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God gave us a wonderful gift in honey! Full of antioxidants, honey provides energy and healing power! In fact, one study showed that daily consumption of honey led to improved blood antioxidant levels (as noted in Healing Food by Micheal Murray, N.D., page 650).
Honey is a great natural sweetener and also beneficial when applied to the skin topically.
Once I started researching honey, I was astounded by how many uses it has!
The best honey is raw honey. In her book, 10 Essential Herbs, Lalitha Thomas states that pure raw honey is:
- an antiseptic
- an emollient
- a preservative
- soothing
- encourages the growth of new skin when used externally
- and more!
Honey is good for you!
The following are 10 simple ways to use honey in your food and on your skin:
1. Toast spread with ricotta and drizzled with honey makes a delicious breakfast or snack.
2. Whip up homemade salad dressing in minutes by pouring equal parts honey, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil into a jar, closing tightly with a lid and shaking to mix. Add herbs and salt to taste if desired.
3. Make my favorite peanut butter! (Seriously, the addition of a few tablespoons of honey to the mix makes this peanut butter the best I’ve ever tasted!)
4. Make Chocolate Coconut Oat Bars. Mmmm chocolate! Need I say more?
5. Use as a subtitle for sugar in herbal tea. I have also read that honey’s enzymes and trace minerals boost the effectiveness of the herbs it is mixed with.
6. Give yourself a honey facial.
With your fingers, gently rub honey into dry skin (make sure your hair is out of the way). Continue to rub in a circular motion (or any which way, it doesn’t really matter). Wash off with warm water and a clean wash cloth. You’ll be glowing!
7. Apply honey to burns to relieve pain and promote healing. Honey’s anti-microbial properties heal keep infection at bay.
8. When sick, add raw minced garlic to a teaspoon of honey and swallow it down! Sounds horrible, I know. But is a good way to get the healing power of garlic and honey into the body quickly.
9. Give yourself a hair treatment: Massage 1/2 cup of honey into your hair and let sit for 20 minutes (put on a shower cap, plastic bag or wrap with saran wrap, if desired). Shampoo and condition as usual.
(Just a little secret side note – I have honey on my hair as I write this! hee!)
10. Mix powdered herbs with honey to make a quick paste that can be applied topically or taken internally by the spoonful (or mixed with warm water).
Honey works for me!
What did I miss? What have you heard about honey? How do you like to use honey?
Don’t give honey to children under 12 months of age.
This post is linked up to Top Ten Tuesday and Works for Me Wednesday and Real Food Wednesday and Your Green Resource.
Don’t forget to check out the Green Christmas Giveaway Bash going on this week!
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I learned about honey about a year ago and now I always have some on hand, of the raw, organic variety. When my little one was about 11 months, he developed a rash on the back of his leg. I knew I could go to the store and get some cream of some sort, but I decided to try honey. In a few days the rash was gone and it never came back. Honey is a must, not only for the kitchen but the medicine cabinet as well. Good article!
That’s great Tenaya. I love it when you can get something out of the kitchen cabinet and use it medicinally!
This is a great list Stacy. I LOVE raw honey and use it for everything! I’m curious to know how the hair treatment worked for you. Is the point of it to condition?
Another thing that’s great to do with honey is to make a simple infused honey. I actually have a post scheduled for tomorrow about making vanilla infused honey – it is divine!
The point of the hair treatment is to add moisture and shine. My hair feels good after using it
It was VERY sticky going on though. Kind of hard to work with. But fun none the less.
You can also use molasses in the same way. (I got the idea from Natural Beauty at Home by Janice Cox – She recommends Molasses for dark hair. Which I have, so I might try that next).
It’s funny that you mentioned infused honey. I have a post on making herb-infused honey going up on Frugal Granola next Monday! Great minds think alike
I’ve never made vanilla infused honey, so I look forward to reading your post tomorrow.
Great tips! I have Manuka honey on my face as we speak. My daughter scratched up my face pretty bad when we were playing and i’m using the honey to help it heal up
Good idea! I’ve got some on my neck, seeing if it will work on an small itchy patch. My toddler gave me a hug and now has honey on her ear!
