Health benefits of Honey & things you need to know before you buy honey

Health Benefits of Honey

Honey is a thick, sweet liquid made by honeybees in their hive by collecting the nectar of different flowers from their surroundings. And once, they get inside the beehive, what they do is they consume the nectar, digest and then disgorge it and they do it all over and over again. The final product is honey, the thick liquid which serves as stored food for the bees. It is also worth mentioning that the taste, smell, and color depend on the types of flowers the bees collected the nectar from. Nutritionally speaking, just one tablespoon of honey consists of around 64 calories and 17 grams of sugar. This means honey contains no fiber, fat, or protein at all. Since ancient times, honey has been used both as a food product and as medicine. With that explained, let us now discuss the different health benefits of consuming honey.

Honey helps in preventing heart diseases

As per NCBI(National Center for Biotechnology Information), the antioxidants present in honey include Vitamin C, flavonoids, polyphenolics, and monophenolics. And intake of flavonoid on a regular basis can reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases by taking three crucial actions:

• By improving coronary dilation of blood vessels, decreasing blood pressure
• Reducing the ability of platelets in the blood to prevent clotting (c)preventing Low-Density Lipoprotein(LDLs) also known as "bad" cholesterol from oxidizing.

(source:-NCBI)

Honey is better for patients with diabetes

Many experimental studies show substantial proof that honey may contribute various benefits in managing Diabetes Mellitus also known as sugar diabetes(a condition where the body cannot use glucose normally). The benefits here can be better control of the hyperglycemic(high blood sugar) state.

But, as stated in the NCBI website, "The use of honey in diabetic patients still has obstacles and challenges and needs more large sample-sized, multicenter clinical controlled studies to reach better conclusions".

(source:-NCBI)

Honey works as a medicine in certain cases

As stated in the sub-title, honey works as a medicine in outer body injuries like minor burns and healing wounds. All you need is to apply it to your wound in gel form and you are good to go.

Now that we have stated the health benefits of consuming good honey, now to talk about how you can choose good honey among all those available to you in the market.

Selecting The Right Honey

There are three types of honey, raw, unpasteurized, and pasteurized. Raw honey is put in a jar after extracting from the honeycombs and clearing it off any impurities, so it contains all of its nutritional properties. Unpasteurized honey is heated slightly while processing, hence it is not as nutritional as raw honey. Pasteurized honey is bared to very high heat while processing, in this case, the heat destroys most of the honey's nutritions, making it less healthy than the rest.

Observing the product minutely

Good honey, when observed through the jar, should be clear, not cloudy, and if shaken should move like a thick syrup. You should also observe the base of the jar to see if the base is clear, adding sugar or putting in additives to preserve the honey for a longer shelf-life is not uncommon, but sometimes the sugar or the additives form a crystallized base in the bottom of the jar. Simply observing the jar you are about to buy can help you choose a better product for you and your family.

Choosing the best product

With all the different companies bringing out their own brand of honey, a point which can face no argument is going for the local product. Going for the local product whenever you can, helps you prevent going for sealed-off products which may or may not be adulterated.

 Conclusion

With all these points mentioned, you can go for the right products and enjoy the various health benefits honey provides when used as food or as medicine. And do remember a good selection by you can go a long way and pay off positively in your and your family's lives.

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