What do you know about honey? Honey facts

well this is an old thread but.....i've got into the practice of eating honey every day. I eat local honey and whatever i can get hold of. I have 3-4 different kinds but i really want to get hold of the Manuka honey at some point.

Honey is good for energy and has natural antioxidants in it. It's also supposed to be good at fighting bad cholesterol and protecting against heart disease.

I think it has also lessened my allergies as with the local honey pollen thing because they use to be bad but now they don't seem to be around at all too much these days. I had a bit of a sore throat for a day or so but eating honey coated my throat and helped a lot.

I copied this from a site but here's some info on nutrient values of honey below..

'The vitamins present in honey are B6, thiamin, niacin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid and certain amino acids. The minerals found in honey include calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and zinc.'

Ive also read that honey can have positive effects on certain diabetes types.

There is concern about new types of bacteria out there that are immune to our antibiotics due to overuse of them. Just yesterday i was reading about how honey use in a person can reverse some of this antibiotic resistance.

Lastly i read that the oldest lived people are bee keepers. Not sure if thats backed up by data but it could make sense with all the positive effects of honey out there.

Another thing i read once that i just now thought about was honey and sleep. A lot of people find themselves waking up at night at odd times and not being able to sleep the whole night through in one go.

Some of these people are waking up due to the liver sending out chemicals that tell the brain to wake up and eat(get energy). The article was saying how if you ate some honey an hour or 2 before bed that it would satisfy the organ more and prevent it from going off and waking you during the night.

here this explains it better than i can...

Honey, Sleep, and the HYMN Cycle
Scottish pharmacist, researcher, and author Mike McInnes believes that honey improves, facilitates, and lengthens restorative sleep by at least three mechanisms. When taken before bedtime, he teaches that honey:
* Ensures adequate liver-glycogen stores for eight hours of sleep. This prevents or limits the early-morning release of two stress hormones, cortisol and adrenaline.
* Stabilizes blood-sugar levels.
* Contributes to the release of melatonin, the hormone required for both the recovery and rebuilding of body tissues during rest.

I also read that honey is a sedative of some sort. That might explain why the other day after buying my favourite local honey, me and my youngest consumed quite a bit more than usual and hours later after being outside we were both asleep on the couch during the day which was really strange for me.