Natures Healing Gold

Honey

It's smooth, thick, sweet and sticky, it comes in all sorts of flavours making sure there is at least one favourite for everyone - it's honey!

Honey is an amazing product. I know that if I have a sore throat, I instinctively go in search of the honey pail, if I am feeling like I need an energy boost, I head for the honey, if I want to soothe and help heal a skin malfunction I head for the honey and if I want to pick myself up and give myself a luxurious pampering treat, yes, I head for the honey!

Honey is super antibacterial. This fact makes it great to use on wounds, ulcers and even burns, and this is why hospitals use honey on surgical wounds, as honey is known to overpower even super bugs that don't respond to antibiotics. Best of all honey doesn't have any side effects, it's all pure and natural!

Did You Know: a great way to help heal cracked nipples is to smear them with raw unprocessed local honey when not feeding. Smear it on generously and put on a breast pad to protect your clothes getting sticky..wipe it off before feeding.

Honey is only made by honeybees. Honeybees have been around for more than one hundred million years. The honeybees collect nectar from thousands and thousands of flowers. They can work up to almost 24 hours a day and are eternally faithful to their Queen, and for all this the only thing that e honeybee asks for in return is its minimal food collections. Aren't they amazing!?

Disease threatens honeybees now though, and we need to look after them because if the honeybee dies off, we won't have this amazing product to help us in so many different ways in our lives, and that would be terrible, but even worse their demise would seriously affect our food supply as honeybees are also our pollinators for our plants. Two very Important jobs.

Honey is a wonderful ingredient to use in our cooking, from roasts to desserts, the ways you can use honey in your cooking are unlimited. There are many recipes online if you would like to google them. 

Did You Know: that the amount of honey a honeybee makes in its lifetime is about only a tenth of a teaspoon, so next time you are about to throw out your honey jar - stop - think of ways to use those bits of honey clinging to the sides of the jar..because one honeybees lifes work is resting there, and we want to respect every one of them by using ALL the honey. A good way to use up the dregs of honey in the jars is to add some milk to it, shake it up well and then take it into your bathroom and fill your bath with lovely warm water, pour that jar of milk and honey into the water and get in, lie back and relax for 20 minutes and let the milk and honey mixture work wonders on your skin!

The following are some of the ways that I like to use honey, I hope you enjoy reading them and if you have any ways that you like to use honey, I would love to hear them!

Honey - raw unprocessed honey, is good to use on your body to help heal things like burns and sores. Just make sure your sore part is properly cleaned, then apply honey to the gauze/padding you will use to cover your wound and apply this gauze. Use bandage to keep the padding/gauze in place and change it once a day (we like to change it at night because you are still at night and with a fresh treatment on, it gives it a better quiet time to rest, I am not sure if this matters really, but it makes sense to me! lol).

Did You Know: honey healing can also be used on your beloved pets the same way we use it on ourselves. Smear generously with honey and wrap in bandage to hold it on, change the bandage daily. 

We use honey to help keep colds at bay or to a minimum. You can have the honey any way you like it, and you can have as much as your body tells you it needs. A good way to have it is with meals, so honey on cereal or toast for breakfast or maybe with yoghurt as a snack. Honey is soothing and healing, so it works well for a sore throat too, just lick a teaspoon of honey anytime your throat is feeling sore and you will feel it being soothed immediately, it's antibacterial benefits linger to kill off the germs as well.

If you can't sleep try mixing 2-3 teaspoons of honey into a glass of warm water (milk works nice too if you like warm milk), drink this about half an hour before you head to bed and you should sleep well.

One thing I love about honey is that it only takes about seven minutes after eating some to give you an energy hit, so it's really good to have when you still have kids to look after and you are tired and running on empty. It's a sorted so quickly into our system because honey is a living food. This means basically that it has been pre-digested by the honeybee and that really means that it makes it easier and quicker for it to enter our own bloodstream. So it gets to us quicker and it also lasts longer for us to enjoy the benefits of it. Sugar also gives you that kick of sugar hit but once the sugar hit is over so is everything else..it burns off just as quickly, making honey better for us.

Did You Know: one of honeys healing secrets is its sweetness. Honey is packed full of simple sugars and they suck out the water from bacteria and moulds.  Water is the most important part of all living things so when the water is sucked out of them, they are destroyed. 

The following are a few recipes using honey that you can try that I love using on myself:

Milk and Honey Bath

This simple treat isn't for cleaning your skin, it's for use after you have bathed.

Fill your bath to about half full of warm water. Put two cups of powdered milk into a jug and add water to mix well. Add this to the bath water, stir it in well, then add about half a cup of honey and stir that in. Step into the bath and relax in the water for as long as you like. When you get out you will be relaxed and your skin will feel luxurious and moisturised. 

Milk and Honey Facial

This is similar to the above formula but it's used on your face.

Into a small bowl, mix two teaspoons of milk powder and two teaspoons of honey to make a smooth paste. Brush or smooth this mixture over your face and neck and allow to soak in for 15 minutes before your wash it off with warm water. 

Did You Know: Honey is a humectant, which means that it attracts moisture and holds it within it, so this is what makes using honey on your skin work so well at keeping it soft and subtle and helping it to restore its elasticity.

Honey Body Scrub:

This is an easy body scrub recipe that uses ingredients found in your pantry.

Into a small bowl mix a cup or two of sugar (any type is fine) with half a cup or more of honey, enough to form wet sand consistency or there abouts. Rub in small circular motions onto damp skin and rinse off to reveal smooth, soft, glowing skin. If you would like the formula to be less sticky, make the honey portion half honey, half edible vegetable oil (olive, sunflower, rice bran etc). If you would like the scrub to be cleansing as well or wash off easier, just add a dash of shampoo or dish washing liquid to it..easy!

So..how do YOU like to use honey?

Amanda xox