What Is Honey?
Honey is the nectar of the herbs and flowers that grow wild in the fields and woods. The benefits from hundreds of herbs are carried in the form of nectar in the stomach of the bee, where they are subtly altered by the bee's diges-tive enzymes in ways that modern science has been unable to explain. New compounds are created by this process before the honey is regurgitated in the hive, concentrated by evaporation, and stored in the honeycomb.
Honey contains (among other things) a complex assortment of enzymes, or-ganic acids, esters, antibiotic agents, trace minerals, proteins, carbohy-drates, hormones, and antimicrobial compounds. One pound of average honey contains 1,333 calories (compare with white sugar at 1,748 calories), 1.4 grams of protein, 23 milligrams of calcium, 73 milligrams of phosphorus, 4.1 milligrams of iron, 1 milligram of niacin, and 16 milligrams of vitamin C, and vitamin A, beta carotene, the complete complex of B vitamins, vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin K, magnesium, sulfur, chlorine, potassium, iodine, so-dium, copper, manganese, high concentrations of hydrogen peroxide, and formic acid ... and the list goes on. Honey contains more than 75 different compounds! Many of the remaining substances in honey are so complex (4-7 percent of the honey) that they have yet to be identified.
Because of the high natural sugar content, honey absorbs moisture in wounds, making it hard for bacteria to survive. Many honeys contain large amounts of hydrogen peroxide, which is regularly used to disinfect cuts and scrapes. Most raw honeys contain propolis, a compound that can kill bacte-ria. In laboratory tests, honey put on seven types of bacteria killed all seven.
My Honey's Honey
A couple of months ago, my husband scraped a large area of skin off his calf muscle while playing soccer. The scrape became infected within 24 hours. He was running a fever, his leg was inflamed, and a red streak was begin-ning to crawl up his leg, indicating a serious problem. I had never seen an infection move so quickly. Garlic had been our cure-all for months, and Gabe began eating large amounts of it. He put garlic poultices on the wound as well, and the infection halted in its tracks. But it did not seem to be healing. The garlic treatment had to be almost continual to keep the infection down, and the healing progress was too slow. We read Herbal Antibiotics by Stephen Harrod Buhner about honey being effective in treating gangrene and warmed up a bowl of raw honey. We mixed comfrey, goldenseal, echi-nacia, and garlic into the warm honey and let it sit a few minutes before heavily coating the wound with this mixture. Gabe said the mix did not irri-tate the wound at all. He left it on for an hour or more at a time. Immedi-ately after the first treatment, I noticed the wound had shrunk, and the skin color had darkened to that "blueness of a wound" that tells you the infection is gone. A few more treatments healed the wound in a remarkably short pe-riod of time. The next soccer accident was treated with honey alone, with the same good results.
What Is Raw Honey?
There is a difference between raw honey straight from the hive and proc-essed honey, which you buy in stores. Any honey is good for you, but raw honey is by far the best, because it has not been through a heating process (over approximately 120 degrees) to melt the sugar, which also kills the wonderful enzymes and bacteria that are so rich in healing properties. Raw honey can be purchased by local bee farmers and even via the Internet al-though shipping can be expensive due to the weight.
WARNING: Children under 12 months of age should not eat honey, since there is a risk of infant botulism.
Honey's Hurrah
In India, honey and cinnamon are used as a "Ram Ban" (very effective) medicine for all kinds of ailments. Cinnamon powder is mixed into honey, usually two parts honey and one part cinnamon, and eaten with chappati (bread) two or three times a day. The following list (and more) is available at www.stakich.com/hfolder/honeyinmedicine.htm:
Heart Diseases: Reduces cholesterol, revitalizes veins, relieves loss of breath, strengthens the heart.
Arthritis: Massaged on painful areas, will reduce pain within a few minutes. If taken daily, will considerably reduce arthritis.
Bladder Infections: Drink with lukewarm water. Destroys infection in the bladder.
Toothache: Apply paste to aching tooth three times daily until pain is gone. (I think chewing on cloves works faster.)
Colds: Those suffering from common or severe colds should take one table-spoon lukewarm honey with � teaspoon cinnamon powder daily for three days. This process will cure most chronic coughs and colds and clear the si-nuses. (I tried this and it worked!)
Stomachache and Gas: Honey taken with cinnamon powder eases stom-achache and heals stomach ulcers, combating the bacteria that causes ul-cers.
According to studies done in India and Japan, taking honey with cinnamon powder relieves the stomach of gas. Cinnamon powder sprinkled on two ta-blespoons of honey, taken before food, relieves acidity and aids digestion of heavy meals.
Skin: (This seemed drastic to me, but ...) Apply a paste of three table-spoons of honey and one teaspoon of cinnamon powder on the face before sleeping and wash it the next morning with warm water. If done daily for two weeks, it will cure acne.
Applying honey and cinnamon powder in equal parts on the affected parts cures eczema, ringworm, and all types of skin infections.
Sweet Recipes
Personally, I love a teaspoon of honey in a cup of hot chamomile tea in the evening. And honey in oatmeal is a sweet breakfast experience in our house. I enjoy recipes with honey and would love to read some of yours. Here are some of my favorites:
Citrus Honey
Combine a 1" & �" strip of both orange rind and lemon rind, 1 T. fresh or-ange juice, and 2 tsp. fresh lemon juice, and simmer in a pan. Strain and discard the rinds. Add to 1 c. warm honey and stir to mix. Serve over pan-cakes or waffles.
Cinnamon Honey Toast
Drizzle warm honey on fresh cut slices of buttered bread, sprinkle with cin-namon powder, and toast on a cookie sheet in the broiler.
Craig's Baklava
Nut Filling
4 c. unsalted walnuts or pecans
1 c. sugar
1� tsp. cinnamon
� tsp. ground cloves
Combine all ingredients in a food processor and mix until nuts are coarsely chopped.
Syrup
1 c. honey
� c. water
� c. sugar
2 T. lemon juice
1 sm. lemon peel
1 sm. piece orange peel
1-inch piece cinnamon stick
Combine all ingredients in a saucepan, and let simmer for 10 minutes. Let cool. Discard peels and cinnamon.
1 lb. filo dough
� lb. butter
nut filling (see above)
syrup (see above)
Thaw filo dough per instructions on the box. Unwrap filo dough and fold in half, like the pages of a book. Keep covered with a dry kitchen towel or plas-tic wrap while working (or work fast). Turn over one sheet onto a large bar pan (10 ? 15). Brush with melted butter using a soft 2-inch brush or your fingers. Continue turning sheets (pages) and brushing with butter until 1/3 of the sheets have been used. Cover with half of the nut filling. Brush an-other 1/3 of the pages and place over the nuts in the pan. Top with remain-ing nut filling and then continue with the remaining sheets of filo dough. Brush top sheet with remaining butter. With a sharp knife, score pastry into diamonds, squares, or triangles. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes un-til puffed, crisp, and deep golden in color. Remove from oven and immedi-ately pour cooled syrup over baklava. Use syrup sparingly to avoid soggy baklava. Let stand for a couple of hours. When cool, cut through to the bot-tom layer in scored cuts.
Check www.beeyoutiful.com for honey products, other great health and beauty products, and information on being beautiful inside and out.
Powdered cinnamon and the book Herbal Antibiotics: Natural Alterna-tives for Treating Drug-Resistant Bacteria by Stephen Harrod Buhner are available at www.bulkherbstore.com.
