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Benefits of Honey – Nature’s Miracle for Health and Nutrition

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Honey is the golden nectar of life.
It is the ultimate nourisher of health and life.
Rich in taste, texture, and fragrance it is associated with sweetness and compassion, across many cultures.
Along with sweetness and love, Honey, Honeycomb, and the Honey bees signify the wonderfulness of relentless hard work, cooperation, unity, togetherness, and interconnectedness.
While western researchers are now recognizing Honey’s multiple benefits for human life, Ayurveda has identified Honey as Nature’s remarkable gift, for many millennia.

Magical Properties of Honey @ a Glance

A Multi-faceted personality.
It is a Food, a Supplement, a Medicine, a Sweet, a Sweetener, a Taste Enhancer, an Anti-septic, and even a Beauty product!

Close to our Lifeline
Honey is a substance whose chemical composition is very close to that of human blood.

Already Digested
Honey is pre-digested food and that gives Honey its wonderful quality of getting assimilated in the blood, almost immediately.
Hence honey is absorbed in our system very quickly and that makes it easily digestible.

Catalyst ‘Yogavahi’
Honey has amazing benefits of its own. But what is more amazing is that it enhances the effectiveness of other medicines or supplements that are taken with it.

Natural Healer and Purifier
It has great medicinal benefits for Blood, Skin, Eyes, Teeth, Heart, Sleep, Respiratory system, Digestive tract and more. It cleanses, purifies, heals, and connects to bring the whole human system to its best.

All-Inclusive
Old or matured honey or ‘Purana Madhu’ is one of those very few things that have a pacifying or enhancing impact on all three doshas – Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. However, it should be consumed as guided in Ayurvedic texts.

Ayurveda’s View on HONEY

Honey as a substance has not been explored anywhere else as extensively it was explored by experts of Ayurveda.

In Ayurveda, honey is commonly known as Madhu.
It is also known as Pushpa Rasa, Makshika, Kusuma Sava.
Madhu means “Perfection of Sweetness”.
Not only the honey but the honey bee is also treated as sacred and various names, quotes, and shlokas offer reverence to the Honey and Honey-Bee also.

Honey is one of the five elixirs of life and immortality – known as Panchamrit.
Due to its natural purifying and nourishing abilities, Honey is also used in Abhishek – an offering at sacred places in India, since ancient times.
Owing to its miraculous benefits, Ayurveda considers Honey one of Nature’s most incredible gifts to Humankind.

Source of Energy
Honey is known to increase Ojas, which is the very essence of life energy.
Honey has always been an essential ingredient for holistic health as per the Vedic lifestyle. Honey is a wonderful source of ‘Ushna’ – heat energy that is important for the growth and development of the body.
Ayurveda identified Honey as predigested food that, easily gets assimilated in our bodies.

Honey’s Nature and Medicinal Benefits – as per Ayurveda
Apart from rejuvenating benefits of Honey, ancient texts elaborate on how honey is a miraculous medicine for blood, heart, respiratory system, digestive system, skin and teeth, and insomnia as well.

Ayurveda highlights 4 major properties of Honey
Lekhana (cleanses, scrapes)
Shuddhana (purifies)
Ropana (heals)
Sandhana (connects, unites)

Enhancer for other medicines
As per Sushruta Samhita, Honey is also known as Yogavahi which means a catalyst that can penetrate deep into the tissues. The properties or physical nature of Honey does not change when it enters the human body.
When mixed with honey, medicines are easily and quickly absorbed by the body. Taking other ayurvedic medicines with Honey enhances their effectiveness.

Right Way to Consume
However, Honey must be consumed in the right way. Ayurvedic texts have prescribed the right ways of consuming honey as per the purpose, illness, age, body constitution and Prakriti, and more.

Potential Dangers
Avoid consuming Immatured/New Honey or Naveen Madhu as it is sour and aggravates the doshas.
It is best to always consume Raw Honey. Ayurveda warns against the heating of honey. While honey is the nectar of life, it might turn harmful to the body if it is heated.
Honey can be consumed in warm to lukewarm drinks but it should not be heated or cooked. According to Maharishi Charaka heated honey creates ama or toxins that are very harmful to our system and are one of the most troublesome to treat.

Here is a List of DONTs as per Ayurveda
Do not Consume honey with very hot food or drinks
Do not Consume honey in excess
Do not Drink hot water or any drink just after consuming honey
Do not Cook honey or add honey while cooking or baking
Do not ignore the prakriti dosha (Vata, Pitta, Kapha) while consuming honey

9 Benefits of Honey

Honey seems to be a classic favorite of everyone.
Whether it is western medicine practitioners recommending honey as supplement or natural sweetener or Ayurveda experts incorporating it in the treatment of various diseases.

