The Many Health Benefits of Raw (Unheated) Honey

Super Food from the Hive

Raw Honey that has never been heated above the normal temperature of the beehive is a miraculous energy food. When honey is heated above the hive temperature in order to easily fill it into bottles, the innumerable health benefits contained in it are destroyed. Raw honey is almost always crystallized or solid. Cooked honey loses its crystal structure and remains liquid. It is impossible for man to make or duplicate raw honey.

Raw honey contains enzymes such as invertase, diastase, catalase and inulase, which are aids to digestion and assimilation. It has all the B-complex vitamins, vitamin C, D, E, amino acids (great protein builders), proteins, plant pigments, aromatic compounds, healthful acids: acetic, citric, formic, malic, succinic. It contains simples sugars as glucose (also known as dextrose or grape sugar, the most basic sugar that directly goes into the blood stream without need of digestion), fructose (or levulose which is fruit sugar that is easily assimilated by the body), and small amounts of sucrose, dextrin, maltose and many minerals such as silica, iron, copper, manganese, chlorine, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, sulfur, and magnesium, and it contains some water.

These trace minerals make raw honey a powerful blood builder when used as an everyday sweetener. It also soothes the digestive track. In contrast, refined sugar has been stripped of all nutritional value and is detrimental to health when consumed on a daily basis.

Raw honey has been successfully used in the treatment of anemia because of its simple sugars and trace minerals such as iron and copper. Dr. H. A. Schuette of the University of Wisconsin has written, “The hemoglobin which we build from our food has the power of carrying oxygen to the tissues of our bodies. Without iron content, hemoglobin would not have the power of holding oxygen. Copper has the power of unlocking the therapeutic quality of iron in restoring the hemoglobin content of the blood of patients afflicted with anemia.”

When the sugar content present in the blood decreases, extreme fatigue is felt and the heart beat slows down. Raw honey has been used with great success in the treatment of weak heartbeat and overcoming fatigue. Unlike normal muscles which can afford to rest, the heart has to work continuously.

Raw honey is one of the best energy foods because it is predigested and is immediately assimilated into the blood. Other foods need to be digested before they can supply energy. Heart patients can take a glass of warm water with fresh lemon juice (optional), in which a teaspoon of honey is dissolved, before going to bed. It is unwise to leave such a hard working organ as the heart without energy for long intervals in the night.

In an article that appeared in the British medical journal Lancet, Dr. G.N.W. Thomas described the case of a pneumonia patient who was rapidly sinking as his heart gave out. Heart and pulse beat were returned to normal with the gradual consumption of two pounds of honey. Dr Thomas concluded that “honey should be given for general physical repair and, above all, for heart failure.”

In India, it is common knowledge that raw honey will strengthen a weak heart, weak brain, and a weak stomach. Raw honey is traditionally used for all intestinal ailments because it is able to destroy bacteria. It has the power to draw off moisture (hygroscopic), thus depriving moisture to bacteria which quickly perish. The predigested simple sugars in raw honey do not remain in the stomach long enough to cause fermentation, which attracts disease germs and is believed to be the cause of ulcers and many other digestive diseases.

Since bacteria cannot live in honey, it has a safe healing effect on the stomach and intestines.

Raw honey is an alkaline food, containing ingredients similar to those found in fruits, which become alkaline in the digestive system. It can be used to counteract acid indigestion. Because it doesn’t ferment in the stomach or produce gas, it can be helpful in cases of gastritis and dyspepsia. For nausea and recurrent vomiting, when the stomach is unable to retain any food, raw honey mixed with ginger and lemon juices will relieve nausea and supply energy. It helps to alleviate constipation.

A helpful diet for arthritis is going on a fresh fruit and honey diet for three or more days at a time in regular intervals like twice a month. The fruit/honey fast will alkalinize the body helping to eliminate the cause of arthritis which is prolonged acidity that brings about demineralization of bones and eventually deposits of excess calcium on joints, or worse, deformation of bones. Dr. Heermann of Kassel, Germany in 1936, wrote in a medical journal, that honey contains neutralizing acids. These acids were found to be especially effective for Rheumatism, muscle atrophy, nervous conditions, and arthritis. With its sweet taste, honey is easier to take than medicine.

Oxymel, consisting of raw honey, vinegar, sea salt, and rainwater has been traditionally used for centuries in Europe for the treatment of sciatica, gout, and rheumatic ailments. Another effective honey remedy for gout and numerous nervous disorder is Oenomel, a combination of raw honey and unfermented grape juice.

For a better complexion, mix a tablespoon of raw honey with two or more tablespoons of sweet almond oil to make a healing lotion. Wash your face, then apply the lotion and leave it for up to a half an hour. Remove with a wet cloth and cold water. You can make a healing mask by mixing raw honey, water and clay and apply it on the face. Let the mask dry, then wash off with cold water.

Raw honey is helpful reducing weight. It can used to reduce craving for food by eating it as a snack with an apple or other fruit. Both fats and sugars are carbon containing energy producing food. On coming in contact with oxygen, they burn up creating energy. Sugars burn more rapidly and produce energy quicker than fats. For people who have excess fat, energy is obtained slowly as fats burn slowly. By eating raw honey, this process is speeded up as it causes rapid combustion, lowers appetite and consumes fats more readily.

Raw honey is a non-irritating food. It does not ferment in the stomach or produce gas. For this reason it is helpful in cases of gastritis, dyspepsia, and hyperacidity. As an energy food, raw honey can be eaten for recurrent vomiting, when the stomach is unable to retain food. It supplies energy in cases of fevers when normal digestion is hampered. Mix a half teaspoon of raw honey with lemon juice and ginger to help relieve nausea.

Honey helps children in various ways by promoting the retention of calcium contributing to the development of healthy teeth and sturdy limbs. A teaspoon of honey given to children at bedtime will act as a sedative and help avoid bedwetting.

The regular intake of honey reduces the incidence of muscle cramps. Cramps occur when the calcium present in the blood is at a lower level, while the phosphorus level is high. By taking honey the required levels are balanced.

In 1929, Dr. F.G. Banting, the discoverer of insulin, stated, “ In the United States, the incidence of diabetes has increased proportionately with the per capita consumption of sugar. During the heating and recrystallization of the sugar, something is altered that leaves the refined product a dangerous foodstuff.”

A wise, old bee keeper once said about diabetes: “You know what’s causing that to happen? White sugar. If the sugar refineries ever succeed in pushing us honey suppliers out of business, they’ll also succeed in creating a nation of diabetics.”

Before the discovery of insulin, homeopathic physicians successfully treated many diabetics with raw honey, after taking them off sugar. The Indians of northern Mexico developed cases of diabetes as they gave up the consumption of honey for white sugar. Tribal medicine men, sensing the connection, took their people off sugar and fed them raw honey dissolved in tea brewed from the manzanilla (olive leaf) plant. In all but extreme cases, the diabetic systems vanished or decreased markedly.

Diabetics and hypoglycemics should consult a professional naturopath before attempting to use raw honey for such benefit.

LNH