Ten Interesting Facts About Honey You Probably Didn’t Know

Hon­ey is one of the most unique prod­ucts in terms of its prop­er­ties. It is used in cook­ing, cos­me­tol­ogy, med­i­cine. Its fea­ture is dura­bil­i­ty. The researchers were very sur­prised when, dur­ing the exca­va­tions of the tomb of Tutankhamen, they found a ves­sel with hon­ey, the taste of which remained prac­ti­cal­ly unchanged. Hon­ey is con­sid­ered a ster­ile prod­uct, so health ben­e­fits can be stored for a long time.

There are var­i­ous leg­ends about hon­ey. One of them says that the famous doc­tor Hip­pocrates crossed the line of a hun­dred years only due to the fact that he reg­u­lar­ly con­sumed hon­ey. This prod­uct was con­sid­ered the food of the gods, who were famous for their immor­tal­i­ty.

The sec­ond leg­end tells that the philoso­pher Dem­ocri­tus, who want­ed to com­mit sui­cide and stopped eat­ing, was able to real­ize his dream. He planned to die on hol­i­days and held out until the right day with the help of hon­ey — he inhaled its aro­ma. As soon as he ceased to per­form this rit­u­al dai­ly, he imme­di­ate­ly died.

Cleopa­tra is the first woman to use hon­ey for cos­met­ic pur­pos­es. Her beau­ty recipes are still pop­u­lar with women of all ages. She noticed that hon­ey makes the skin vel­vety, soft, smoothes wrin­kles and tones.

Med­AboutMe pre­pared the top 10 most inter­est­ing facts about hon­ey.

Fact 1: Honey improves memory

The sweet prod­uct is rich in antiox­i­dants that pre­vent dam­age to brain cells. Hon­ey pro­motes the rapid absorp­tion of cal­ci­um, so brain func­tion improves, the think­ing process is acti­vat­ed.

Post­menopausal women com­plain that they are expe­ri­enc­ing intel­lec­tu­al decline. Stud­ies have shown that those women who took 20 grams of hon­ey dai­ly for four months improved their short-term mem­o­ry.

Fact 2: Honey is a source of happiness

Hon­ey caus­es the release of sero­tonin, which improves mood and gives a feel­ing of hap­pi­ness. The treat con­tains the amino acid tryp­to­phan, which stim­u­lates the growth of insulin. It com­pen­sates for the defi­cien­cy of hor­mones that affect the psy­cho-emo­tion­al state of a per­son. Reg­u­lar intake of hon­ey relieves stress, reduces anx­i­ety, irri­tabil­i­ty.

Fact 3: Honey will cure a hangover

It has been proven that hon­ey has a valu­able prop­er­ty for many peo­ple — it is able to remove alco­hol from the body. If you have a hang­over in the morn­ing after a wild par­ty, eat a sand­wich with hon­ey. A great option for break­fast is toast­ed toast with hon­ey.

Do not put hon­ey in hot tea or oth­er liq­uids. For him, the high tem­per­a­ture is detri­men­tal — use­ful sub­stances begin to break down. The tem­per­a­ture of the liq­uid should not be high­er than 50 ºС.

Fact 4: Honey will replace the refrigerator

In ancient times, res­i­dents of hot coun­tries used hon­ey as an alter­na­tive to a refrig­er­a­tor. They smeared fresh meat with this sweet prod­uct and buried it in the ground.

Cas­es have been record­ed when hon­ey was a kind of con­tain­er for the trans­port of pro­hib­it­ed sub­stances. In 1985, a large con­sign­ment of hon­ey was detained at cus­toms, which was trans­port­ed from Ecuador. Cocaine was found in it. As it turned out, the bees were released right on the plan­ta­tions so that they would nat­u­ral­ly pre­pare a dan­ger­ous del­i­ca­cy.

Fact 5: Honey is good for health

The results of numer­ous stud­ies have shown that the dai­ly use of hon­ey increas­es the body’s defens­es. This prod­uct is a nat­ur­al anti­sep­tic, so it kills dis­ease-caus­ing bac­te­ria as it pass­es through the gas­troin­testi­nal tract. Reg­u­lar con­sump­tion of hon­ey is a good pre­ven­tion of colds.

Take a tea­spoon of hon­ey every morn­ing — this will save you from chron­ic fatigue. This prod­uct is called food for the mind, it helps the brain to tune in to work. Hon­ey strength­ens the heart and blood ves­sels, has a ben­e­fi­cial effect on the res­pi­ra­to­ry sys­tem, pro­motes the heal­ing of wounds and micro­c­racks.

Fact 6: Honey is a mild sleep aid

Hon­ey is con­sid­ered an effec­tive rem­e­dy for insom­nia. If you can’t sleep, have a glass of warm milk or tea with hon­ey. Such a drink calms the ner­vous sys­tem and adjusts the body to a healthy sleep.

Fact 7: Regular consumption of honey is an allergy prevention

Aller­gic reac­tions occur, as a rule, not to hon­ey itself, but to its com­po­nents, in par­tic­u­lar, to pollen. This hap­pens when the hon­ey has not been ful­ly processed. If the bee­keep­er com­plies with the man­u­fac­tur­ing rules, harm­ful sub­stances will not enter the prod­uct.

Hon­ey can reduce the man­i­fes­ta­tions of sea­son­al aller­gies — it is a nat­ur­al vac­cine. An immune reac­tion to pollen is devel­oped and the body ceas­es to per­ceive it as an irri­tant.

The most expen­sive hon­ey is pro­duced in Israel

Fact 8: The composition of honey is similar to blood plasma

Hon­ey is per­fect­ly absorbed by the body due to the fact that its com­po­si­tion is sim­i­lar to blood plas­ma. Car­bo­hy­drates are quick­ly bro­ken down and pro­vide a boost of ener­gy. This sweet prod­uct does not over­load the stom­ach, but sat­u­rates with vit­a­mins and nutri­ents.

Hon­ey speeds up metab­o­lism and does not trans­form into body fat. It is includ­ed in the diet for diets to “sweet­en” life.

Fact 9: Honey is a bargaining chip

In ancient Rome and Egypt, hon­ey was used as an alter­na­tive to mon­ey. It was exchanged for the right prod­uct, they were paid tax­es and fines. Then hon­ey was con­sid­ered a divine prod­uct, so it was high­ly val­ued.

In order for the bees to make two kilo­grams of hon­ey, they need to col­lect about five kilo­grams of nec­tar.

Fact 10: The most valuable is raw honey

It is a store­house of amy­lase, flavonoids, con­tains bee pollen, a large amount of propo­lis. The antibac­te­r­i­al and antiox­i­dant effect of hon­ey nor­mal­izes the func­tion­ing of the liv­er and the immune sys­tem.

When buy­ing hon­ey, find out its com­po­si­tion. The most use­ful is the prod­uct, the nec­tar for which was col­lect­ed from dif­fer­ent flow­ers.