3 Health Benefits of Raw Honey
Raw honey has been used for thousands of years both as a sweetener in food and medicinally. Raw honey is much less processed than regular honey.
Regular filtered honey undergoes a variety of processing which can lead to the removal of key nutritious elements like bee pollen and antioxidants. Raw honey is both a sweet treat and can be very beneficial to your health.
I’ve been utilizing raw honey in many different ways since I was little. The first time I remember being intrigued by honey was when I was still very young at my grandmother’s daycare. Like usual, after lunch it was naptime for me and all the other kids. One day in particular I had a relentless cough that was making it really difficult to fall asleep. My grandmother came down and gave me a big spoonful of raw honey and sure enough, soon I was able to fall asleep as the coughing subsided.
I remember thinking how great it was that not only did my cough get better, but I was able to avoid taking a cough medicine that would taste awful. From this first experience to now, I have utilized raw honey in many ways from simply adding it to a cup of tea to adding it as an ingredient in a homemade face mask. It’s one of my absolute favorite ingredients that I always keep stocked up in my kitchen.
What’s Raw Honey?
Honey is a golden, sweet, sticky substance produced by honey bees using the nectar of different plant species. As previously mentioned, raw honey is nearly straight from the bee hive itself. It contains all of the honey’s natural substances that allow it to have several important health benefits.
Traditionally, honey has been employed for many different uses including asthma, allergies, cough, diarrhea, acne, and even sunburn.
Depending on the flower nectar used by the bees, honey can have a variety of tastes and colors. In my opinion, the honey local to your specific area always tastes the best. One of my favorite brands is Raw Wildflower Honey-Massachusetts Harvest by the Boston Honey Company. What’s your favorite?
3 Clinically Based Health Benefits:
1. Cough
Clinical studies have shown that consuming ½ to 2 tsp of raw honey at bedtime can reduce nighttime cough frequency and improve sleep when compared to placebo in children with upper respiratory infections that were ages 2 and up.
Currently, honey’s effects on cough duration are unknown. There are studies however that show raw honey may be better than diphenhydramine when used for symptomatic relief of a cough. These studies also have results that show raw honey is comparable to and no better than dextromethorphan.
2. Wound/Burn healing
Several small clinical trials as well as case reports have been conducted where raw honey was used topically alone with dressings for various wounds. Some of these wound types include ulcers, cuts, abscesses, and surgical wounds.
One study in particular looked at the use of a raw honey dressing vs ethoxy-diamino acridine plus nitrofurazone for pressure ulcers. The results showed that by week 5, the raw honey dressing patients had a healing rate of about 4 times that of the comparison group. Raw honey seems to have the ability to help clean the wound, reduce pain, and decrease time to healing. These effects may be due to raw honey’s natural anti-bacterial, anti-oxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties.
Applied topically, raw honey has been shown in clinical trials to improve tissue formation and speed healing time in superficial or partial thickness burns. Its results have been comparable to results seen when silver sulfadiazine, a topical antibiotic, is used.
3. Rosacea
One clinical study compared the use of Honevo (made of 90% pharmaceutical-grade kanuka honey and 10% glycerin) with a common cream used for rosacea called Cetomacrogol cream. The study had participants apply Honevo to affected areas twice a day for a total of 8 weeks.
The results showed that about two times as many patients responded to the Honevo than the Cetomacrogol cream. These promising results show raw honey has a role in treating different skin disorders.
Are there any side effects?
In general, raw honey has minimal side effects when used in small doses. When used in larger doses, raw honey has the potential to cause nausea, vomiting, and stomach ache in adults. Most likely to due to the high sugar content, it also can cause nervousness and hyperactivity in children.
It’s important to note that there is a type of honey that is toxic to humans and can cause death a few minutes to a few hours after consumption. This honey, often called “mad honey” is made from the nectar of Rhododendron plants and must be avoided.
What other ways can I incorporate raw honey?
It’s clear that raw honey has a wide array of health benefits, but what if you don’t want to just take a big spoonful by itself? While there is nothing wrong with enjoying raw honey straight from the jar, it can be more fun to incorporate it in different recipes. Raw honey has been used in salad dressings, with cheeses, in tea, in desserts, or even simply drizzled on pancakes or yogurt and in so much more.
Raw honey has also been commonly used in herbal syrups, tinctures, or elixirs. They provide a nice sweet base for additional herbs while also bringing their own medicinal benefits.
The antimicrobial properties of raw honey also can help to extend the shelf life of different herbal preparations. This way, raw honey can be used as a more natural alternative to chemical preservatives that are commonly used today.
Just like the ways to incorporate raw honey into your diet are endless, so are the different recipes you can find for using raw honey in a homemade face mask. As mentioned above, there is clinical research backing the use of a honey-based product for rosacea. In addition to that, the anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, and moisturizing properties of raw honey make it the perfect base for any mask.
While you can choose to purchase skin products that have honey as a component, they are often expensive and have many other ingredients in addition. Personally, I have really sensitive skin so I like to try and avoid all the extra chemicals in some products and just make my own face masks.
One of my favorite homemade face mask recipes is by Drew and can be found on her website Botaneri. The recipes are simple, easy, and can be tailored depending on what type of skin you have. My favorite recipe is for sensitive, dry skin that is prone to redness. If your skin is similar, give this quick and easy recipe a try!
Recipe:
- 2 tsp Raw Organic Honey
- 1 tsp Aloe Vera Gel
Instructions:
- Mix the aloe and honey together and smooth over your face
- Wait 20 minutes and then rinse off and pat dry. There is no need to wash away with soap
Summary
Raw honey has many health benefits through antioxidant, antibacterial, and ant-inflammatory properties
Clinical research supports the use of raw honey in cough, wound/burn healing, and rosacea
Raw honey is safe and has very mild adverse effects
Raw honey can be utilized in many different ways, from food recipes to facial recipes!
