#AtoZChallenge – Honey

This month we’ve taken on a challenge – one that involves blogging through the alphabet. Did you miss a letter? Catch up now.

Not only does honey taste good but it can be good for you too.  It has helped all of us with our seasonal allergies.  This only works with local honey because you need the bee pollen to be from local plants.

Honey contains bits and pieces of pollen and honey, and as an immune system booster, it is quite powerful. Allergies arise from continuous over-exposure to the same allergens. If, for example, you live in an area where there is a great deal of red clover growing, and if in addition you often feed red clover hay to your own horses or cattle, then it likely you are exposed over and over to pollen from this same red clover.  Honeybees will collect pollen from each of these species and it will be present in small amounts in honey that was gathered by bees that were working areas where these species are growing. When people living in these same areas eat honey that was produced in that environment, the honey will often act as an immune booster. The good effects of this local honey are best when the honey is taken a little bit (a couple of teaspoons-full) a day for several months prior to the pollen season.

Some recent research has also shown that honey may help to enhance immune function (which lends support for the tradition of putting honey in tea for a sore throat), and may even promote better blood sugar control in comparison to other caloric sweeteners. The benefits of honey are not strictly dietary; applying honey to a superficial minor wound or burn also may help promote a quicker healing process.

Do you use honey as a sweetener?