Great list! We have 4 hives in our yard and just love the raw honey we get (most years). My kids like to dip it in apples too. Also, eating local honey is helpful for allergies.
How wonderful that you can get raw honey in your own yard! I’d love that. Although my hubby is allergic to bees, so probably not the best idea
I haven’t tried dipping honey in apples! Will have to do that next time we have an apples for a snack.
Off to try the honey facial now!
Fun! Would love to know what you thought of it. My daughter thought I was crazy, but is now going to try a honey facial of her own tomorrow
So, can honey be used in place of sugar for homemade jams (since it’s a preservative)?
As far as I know you can. I have only used it in one jam recipe so far. It had a lot of honey and ended up having a very strong honey flavor. I’d like to try it again with less honey and see how it works.
This is the recipe I made: http://www.passionatehomemaking.com/2010/06/raw-naturally-sweetened-berry-freezer-jam.html
Love all these ideas! I actually just use honey to wash my face every day. And I have also done the honey with garlic when sick…although I spread it on toast and it actually didn’t taste too bad! I love substituting honey for sugar in baking too.
I love the idea of spreading the garlic and honey on toast! Will definitely do that next time.
I’ve just started washing my face with honey too. I like it a lot. It’s fun to hear that someone else does crazy things like this too
There is nothing crazy about what you’re doing at all. THIS IS WHAT SHOULD BE “NORMAL” AND EVERYDAY LIFE! CRAZY IS WHAT THE REST OF THE WORLD IS DOING INSTEAD! My oldest daughter has struggled with acne issues for several years. Most of it is due to chronic systemic fungal infection ever since we lived in a toxic moldy house in 2002. The result of that year’s living in that type of environment is that none of us have had a really good “well” day since then! Since she started using raw honey for daily facial cleansing when mixed with oatmeal, her acne problem is so greatly reduced that she is no longer overly self-conscious about her appearance. Thank God for honey and its wonderful antifungal properties! I use it on yeast outbreaks topically on my skin and in my mouth. I mix it with fresh, raw lemon juice or raw apple cider vinegar and garlic juice from a clove or 2 first. It usually clears up the outbreaks in a day or two when changed 3-4 times per day.
I agree, indeed. I’ve been using honey for almost a month now. Only honey on my face, i get rid of using soaps..dont forget to add some moisturizers since its dries up skin at some point.
Love the list….especially the first one as I make an awesome ricotta if I do say so, lol.
We were about to put bees on the farm in the spring but we bulked at the last second.
We have our order in for next year…no wimping out!
good post!
T
Wow this is interesting stuff! Who knew!?? I pinned this and look forward to experimenting!
Thanks Katie. I hope you enjoy trying some of this stuff out.
I can’t wait to try some of this out. I’ve had dry skin for years and used honey all over. I never knew of all the other things that it could be used for. Thanks for the ideas.
I heard that raw honey is also a great way to get over allergies. Digesting the pollen found in it acts sort of as a natural vaccine.
wonderful, I read the Qur’an and in it I was told that it was Allah who created the bee and in its stomach comes the honey which in it there is a healing for us, I there decided to used it as my medicine for all disease and it works for me. try it.
Honey with figs and Ricotta is one of my favorites. Alsp to stop ppork chops or pork loins for drying out when grilling try smearing them with a mix of honey and dijon mustard. Lovely on the barbi!
natural honey really works on burns
Woww! I’m so glad to learned all this about honey, I’m really going to try the face mask and hair treatment right now
Do you know if I can still use honey as a hair treatment when I don’t use shampoo/conditioner? I’d think it might be difficult to get all of it out again without shampoo, but I’ve been off the stuff for about a month and don’t want to ruin the progress my hair has made…
Johanne,
I’ve never tried it without shampoo. But I would think a good vinegar rinse could help you get it out. I understand being concerned. No one wants honey stuck in their hair!
If you try it, let us know who it turns out.