Honey is popularly used in weight loss programmes – but the logic behind how it works is pretty amazing. Essentially its the same as sugar, right? It just contains calories and water.
But what one usually misses while making this assumption, is the fact that refined sugar used today contains zero micronutrients. Honey on the other hand has a huge range of micronutrients depending on which source they came from. There’s these research studies we came across, and here’s the other one – that quite clearly point out how useful and beneficial it is for the human body.
Let’s look at how this works – I think you’ll be amazed!
Our friends at Organic Facts quite boldly state:
Honey and Warm Water
Normally, fat remains as an unused resource in the body, adding bulk and weight, but it is believed that honey has the ability to mobilize this stored fat. When this fat is burnt to provide energy for your daily activities, you will see a gradual decrease in your weight and a relief from the problems of obesity.
So there’s a number of ways to use honey, and each has its own advantages.
- Sugar substitute in tea, lemonade
- Pancake syrup replacement (unless of course you’re having authentic Maple Syrup – in which case you’re good)
- Weight reduction
In fact honey is one of the key ingredients of the famous “hibernation diet” – check out this extremely clear analysis by “Benefits of Honey“:
Honey is the Gold Standard for Hibernation
Honey is found to be the most ideal food that can provide a fuelling mechanism for the liver due to its 1:1 ratio composition of fructose and glucose. The fructose in the honey goes into the liver, is converted into glucose and stored as liver glycogen. The fructose also triggers the glucose enzymes in the liver to take in glucose, hence lowering the Glycaemic Index of glucose.
Not only is honey a recognized superfood, it’s also greatly appreciated by modern medicine for it’s health benefits.
And guess what – there’s not just one ‘type’ of honey. There’s about 15-20 types of honey based on the source of the nectar bees collect in their daily gathering routines. Bees are highly selective of the type of flowers they collect from; so if a hive has been gathering nectar from Lavender flowers, they will continue to gather Lavendar honey till their queen dies and a new queen takes her place.
Some of the types of authentic varieties I’m aware of:
- Clover (smooth, thin and sparkly)
- Dark (from trees; usually hardwood – very dark and deep flavoured)
- Lavender (from lavender fields)
- Jasmine (from regions with a high concentration of Jasmine flowers)
- Saffron (the tastiest I think!! gathered from saffron fields – oh and very, very rare)
We have some lavender and saffron honeys in the Wellness Tree Shop from time to time; but it’s a short season and sells out really fast. Before 2017 we only served offline orders within our immediate vicinity.
Allergy warning: Some people unfortunately have reactions to honey! If you have food allergies please take your doctor’s advice before making a purchase.