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Making your life greener - one bite at a time.

The outstanding medicinal properties of honey and bee venom have been established through the experience of medicine and confirmed by research and clinical data. Thousands of people who had suffered from different diseases, owe their recovery to treatment with honey and bee venom.

St Ambrose, the patron saint of beekeepers is reported have said: "The fruit of the bees is desired by all, and is equally sweet to Kings and beggars and it is not only pleasing but profitable and healthful, it sweetens their mouths, cures their wounds and convaies remedies to inward ulcers."

Honey is probably the greatest gift of the plant world to us. Honey is one of the highest ingredients of Ayurveda. It is described in Ayurveda as "food of the Gods". Taking it regularly is supposed to promote health and longevity.

Farm Fresh Honey or straight from your own hives is one of nature's greatest treats and a healing medicine. Believe it or not though, even honey nowadays has been corrupted in some way. The honey we buy at stores is usually what's known as "dead honey" by the purists in the bee industry. By the time it arrives at the supermarket, it's been filtered, heated and even sometimes preserved (even thought it doesn't need it. Honey is a natural antibiotic), and much of it comes in from overseas where there are still few, if any regulations on the chemical treatments given to the flowers and plants the bees make the honey from.Some countries in the world still use DDT, made by American corporations, for pest control.There isn't any better time than now to start buying domestic honey, grown by caring bee keepers from places where organic soil and clean environments still exist for the bees to thrive in.

Origins
The eating of honey can be traced back to Paleolithic Times about 10-15000 years ago, as a scene on a rock painting in Spain depicts men climbing a cliff to collect honey from a nest. The Bible, papyrus scrolls and manuscripts tell of this mystical food. From the time of Hippocrates honey has been valued as a medicinal food, and ancient Russian manuscripts and medical books speak highly of it as a remedy.

To produce a kilogram of honey, a bee must bring from 120,000 to 150,000 loads of nectar home. Once in the hive the forager bee is met by house bees which receive the nectar. For some time the nectar is kept in the house bee's honey stomach, where it is further processed (the processing starts in the forager bee's honey stomach on the way from a field).They ingest and regurgitate this nectar, turning the nectar into honey by concentrating the sugars and eliminating water. It also adds a slew of enzymes that make the honey both rich and unique.The buzz of bees wings in the hive, creates motion that further evaporates and concentrates the honey. Wax-making bees in the hive then seal each hive until the honey is needed to feed the bees.

Composition
Since honey consists almost entirely of pure glucose and levulose, it is clear what an easily digestible food it is. In addition to simple sugars, bee honey contains a number of substances necessary for the cells, tissues and organs to function properly. Honey has been found to contain the following enzymes - diastase, invertase, catalase, peroxidase and lipase. Other constituents are calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, iron, chlorine, phosphorus, sulphur and iodine salts. A spectral analysis of buckwheat and polyfloral honey showed it contained salt of manganese, silicon, aluminium, boron, chromium, copper, lithium, nickel, lead, tin, titanium, zinc and osmium. In addition honey contains some organic acids (malic, tartaric, citric, lactic and oxalic), proteins, vitamins B2, B6, K, C, B3 (depending on the admixture of pollen), xanthophyll (a derivitive of chlorophyll) and other substances. It has been established that when pollen is removed from honey by filtration, the honey loses almost all its vitamins. In the opinion of a famous Soviet ophthamologist, honey contains biogenetic stimulants (substances increasing the activity of the body).

Therapeutic Uses
Honey is potentially alkaline food and this is of tremendous importance in determining its nourishing and therapeutic properties. Darker honeys contain more mineral salts than lighter ones and therefore give higher alkaline values. The color of honey (and consequently its mineral salts content) is proportionate to its potential alkalinity: so the therapeutic value of honey is further enhanced by its potential alkalinity and this helps explain its beneficial efffect in the treatment of gastro-enteric diseases accompanied by high acidity.

Other Bee Products

Bee Pollen
Add to baking and smoothies.

Beeswax
Excellent wood preservative and addition to healing salves,cosmetics, crayons and candles.

Propolis
Propolis or bee glue was used in medicine from ancient times up to the nineteenth century. It is reputed to be effective for malignant tumours and wounds. The reuslt of an experiment with propolis showed that it possesses bacterial prooperties against against strptococci, staphlococci, Bacillus Pyocyaneus, B Coli, B typhosus and othe micro organisms.
Very encouraging results have been given in the propolis treatment of domestic animals effected with necrobacillosis.
Another use for propolis was to remove corns. A small piece of propolis is softened by heating, thinned to form a cake, applied to corn and bandaged. A few days later it has been reported that the corn should fall out together with the root.

Royal Jelly
A Hidden Treasure, A Natural Wonder!
Hidden deep inside the beehive, in one single cell, is a rare treasure: a natural food substance found only in minute amounts -- yet responsible for a magnificent transformation. It's not honey, pollen or propolis… it's Royal Jelly. This rare and precious food substance is a nutritional wonder produced by worker bees as the exclusive diet of the Queen Bee. While the life span of the average worker bee, feeding on honey and pollen, is roughly six weeks, the Queen Bee, feeding only on Royal Jelly, undergoes an amazing transformation that allows her to live up to six years. Without her exclusive diet of Royal Jelly, the life span of the Queen Bee would revert to that of the worker bees -- about six weeks. Nowhere else in nature is a food substance responsible for a creature's longevity.