Considering various viewpoints, here are the Benefits of Honey, summarized in 9 points.

1. Honey is a wonderful Energy Food
Honey is known for its ability to give an immediate spurt of energy as well as build strength over a while.
In honey, unlike sugar, the two sugars – Fructose and Glucose are separate and don’t need a digestive process for breaking them. Thus, glucose acts as an instant energy source
It generates much-needed heat energy and helps build tissues that help to create youthful, vibrant, and robust energy levels.
A daily dose of 2 teaspoons of honey with lukewarm water in the morning can be a powerful energy booster for the day and a wonderful anti-aging drug for you.

2. Good for your blood and fights anemia
Anemic conditions are caused due to low iron content in the blood indicated by low Hemoglobin and RBC count. The honey-tepid water mixture raises the blood’s hemoglobin levels and has a beneficial impact on the RBC count in the blood. Iron deficiency in the blood reduces its ability to carry oxygen.
The reduced oxygen-carrying capacity creates low energy levels, tiredness, breathlessness. Sometimes it even leads to feeling low or symptoms of depression. Honey can remove these issues as it enhances the blood’s capability of carrying oxygen.

3. The powerhouse of Nutrients and a Nourishing Sweetener
Honey is a powerhouse of many essential nutrients like vitamins and minerals. Vitamins such as B2, B4, B5, B6, B11, and Vit C, and minerals like iron, zinc, calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorous,, manganese and more.
Pollen in honey has all 22 amino acids and 28 minerals. It also has 11 enzymes, 14 fatty acids, and 11 carbohydrates.

A natural delicious sweetener, it is full of natural sugars such as glucose, sucrose, fructose. Therefore it a much better and safer than white sugar. The sugary chemical composition of honey helps the body to regulate sugar levels.

4. Supports Digestion
One of the most important benefits of Honey is that it supports the digestion process. One reason is, Honey is pre-digested food and therefore it doesn’t stress the digestive system for assimilation.
Secondly, Honey helps in clearing the digestive canal and removes undigested food and fecal matter.
It prevents the overproduction of acid in the stomach and therefore also eases symptoms like vomiting, nausea, or heartburn.

5. Protects against infections and seasonal allergies
Honey has antiseptic, anti-bacterial, and anti-inflammatory properties which give protection from infections.
Pollen in honey helps fight against seasonal allergies. Consuming honey especially when the seasons are changing boosts your immune system and keeps you healthy during change of seasons.

6. Helpful in treating Chronic Ailments

Hypertension: Research has shown the positive effects of honey on high blood pressure and helps balance low blood pressure as well. Consumption of honey reduces LDL – Bad Cholesterol and greatly increases HDL – Good Cholesterol.
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/10-benefits-of-honey#TOC_TITLE_HDR_6

Blood Sugar: Honey is a sweetener, yet has a far less impact on blood sugar levels as compared to white sugar. Honey is also known to produce Insulin which in turn helps to regulate blood sugar levels.

Asthma: In traditional medicine, Honey was majorly used for the treatment of respiratory infections and cough, phlegm, and even asthma troubles. Daily consumption of honey helps to remove excess mucus and generate necessary heat energy in the body. Hence it is very beneficial to treat Asthma.

7. Excellent healer in Wound Management
For more than 5000 years, the seers of Ayurveda incorporated Honey in treating wounds and skin problems.
Honey has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties and thus it creates a protective layer for the wound from exposure to the external environment and allows the wound to heal and recover at a greater pace.
It is known that Honey is used in the prevention of scars and post-burn contractures.

8. Amazing for your Skin, Eyes, and Teeth

Honey is one of the most important ingredients in Ayurvedic Beauty Recipes. For centuries, Honey has been applied and consumed to get clean and glowing skin. It not only helps to heal the damaged skin but also moisturizes the skin, enhances the complexion of the skin, and gives it an even tone.

Pure Raw Honey is used in treating infections in the eye. Washing eyes with pure honey helps in the recovery of eye infections.

Honey is also used to fight bacterial activity in the teeth. Pure honey and water gargles, help in reducing infections in teeth and gums. A regular honey massage on gums can strengthen the gums and keep them healthy.

In a Nutshell

Be it Mothers or Fitness coaches, Connoisseurs of gourmet food or Tea lovers, Western Medicine practitioners, or Ayurveda Seers and Experts
from their knowledge, experiments, or experience, people find Honey nothing short of Nature’s miracle for taste, health, and wellbeing.

Honey, also called ‘Madhu’in Sanskrit, finds mention in various Vedic texts, hailed as an invaluable resource for its incredible nutritional properties and medicinal benefits.

Make Honey an essential part of the daily diet for enhancing energy levels and overall nourishment. Do not miss to use Honey for its therapeutic benefits when it comes to preventing and curing various small and chronic diseases.