Honey is best known for great healing. Its natural sugar content and the rich sources of nutrients makes it a great sweetener for coffee and sugar. Let’s study closely how it started gaining popularity for the variety of uses ancient people started centuries ago.
HONEY’S NUTRIENTS and HEALING PROPERTIES
Honey’s rich nutrients, enzyme and antioxidant content combined with its ability to thwart infections makes it a potent healer. From ancient time, honey has been known for its high nutritional and medicinal value. It is believed to be very beneficial for eyesight, reducing effects of poisoning, stopping hiccups, treating urinary tract disorders, worm infestations, nausea, vomiting, cleansing, healing wounds and many more healing properties.
Honey contain mainly carbohydrates, water, vitamins and minerals, including niacin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium and zinc.
Honey is also rich in enzymes, antioxidants and other phytonutrients. It also contains flavonoids and phenolic acids which act as antioxidants, scavenging and eliminating free radicals. These antioxidants substances found in honey have been responsible for the wound-healing properties of honey. Due to its wound-healing properties, honey has been used widely as an antiseptic therapeutic agent for treatment of ulcers, burns and wounds for centuries.
HOW HEALING of WOUND WORKS By USING HONEY
Due to its contents of glucose and fructose, which attract water, honey absorbs water from wound, drying it out so that the growth of bacteria and fungi are inhibited. Secondly, an enzyme called glucose oxidase found in raw honey, which if combined with water, produces hydrogen peroxide, a mild antiseptic for medication benefits.
BEAUTY BENEFITS Of HONEY
The vitamins, minerals and amino acids found in honey make it a wonderful beauty aid. It provides great nutritional value to the skin and hair and the effects will be seen if taken over a period of time. In fact if taken for longer period of time, it helps our skin to glow more radiantly, helps to reduce wrinkles, thus making us look younger.
Honey is also an excellent moisturizing agent and natural cleanser and therefore, popularly used in wide skin-cleansing formulations. It increases exfoliation or renewal of the skin cells that makes the skin softer and younger.
Other supplementary products of honey which are royal jelly, propolis have been used in beauty saloon as facial mask that command great prices due to its effective results for a more glowing skin.
OTHER HEALTH BENEFITS Of HONEY
Due to its ready availability of carbohydrates, honey provides instant energy sources if taken prior to exercises which improves performances. It helps in muscles recovery faster if taken after an exercises program.
Honey also increases the growth and activity of good bacteria in the gut. Results from recent studies show that taking honey with dairy products such as yogurt can enhance growth and viability of bifidobacteria.
Other benefits of honey are its anti-inflammatory actions which help in treating a sore throat.
HOW To TAKE HONEY As HEALTH SUPPLEMENT
Honey can be taken as it is in one tea spoon without mixing with water first thing in the morning or anytime in the day as you wish. For me I prefer to take honey as it is with royal jelly and propolis in the morning before breakfast and drink. It provides me with energy for the whole day with royal jelly as a good beauty aid and propolis a great antioxidant too. After a short period of time, my complexion improved tremendously with intake of honey and this motivated me to continue taking it knowing that it has high antioxidant and healing power too.
By: Janice H.
Posts Tagged ‘Vitamins Minerals’
Health And Beauty Benefits Of Honey
March 15th, 2010Enhancing Hair for Natural Beauty
March 5th, 2010
Hair style is a way to draw attention to natural beauty. Besides the actual shape of the hair, the quality of the hair is an important factor for consideration.
Washing the hair is an important piece to good and fuss free hair care. The hair is sort of a collecting point for body chemistry. In other words, some have dry hair and others have hair with more oil. These factors play a part in who often hair should be washed and under what circumstances. There are products meant for all hair types, so it’s important to choose carefully when shopping for shampoo. Many shampoos have synthetic smells even though they may have natural vitamins and minerals. If this is important, there are always naturally scented shampoos and/or products that have nothing else besides all natural ingredients in them. Once the hair has been washed, it’s really not advisable to use a hair dryer unless the dryer is set on an air setting that’s not too hot. The best way to dry hair is with a towel and ambient air. If sickness is a concern, plan in such a way that exposure to cold isn’t a problem.
