Interesting Facts About Honey You Need to Know!

Photo by Arwin Neil Baichoo on Unsplash

Have you been trying to get away from processed, white sugar in favor of sweet, golden honey? If so, this is a great move on your part due to honey’s numerous health benefits!

Aside from the health benefits that honey can provide, there are a number of interesting facts about this sweet substance that will make you want to keep your pantry fully stocked with it. We’re going to take an in-depth look at everything you could possibly want to know about honey and why you should be using it more frequently!

Keep reading for more information!

Honey is Sweeter Than Sugar

Believe it or not, honey is actually sweeter than sugar due to the fact that it has more fructose. What is interesting though is that honey, even as many health benefits as it has, still has more calories per serving.

Honey contains around 64 calories per tablespoon whereas sugar contains around 49 calories per tablespoon. However, because honey tastes much sweeter than sugar, less of it is typically needed to achieve the desired sweetness level. This could mean that fewer calories are consumed.

Moreover, due to honey’s high fructose levels, it is actually ranked lower on the glycemic index. This basically means that it doesn’t cause your blood sugar to spike the same way that sugar does, which may help you avoid diabetes later in life.

Honey Won’t (Usually) Spoil

Have you ever cleaned out your cabinets and found an old jar of honey that appeared to be crystallized, only to throw it away because it appeared to be unusable? Unfortunately, you wasted perfectly good honey!

Next time this happens, help return honey its gooey, delicious state by removing the lid of the container and slowly heating it in a pot of water. You will soon notice the honey return to its former consistency.

There are a few reasons that honey won’t go bad:

• Its high sugar content helps suppress the growth of microbes; it is also very low in moisture content
• Bees secrete certain chemicals or enzymes that eventually turn into hydrogen peroxide which kills bacteria
• Honey is also quite acidic which means it isn’t a great place for bacteria to grow

While these are all excellent reasons as to why honey won’t spoil, these reasons do not mean that honey cannot be contaminated. This is simply due to the fact that bees can accidentally contaminate honey by introducing small numbers of mold spores or dust. Generally, these contaminants don’t exist in large enough numbers to be of concern for human adults.

Honey Can Help Heal Acne, Burns, and Cuts

If you keep up with beauty trends, you’ve probably heard of people using honey on their faces as a mask or acne treatment, but did you ever wonder why?

As mentioned above, honey doesn’t really go ‘bad’ because of its antimicrobial properties. Additionally, honey has some hydrogen peroxide and is acidic - both of which are wonderful for those painful open burns, pesky zits, or never-healing cuts.

You might feel like honey is too sticky or messy to simply leave on a burn, cut, or acne. This is understandable but you can also purchase patches that allow for a bandage covering with the gauze being infused with honey to promote faster healing.

Local Honey and Seasonal Allergies

The jury is still out on whether or not honey can help alleviate your seasonal allergies but it is worth a shot to try. Generally, the thinking behind consuming honey to help with allergies is that bees deposit a small amount of local pollen into their honey.

This small amount of pollen acts almost like a vaccine - your immune system is exposed to local allergens and can fight back against them appropriately.

If you’re already too late into the allergy season and are starting to feel like you are becoming sick, honey can also help with your dry, scratchy throat.

Substitute Honey for Sugar in Baking

Some ‘substitutions’ simply do not work and make your food taste awful. However, should you choose to swap sugar with honey the next time you make cookies, you might be pleasantly surprised with the difference (or lack thereof).

As we’ve mentioned before, honey is sweeter than sugar, so you might not need as much as you would otherwise.

Mental Health Benefits of Honey

Obviously, you get the idea that honey is great for you, inside and out. However, it is also good for your brain! When you begin using honey on a daily basis, you will begin to find that your anxiety levels decrease and you are able to fall and stay asleep longer without the help of sleeping medications.

Should you be suffering from depression or insomnia, try to start taking about one to two tablespoons of honey per day. Doing this may actually help normalize your sleeping patterns which will, in turn, help reduce your anxiety and/or depression.

Learning More About Honey

Photo by Sandy Millar on Unsplash

So far, we’ve looked at honey healing your mind and body as well as its applications for in-home cooking. The best idea to find out even more about honey is to consider purchasing books about honey or to talk to your local beekeeper.

The art of beekeeping seems a bit outdated, but many people still partake in the industry in order to harvest the honey each and every year.