Honey

HONEY: AMBROSIA MEDICINE
That delicious and versatile orange fluid, "that ambrosia of the gods" we call honey, was mankind's first sweet. Our friends the honey bees extract nectar from flowers and, incidentally, the color, the taste, and the aroma of the honey are derived from the type of flower they feed on. In a mysterious process only recently understood, the bees carry the nectar in a honey sac, wherein special enzymes break down the complex sucrose sugar into two simple sugars: fructose and glucose. This fluid is deposited in open cells in the beehive. The next step, nature's first air conditioning surely, is the evaporation of the excess water brought about by the continuous moving wings of working bees. When the right sugary consistency is reached, each cell is capped with wax. Since each group of bees needs only 400 500 pounds of the honey for themselves, the rest can be collected and used. But still it takes about a thousand trips back from the flower to hive, and sometimes thousands of miles, to produce only two tablespoons of honey!

Each country and each area within a country tends to have a distinctive type of honey. While it is easier to cook with the light honeys, it is said that the dark honeys are somewhat more effective for health. While the bees in America tend to produce very light clover honey, there are also many other, darker honeys. Much of the linden honey comes from Czechoslovakia, lavender honey from France, and wild rose honey from Greece. If you have hayfever, you might try eating honeycomb of the plant substance you are allergic to or the honey produced nearest to your home. (Honeys are labeled as to flower and origin.) Because honey is produced from flowers, it can sometimes act as an antihistamine.

Honey for Food-Ceremony-Medicine We know, of course, that primitive man used honey as a food. There is in fact drawing, believed to be 20,000 years old, on the walls of a cavel in Spain, that shows a man reaching for a beehive high on a stone cliff. Anthropologists also know that honey is still used in many religious ceremonies among primitive people in New Guinea, Africa, South America, and New Zealand. We do not know much about the use of honey as medicine, except by ancient Hebrews and Egyptians, but honey may have been used as a salve in every one of the many cultures that utilized it as a food. Certainly we must consider also the antifatigue ability of honey as possible medicine and its use in many cultures where people are long lived. Do not use uncooked, unpasteurized honey for newborn infants, as it may create a fatal diarrhea. Otherwise, this type of honey is preferred.

Healing Power of Honey We always used honey on minor sores when I was a child, and I still find that a tiny eruption around or in the mouth can be quickly healed with honey. I tend to combine comfrey with honey for this, but honey alone acts both to heal and to destroy bacteria with or without another plant or greasy substance.

In addition to various mentions of the healing power of honey in the Bible, the most interesting medical notes on ancient medicine come from the records of the Egyptians who were medically speaking honey addicts. Indeed no fewer than 500 out of 900 known Egyptian medical formulas are based on honey!

The Egyptians used honey combined with grease (they used vegetable oil or some snake or animal grease) 1/3 honey, 3/3 grease. Dr. Guido Manjo, in the fascinating historical text The Healing Hand, was surprised at this preoccupation with honey, and he decided to test its use on various types of bacteria. The honey and grease combination obliterated bacteria, and honey and butter (which has very special bacteria of its own) worked on such pathogenic bacteria as Staphylococcus aureus, or E. coli. As Dr. Manjo explains it, the grease and the honey together would prevent the bandage from sticking , and both would have a soothing effect. The obvious aspect of honey's healing abilities must be its water drawing (hypertonic) effect, "as it draws water from the bacterial cells and causes them to shrivel and die. This mechanism works so well that an offering of honey, piously buried in Paestum in a sacred chamber 2500 years ago, never decayed, and is recognizable to this day."

Dr. Manjo is an internationally known pathologist and historical scholar, and it is to him I owe another interesting scientific explanation of the antibiotic abilities of honey, active in dilutions as low as 13 percent. The bees secrete an enzyme in which one of the active principles is inhibine. This breaks down chemically to produce H202which is hydrogen peroxide, a common household disinfectant (which is almost identical with a mild antibiotic). Inhibine is destroyed by light and heat, and thus it is very worthwhile to obtain honey extracted only by centrifugal force and no heating or "cooking." During war shortages, honey was often used, with oil or lard, as a dressing for small wounds or ulcers, and was so used in Shanghai during World War II.

Antifatigue The simple sugars in honey are immediately absorbed by the body; thus, if you need an immediate lift, add honey to some herbal tea, or add some honey to water and drink it. Early Olympic athletes used honey in great quantities before the games, and often long distance swimmers, runners, or mountain climbers do the same in preparation for an event. The RAF pilots working almost twenty four hour a day missions during the Battle of Britain in World War 11 also were given enormous quantities of honey and water to increase their capacity to work.

