The Overlooked Health Benefits of Honey

Note: "Never give honey to children under three years old. Their bodies aren't developed enough for it yet." Love has Forgotten No One by Gary Renard

What are the real health benefits of honey? This article takes a closer look at honey to help you separate fact from fiction. A new book by Gary Renard called, Love Has Forgotten No One calls honey one of the most overlooked wonders and recommends honey instead of sleeping pills to help you sleep. The book also recommends honey for heartburn. Take honey a half hour before you eat and again before you go to bed. Are these folksy remedies really work? I'll do my best to answer that question.

Honey has a rich history in many cultures and no shortage of myths surrounding it. There is so much information about honey - it's easy to get lost in the avalanche of words that have been written. Once again, most articles are written to sell honey one way or another. I will focus on honey as an organic alternative to sleeping pills and as a natural remedy for heartburn.

Cancertutor.com is a website devoted to alternative cures for cancer. The Cancer Tutor recommends certain low-cost protocols for people who have no insurance or who simply cannot afford expensive treatments.The author lovingly calls these "dirt cheap protocols." Honey is included in several of these protocols. I enjoy reading the articles on the Cancer Tutor. The website has no adds and declines to sell any products in order to preserve its independence. This is what the Cancer Tutor has to say about honey:

As already mentioned, the cancer microbe is inside of all cancer cells. Honey is another product, along with MSM*, that can get microbe-killing nutrients inside of cancer cells. While honey by itself has cured cancer, honey combined with other microbe-killing substances should be even more effective.

* Methylsulfonylmethane

My reading tends to support the idea that a tablespoon or two of honey can help you sleep. According to naturopathic doctor Lindsey Duncan, "Honey can promote relaxation and help ease you to sleep at night. The natural sugar found in honey raises our insulin slightly and allows tryptophan, the compound famous for making us sleepy after eating turkey at Thanksgiving, to enter our brains more easily. Taking a spoonful of honey before bed can help you get restful sleep."

Combining prescription medications can have disastrous results. This sometimes happens when people become desperate for sleep. Honey is an natural way to help you fall off to sleep without resorting to more prescriptions or over-the-counter medications.

We tend to dismiss ancient remedies in the belief that modern medicine must have found a pill by now that does a better job. Consider the other side of this argument. The money-based race to produce pharmaceutical cures sometimes leads to errors in judgment. Drugs are sometimes removed from the market when problems are discovered. The use of honey is not only natural, it has stood the test of time.

Love Has Forgotten No One mentions help for heartburn as another of the wonders of honey. The book recommends "take honey a half hour before you eat dinner or before you go out to eat. Then do it again before you go to bed. Keep it up and it has a good chance of working.

People react in different ways to different treatments. There is no guarantee honey will eliminate every heartburn problem. However, antacids do not cure the problem. Antacids treat the symptoms for a few hours. Honey is more of a holistic or 'whole' body treatment. Honey works to heal the ailment by treating the body rather than the symptom.

"In the case of heartburn or acid reflux, the natural remedies work to repair and heal the esophagus and sphincter. And as doctors have found, most problems stem from a damaged esophagus and sphincter. One simple way to heal the tissue on the esophagus and lower esophageal sphincter (LES) is with raw honey in liquid form. Only 1 teaspoon of honey will help relieve your heartburn or acid reflux. The reason why honey is so effective is because it fights bacteria, blocks infection and combats against inflammation. But most importantly it stimulates regrowth of tissue which can cure acid reflux." Natural Relief for Heartburn (www.everyday-wisdom.com)

Here is the number one fact from a list of 19 astonishing facts: "Honey is the only food that never spoils. Scientists even found edible honey in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs." Note: number two was that George Washington grew cannabis in his garden. (www.omg-facts.com)

Love has Forgotten No One also mentions the fact that archaeologists discovered honey in Egyptian excavations that was still fresh after thousands of years. While we don't need anything to last that long, there's something comforting about a food that never spoils and is so hostile to bacteria. Honey even has the ingredients to produce small amounts of hydrogen peroxide in a slow-release manner. Since pasteurization destroys the enzymes that produce hydrogen peroxide, any honey used therapeutically should be raw. Love Has Forgotten No One adds that if you have allergies, you should consume honey that comes from your local area.

At the very least honey is a natural alternative to sleeping pills and antacids. It's not necessary to eat it every day, but don't overlook the health benefits of honey.

Note: Gary Renard's books, including Love Has Forgotten No One, are written with the help of two Ascended Masters who appear and speak to Gary. If you do not believe in spiritual beings, it's not likely you are interested in what they have to share. For me, I have read each of Gary's three books and been amazed at the depth of the spiritual teachings. When the latest book listed 12 things we can do to stay healthy, I decided to share them with readers who may not be familiar with Gary's work.