Along with shampoo, there’s always the issue of hair care products like gel and hair spray. Usually, these items aren’t so desirable because of the chemicals in them. Once the hair style has been removed, hair is still sticky and stiff. The only way to rid oneself of the chemicals in hair spray and gel is to wash the hair. Simply brushing it out won’t work. Another option for some people is to plan hair washing for certain days. If a person has significant oil in the hair, hair is more easily styled if not washed for a couple of days. No one will notice. Just don’t wait too long before washing it again. For people with dryer hair, there are salves and hair oils that are meant to achieve the same affects as people with naturally oily hair. These salves might also include some proteins and herbal formulas to boost the quality of the hair.
There’s always the question of hair dye. Fortunately, hair dye formulas aren’t nearly as bad as they used to be. Dyes used to contain lead. The worst hair dye to use is peroxide bleach because it actually fries the hair. If one wants to go from black to blonde, it’s worth a trip to the salon to have it done professionally which will lessen the frying affect. Otherwise, most home hair dyes contain enough bleaching agent to sufficiently lighten the hair. Hair dyes also come with conditioners and hair color treatments which are always good to use in their entirety. Otherwise, there are dyes that are composed of natural products. Therefore, look carefully at the box or bottle. It’s not a good idea to dye the hair often. A good four to six months should be sufficient time to treat the hair for any damage done by the last dying.
Cutting the hair is always a good idea. Each time the hair is cut, split ends are removed and new hair is allowed to grow. Over time, one can remove hair that is too damaged to be properly mended. Not dying or styling the hair in excess makes a difference to the amount of split ends between haircuts.
The hair is a valuable and attractive part of the body. To promote natural beauty, it’s a good idea to treat the hair with natural products and refrain from activities that will damage it.
By: James A. Penn
Beauty Advice – Eat Fruit and Vegetables to Look Younger
February 14th, 2010
Good nutrition plays an important part in protecting us from the free radicals in our environment. The ageing process is associated with cell damage caused by free radical molecules. Free radicals can cause the break of down cells in our body and make us age faster. The effect of this can be skin wrinkling and mottling, hardening of the arteries, arthritis, Alzheimer’s and coronary heart disease. Free radicals are also associated with the development of cancer cells in our bodies..
Antioxidants are natural anti-aging substances which can neutralise the free radicals in our bodies and protect us from cell damage. It is believed that antioxidants help reduce the aging process and protect us from the diseases of old age. Many fruits and vegetables contain high levels of antioxidants which protect us from free radicals.
ORAC (oxygen radical absorbance capacity) units are the new way to measure the antioxidant goodness of fruits and vegetables. ORACS were developed by the National Institute on Aging in the US. If food has a high ORAC value, it provides better protection against damaging free radicals. Fruits and vegetables with high ORAC scores include bananas, blueberries, broccoli, raw carrots, cranberries, pecan nuts, red kidney beans, kiwis, oranges, prunes, red cabbage, red peppers, spinach, strawberries and tomatoes. We all know that we should eat at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day for a healthy diet. Some health advisors now recommend that we eat 8 to 10 portions a day.
You can easily include these healthy fruits and vegetables into your diet. Try adding blueberries, prunes or strawberries to your breakfast cereal, and a banana or orange as a mid morning snack. Add kidney beans and grated raw carrot to salads, chilli con carne and stews. Try baby leaf spinach in place of lettuce on your salad, and add to pizzas. Fruits and vegetables are also a good source of vitamins, minerals and fibre. Ideally, 3 out of 5 of your daily portions should be vegetables, as they contain more fibre and less sugar than fruit.
With our hectic lifestyles, we often eat convenience foods to save time on preparation, and many people are deficient in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants found naturally in food. If you smoke, drink excess alcohol, live in a built up area with pollution from cars and factories, or suffer from stress, then you are more at risk from the damaging effects of free radicals. If you find it difficult to eat at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day, then consider taking a nutritional supplement. Here are some anti-ageing supplements which you can buy from health stores: Lycopene is a powerful natural antioxidant, which helps to neutralise cell damaging free radicals. Pyconegol is an extract from bark of the French maritime pine tree. It contains a natural blend of bioflavonoids and helps combat the harmful effects of cell damaging free radicals. Selenuim is seen as one of the best natural antioxidant sources. It is often combined with vitamins A,C and E.
The most important change we can make to improve our health and reduce the risk of age related diseases is to improve our nutrition. More and more people are concerned not only with staying healthy, but looking younger as they get older. Someone in their fifties who has a healthy lifestyle and high quality nutrition can look as if they are in their thirties.
By: Lin Parker
