The Importance of Honey ~ Fight Seasonal Allergies
Oil & Honey Edition ~ What is the importance of honey you may ask? Anti-bacterial and anti-fungal, honey is the only food that never spoils! Pretty cool huh? Honey can help us both externally and internally. You know honey has been around for centuries. A natural healer and sweetener. I like to use it for both of those reasons. Well, and I love honey bees too! Today I want to share a quick, easy way for you to use honey to fight seasonal allergies.
Honey makes an excellent replacement for refined sugar not only in our tea and coffee but also in baked goods. Did you know that 1 teaspoon of honey a day can help relieve allergy symptoms? If you follow The Orange Bee you’ve likely seen this statement before. I repeat because it’s true and so much better for us than taking allergy meds on a daily basis. I’m not saying that you or I should never take a Zyrtec or Claritin for a bad allergy day. What I am saying is that if we ingest a teaspoon of local honey daily it’s likely that the days of using OTC allergy drugs will certainly be few and far between.
The common theory is that ingesting a bit of honey daily is like getting a natural vaccine. It helps your body become immune to the pollens that are found in the honey. Honey bees add pollen to the honey they make in the hive. Honey that comes from a radius of 100 miles of where you live is the best! If you suffer from allergies to dust, pet dander or milk I am sorry to say honey won’t help.
The bees in the photo are busy filling this frame with honey and capping it off. Where you see the golden yellow wax the honey is perfect and ready for consumption. Where you see the bees with their tiny heads stuck into the cells? Well those bees are adding nectar, water and pollen to get just the right mixture before it is capped. This frame of honey is nearly complete and when so is set to be pulled from the hive for human use.
Here is a BeeMovie you can click on to see the sweet bees guarding the open hive as I make an inspection. When their hive is full of honey or brood they are quick to protect the contents. I work slowly and quietly with them and rarely aggravate them. I’m intrigued by the way they move to the top of the frame and “guard” the hive. They seem to know who I am and merely watch me as I work with them.
The importance of honey for fighting seasonal allergies is this simple – 1 teaspoon daily! Contact your local beekeepers association, county extension office or head to a farmers market to find your local honey. It’s not too early to start taking a spoonful a day. My favorite way to get my daily honey intake? Dip a spoon into jar of honey – open mouth – insert spoon! ALERT ~ Don’t wait until your allergies are bothering you start taking honey now!