Apple cider vinegar and honey plus some water has been used for thousands of years by several different cultures as an almost perfect balancing, or rebalancing, "food." It is not only very useful in overcoming fatigue, but this combination (use I teaspoon to I tablespoon of each to a glass of water), tastes delicious, and may be helpful in overcoming some types of arthritic deposits. Arthritis DepositsWe came across the combination of apple cider vinegar and honey when a friend of ours developed a "touch" of gout. We helped him to investigate possible natural cures. Very soon after he started to take apple cider vinegar and honey, he felt better each morning that is to say he felt really energetic and before long he was no troubled by the gout pain. Years later he was X rayed again and the deposits had disappeared.

My husband, who works in film and theater and is also professor at a university, advised one of his film crew friends about this preparation. This gaffer (the head electrician on a film) was almost crippled with arthritic nodules on his hands, and he was having a tough time working. After not seeing him for several years, my husband met him and was astonished at the change in his old friend, who looked taller and had more color. His hands were straight and supple. "Look at my hands," the gaffer demanded of my husband. "This is due to you. I've been taking your apple cider vinegar and honey and water every day and the darn knots and the pain have disappeared! Say I guess I should have called you to thank you!"

Honey Ointment

An ointment is a salve mixed with some plant substance and grease. I find that honey is almost a perfect "as is" ointment, and in emergencies, especially those involved with sores in the mouth or the vagina, honey is a quick, almost perfect healer.

For a more complicated ointment, add together a teaspoon each of wheat germ oil, comfrey root or comfrey leaf tea, and honey, and heat the mixture in the top part of a double boiler to thoroughly combine the ingredients.

In Europe, honey ointments were often made by combining a little flour and honey, Honey Water Honey water (the Greeks had a name for it: hydromel) is the simple mixture of honey with water. Simmer a cup of water and a teaspoon of honey for five minutes. This can be added to tea, drunk alone, or used as an eye lotion. Di the cloth in the honey saturated water, and apply it to the closed eye. This preparation was used by the many ancient herbalists, and the nineteenth century herbalist, Father Kneipp, recommended it highly.

Honey Gargle The very thought of honey's soothing abilities can almost eliminate a sore throat or a chest cough. Certainly it is one of the prime aids for any respiratory problem. You can easily overcome a possible cold by drinking sage, peppermint, or chamomile tea laced with lots and lots of good honey. This honey and water can be cooled and used as a gargle, too.

Another wonderful honey remedy is to mix honey with hot lemonade and just drink away a cough! It acts so quickly and pleasantly, it certainly won't feel like medicine at all.

Still another honey gargle is a mixture of a tablespoon of honey and apple cider vinegar added to a cup of water. Drink it or gargle with it.

Honey as a Cosmetic Because honey attracts and retains fluids, it is a useful ingredient in retaining moisture on the face, and it acts like a moisturizer. Honey is an excellent addition to other facial ingredients such as clay, oil, egg (whole or yolk), ground nuts, nut oils, vegetable oils, or powdered brewer's yeast. Use between a teaspoon to a tablespoon of the honey it will help to combine other runny materials and help them to stick to the face.

Honey alone, honey added to rosewater, or with colloidal oatmeal or leftover breakfast oatmeal may be used for chapped skin or to restore dry skin to normal. Combine it with avocado or apricot oil, or your favorite home vegetable oil.

Cooking with Honey Most of us want to substitute a good honey for the sugar in recipes, but honey is not quite as predictable as sugar in baking. Lighter colors and flavors seem to work better in baking, but I actually prefer the darker honeys for home tea, and especially for the herbal tea used to offset respiratory problems, but this is only a personal preference.

On the whole, when you substitute honey for sugar you have to use less liquid by the cup. Always deduct three tablespoons of any other liquid in the recipe for every cup of honey you use. If the recipe calls for one cup of dry sugar, use only two thirds cup of honey, or if you can weigh the materials a pound of sugar means you need to use a pound of honey. Craig Claiborne of The New York Times suggests these proportions: for 1 cup of sugar, substitute 1/4 cup plus one tablespoon (13 tablespoons all together) of honey.

Also, in making jams or jellies with honey, do it in small batches; it will work out better. I find that for jams it is best to use the honey by weight. Use equal amounts of fruit to honey but discard 1/4 cup liquid for every pound of honey used. The product Sure jell works well.

Children Some uncooked honeys may contain botulism organisms. These are easily digested and eliminated by adults, according to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, but can cause terrible diarrhea in the immature digestive system of infants up to one year of age. For this reason, the Center advises all parents to forgo using honey as a food for the infant until the child is one year of age.