now I can't prove it, etc. but I believe it was due to the drink I made every day as I really wasn't eating much different. It was honey and apple cider vinegar with 1/2 orange juice and 1/2 water, topped with ice. Apple cider vinegar is touted as helping with cholesterol, etc. in the book, "Folk Medicine".

I have both books from the honey revolution people which I need to finish reading. Also, need to finish the apple cider book (Folk Medicine by D.C. Jarvis, M.D.) 

The Honey Revolution book will change your mind about diabetes and artificial sweeteners. The book explains how honey helps the body rid the blood of excess glucose and store it for future use. It also states that artificial sweeteners while having basically almost no calories actually cause the body to store fat. This apparently is due to the body producing insulin because it "thinks" the artificial sweetener is SUGAR. Honey is very different from sugar. (Long story, read the book)

Lots of info also in the HR book that explains how the liver works (key to health) and how to make the liver work properly for your benefit of burning fat instead of bone and muscle. There is also a lot of information on how properly fueling the liver can effect the body in many ways to improve health. Honey is an important part of that according to the book as it contains glucose and fructose which is what the body needs. Apparently fructose is necessary for the body to utilize glucose properly. 

A lot (not all) of health problems are due to diet and instead of addressing that people just want the "easy" way to deal with it with a "gimme the pills" mentality. Long term..........many of these health problems could be eliminated/prevented by proper diet.


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## John Smith (Jan 31, 2006)

They have just BEEn BLISSed, Sir/Madam. Thank you for that witness. You have described it adroitly. Please give us all you’ve got about the healing effects of beeswax candles too.


Squark, if you care to try some good strong medicinal honey in your own daily regimen, you will soon be so convinced you will turn into an evangelist. Don’t try to unravel the thinking processes of the masses. It will send you mad. Make life a personal challenge, not a worldwide one, unless of course you are secretly working for the World Health Organisation.

Cheers


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Thanks for the advice John Smith. Are you practicing some upside down humor or something? My name is right down there at the bottom just like yours. Besides, sqkcrk is short for Squeak Creek, if you care to know.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Okay, I'll bite. Say a person, such as myself, wanted to loose 30 lbs, which would be beneficial to my health, what's the prescribed amount of honey which I should add to my daily regimen?

Does the floral source of the honey matter?


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## Solomon Parker (Dec 21, 2002)

I tried the hibernation diet this spring for a couple months. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c1lbfhPLeM

It seemed to work. I lost about 15 lbs. I also discovered that swallowing a mouthful of honey right before bed allows one to function on less sleep for longer periods of time.

This is anecdotal evidence, not medically proven.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

That guy needs to speak up a bit or get a better sound tech.

Less sleep for longer periods of time? As in fewer hours of sleep per night for a period of weeks? I guess that would come in handy for a student of new parent. I'd love to get a complete and restful nights sleep. No matter how many hours that was.


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

Why, you need to buy my honey of course and you need LOTS of it!!


sqkcrk said:


> Okay, I'll bite. Say a person, such as myself, wanted to loose 30 lbs, which would be beneficial to my health, what's the prescribed amount of honey which I should add to my daily regimen?
> 
> Does the floral source of the honey matter?


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## John Smith (Jan 31, 2006)

My apologies, Mark B. I didn’t realize it was bad manners here to address someone by their ‘screen’ name.

On the issue of which Honey:

All honey is good, it is just that some honey is better. The honey that is best for any one individual is the honey that tastes the best on that individual’s tongue. We all have different habits, foods and environments, which give us all a different immediate metabolic situation. 

There are also a massive number of different bioflavonoids in the various nectars the bees gather. So, as with modern medicines, the particular condition of one’s biochemistry will dictate just which bioflavonoid is best suited to return that person to a natural balance (or homeostasis as it is called). When one’s chemistry is in balance, the body is able to generate and utilise energy to the maximum degree. Sickness fades away when energy is present.

With regards to weight management:

There is more to weight management than just food, such as genetics, attitude and belief systems, but food is a great place to start when one wants to change things. But before anyone will voluntarily change their food habits, they will of necessity make some changes in their thinking patterns. Our ‘intent’ is also important. Experimenting with honey to ‘see if it works’ will only benefit those with an open and inquiring mind. Those who only seek evidence that honey doesn’t work, will find it.

Researchers who study honey often switch on big-time to the use of honey. Sceptics are often people who don’t bother to investigate; they simply take a position and stick with it regardless. But the judgements of our more rational mind (our ‘believing’ department) are required as well as our straight out logic. Logic can trick us if our basic premise is flawed. Looking around and studying those who are ‘believers’ in honey and comparing them with those who are sceptics, can reveal some handy clues.

In your hypothetical case of someone wanting to lose 30 pounds, Mark B, the book (which you apparently have declined to read) states that five tablespoons per day is a handy figure to start with. This is, however, to REPLACE as many as possible of that person’s previously consumed sweeteners. So you can see that quite a bit of commitment is required to change many things in the diet before the optimum benefit can be obtained from the honey. There is such an ungodly amount of sweeteners in most all highly processed food, than the newbies to natural health are seriously challenged to make these necessary changes. That hypothetical person mentioned above, would not be likely to succeed instantly, especially if he/she could not even be bothered enough to read the book! However, a person really determined to change things can literally perform miracles!

Particular attention should be paid, mind you, to just how REAL foodstuffs of every persuasion are. Fake honey, fake foods, fake vitamins and fake medicines are ubiquitous these days. The change to REAL food is no mean challenge. Unfortunately, our modern medical culture allows us to carry on with our folly until we have gone past the point of ‘no return’ and the simple nostrum of having five spoons of honey per day may not be enough to turn a dying person into a vibrant athlete. Dr. Fessenden sub-titled his book, ‘Restoring the Health of Future Generations.” Maybe the best way to ‘test’ honey is to supply it generously to your children and grandchildren.

For the rest of us, however, those with sufficient youth, vigour and mental acuity still present, honey is probably the Ace of all foodstuffs to add to the diet of the sick, tired or depressed. Honey may not have the sheer shocking power to raise Lazarus, but it certainly does give a person clean and efficient energy, both mental and physical, to address a few of his/her myriad bad habits. So for those who want to accept the responsibility for their improvement, honey is a great place to start.

I waited to see if Bee Bliss would answer those questions, as their style is probably more acceptable. Alas, but I could wait no longer! Perhaps if I upset the readers, Bee Bliss can soothe them down with a bit of honey.

Cheers,

JohnS


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

There is nothing wrong w/ addressing someone by there screen name. But you didn't. My screen name is sqkcrk and you addressed me as Squak or something. Maybe you were being cute, but not respectful. Let's start again.

Hi John, welcome to beesource.com. My name is Mark Berninghausen and have a screen name of sqkcrk, which stands for Squeak Creek, the name of my honey company. You may refer to me as Mark or sqkcrk.
Thank you,
Mark


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