It's no secret that Royal Jelly is good for the bees… but many people don't realize that this precious food substance is also highly beneficial for man. Millions of people throughout the world supplement their diets with Royal Jelly, for energy, stamina and vitality.

“My son, eat thou honey, for it is good.”Proverb 24:13

“Honey is a remedy for all diseases."Mohammed

Medical Benefits

Honey can be used in variety of conditions to aid healing ...

Gastric Problems

There is a wonderfully simple yet effective remedy for gastric problems that involves potato juice.

Blend about half a kilo of organic potatoes. Extract the juice. Mix this with one teaspoon of honey. This should be taken for six consecutive nights just before retiring.

Stomach Upset

This remedy settles an upset stomach and releases gas. It also will aid digestion by stroking the digestive fire which is called agni in Ayurveda.

Crush a piece of ginger about the size of your thumb.

Pour over boiling water.

Allow to stand for 15 minutes. Add a teaspoon of honey. Sip slowly.

Cough (This makes an ideal cough syrup for children and adults).

Honey and garlic make an excellent cough mixture that has no side effects.

Crush a handful of organic garlic.

Put into a container. Pour in about 400g of honey. Seal in the container. Allow this to stand by a sunlit window until the mixture has turned somewhat opague (this could take three weeks). By this time, all the garlic flavor would be transferred to the honey. Take a teaspoon every few hours or whenever necessary. Keep in mind that the mixture is very concentrated - one teaspoon can pack the powderful wallop of several cloves of garlic. Honey garlic also soothes a sore throat.

Common Cold

Regular sips of lime juice sweetened by honey can be very helpful especially in warding off a common cold.

Sore Throat

Here is a great remedy for a sore throat. Combine four or five leaves of selasih or basil (ocimum sanctum) that has been pounded in two cups of boiling water. Cool the mixture.

Add a teaspoon of pure lime juice. Add one tablespoon of honey. Sip a teaspoon every 30 minutes.

Throat Lozenges

Another excellent remedy for sore throats is using the rind of citrus fruits, for example an orange or lemon. Cut the rind into small pieces. Dry in the sun. Soak this in honey. When you feel a sore throat coming on, just slowly suck on this honey dipped dried rinds of the fruit.

Burns

Pure honey should applied as quickly as possible to burns. This speeds healing and prevents infection. There has been some amazing work done by Chinese physicians in this area that has won grudging recognition from the American Burns Association.

Weight Loss

Taking one teaspoon of apple cider vinegar with one teaspoon of honey in a glass of warm water every morning has been documented to help weight loss.

Purity

The key thing about honey is purity. Heating will destroy all enzymes. Processing will leach the nutrients. Mixing with water make the honey a potent ground for bacterial growth.

Mixing with sugar (as it is often done) renders honey almost useless, medicinally. Mixed honey does not store well.

Tests for Honey Purity

Cooking of the yolk: Take the yolk of an egg. You must remove the egg white. Add one tablespoon of honey (more will be needed if the yolk is big). Swirl the honey slowly. The yolk will be cooked. Yes! You have to see it to believe it!

It is probably caused by the rich slew of enzymes. As a result of the process, the honey will get a custardlike consistency. The yolk will assume a more yellow color. The smell of the yolk will be reduced. This happens within three minutes. The degree of cooking increases with time. This may be consumed directly and is powerful nutrition.

Inversion Test

Invert the bottle. Pure honey will fall forming unbroken and swirling thread because of the high specific gravity. Adding water or sugar will foil this natural process.

Honey Types

There are two types of honey - cultivated and pure. Cultivated honey is very common. The bees are hurdled in stacked-up hives. There are limited flowers within confined areas. Sometimes to increase honey output, they are even fed with sugar!

Wild honey grows in a wild setting. The bees are free to go out there and seek honey like they have done for millions of years. They seek out nectar from a rich spectrum of flowers. It is, by this very nature, "organic honey."

The honey has a richer colour, flavour and aroma. Simple analysis would reveal it to be nutritionally superior.

Wild honey is rich in acids and enzymes as is corrosive. It should never be stored in plastic (a tip when buying honey), aluminium and copper containers.

Honey Facts

Honey is 80% sugar and 20% water.

Honey has been used as a topical dressing for wounds since microbes cannot live in it.

Honey has been used to embalm bodies such as that of Alexander the Great.

Fermented honey, known as mead, is the most ancient fermented beverage.

The term "honeymoon" originated from the Norse practice of consuming large quantities of mead during the first month of marriage.

Apitherapy raw honey is unheated and unfiltered. It is liquid when it comes out of the honeycomb in the summer and crystallizes into a creamy, spreadable texture in the fall. The color of the honey varies throughout the northern growing season depending on the flowers that the bees are foraging on.

http://newenglandnatural.com/Vermont-Food/honey.html

Enjoy discovering the advantages of using Nature's great gift - honey!

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. As with any natural product, individual results will vary.

Disclaimers: All material regarding health on ecobites is provided for educational purposes only. Consult your own physician or health advisor regarding the applicability of any opinions or recommendations with respect to your symptoms or medical condition. The information presented represents the views of the authors and commenters, and may or may not reflect the views of ecobites.com. Any commercial products mentioned, reviewed, or linked to, are for educational purposes only. No fees have been paid or exchanged for inclusion.