This sweet is good for your health
By Maharaj K. Koul

REMEMBER what grandma told her little girls? "If you want a milk and honey complexion, minus the hassle of Cleopatra’s tubful of milk, mix an equal portion of honey and lemon juice and rub it onto your face."

Almost all the religions of the world have praised honey for its unique qualities. The Rig Veda, one of the oldest sacred books of India, contains many references to both honey and bees. Honey is invariably used in innumerable Hindu ceremonies and rituals. Susruta, a famous surgeon, and Charaka, a physician, recognised different varieties of honey and attributed specific medicinal properties to each of them.

In ancient Greece people considered honey the most valuable gift of nature. The Greek gods were immortal because they ate ambrosia which contained honey. Aristotle’s Natural History contains a variety of observations on honey. He believed that honey prolonged life and kept the body fit.

Sura 16 of the Koran records that honey is a remedy for every illness. Jews use honey for preparing meals. Honey derives its name from the Arabic word han.

Honey was the only sweetener used in most societies till about 200 years ago. The exceptions were India, China and North America (which had maple syrup). Ancient Egyptians used honey for embalming. Alexander the Great’s body was taken back to Greece for burial in a golden coffin filled with honey.

Ever thought of switching to honey instead of sugar? In its raw, unfiltered and unpolluted form, honey wins over the other sweetener — refined, white, table sugar — by a long shot. Besides the common belief that a glass of warm water with lemon and honey helps in the battle of the bulge, there are some other facts that make it a winner. For instance, sugar supports bacterial growth, burns more intensely, causes constipation, is a mild stimulant and of course, adds to the calorie count with little nutritive value. Honey, on the other hand, kills certain kinds of bacteria, is absorbed by the body gradually, has a mild laxative effect, acts as a mild sedative and, importantly, has nutritive value.

What do Cliff Richard, Pat Boone, Lulu, Joe Brown and Kim Wilde have in common? They all consume honey to put up with the punishing schedules they follow every day. And they are not alone in this addiction. Fitness and beauty experts Lizzy Webb, Jan Leeming, Karl Howman, Maureen Lipman, Lysette Anthoney and our own Shahnaz Hussain all swear by honey.

Did you know that you could look a lot younger if you regularly consumed honey? Or that it could tone up a sagging body and compete with any rejuvenating or revitalising agent?

What, after all, is honey?

Honey is a sweet, viscous liquid, mostly nectar of a wide range of flowers collected by honey bees. To make 500 gm of honey a single bee has to travel more than 75,000 km. And a bee can make one litre of honey from 8,00,000 flowers. Believe it or not, David Graves sells honey produced by bees from hives located 12 storeys off the ground in New York.

Honey is stored in the beehive in honey-combs, which are double layers of uniform hexagonal cells made of beeswax, a secretion of the worker bees, and propolis — a plant resin. These are used in winter as food for the bee larvae and other members of the colony. Honey is an acidic mixture of sucrose, glucose, fructose and water that is often used to treat burns and lacerations because of its antiseptic properties. Its sugar content and high viscosity checks the spread of micro-organisms. It is widely used as a preservative, and is also a source of alcohol. Mead, or methegline, an alcoholic beverage fermented from honey and diluted with water, was a very popular drink in ancient Scandinavia, Gaul, Teutonic Europe and Greece. Today mead is made as a sweet or dry wine of low alcoholic strength.

The cave paintings at Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh that date back to 600 B.C., indicate that honey was popular in India even then. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that about 51,000 tonne of honey is produced annually in India.

In ancient times, three kinds of honey was commonly recognised: maksika from the common honey bee (Apis cerana indica), bhramara from the large black rock bee (Apis dorsata) and Ksaudra from the dwarf Ksaudra bee (Apis florea).

The worker bees have a special pouch, called the honey bag, inside their bodies where they store nectar. In this pouch the sugar and nectar are broken down by a chemical process called "inversion" into two simple sugars — levulose and dextrose. This is later allowed to dry to remove most of the water, giving it a thick consistency. They also add their own enzymes which add to its flavour.

On an average, honey contains about 40 per cent of fruit sugar, 34 per cent of grape sugar and about 2 per cent of cane sugar. In addition, it contains moisture contents of 20 per cent, 5 mg of calcium, 16 mg of phosphorus, 0.9 mg of iron, 4 mg of vitamin and traces of vitamin B complex (per 100 gm) which amount to a calorific value of 319.

Basically the colour and flavour of honey depends upon the nature and type of flowers from which the nectar has been obtained. So honey ranges in colour from white to dark amber. Normally the light-coloured honey has the mildest flavour. The most popular honey plants are alfalfa, alsike clover, sweet clover and white clover. And, believe it or not, the honey made from rhododendron flowers is poisonous. One hectare of mustard flowers gives about 40 kg of honey.

Honey is an effective cure for allergies. Honey in moderate doses has a beneficial effect on digestion and appetite of those with weak stomachs and loose bowels. It provides a readily absorbable food. It is considered the most potent fuel for providing energy.

Honey increases general vitality, favouring the production of red blood cells and haemoglobin. Its analgesic characteristics help in certain types of moderate rheumatic pain.

Lime in honey is excellent for regulating the secretions of internal glandular organs. Honey induces sound sleep if taken with cold water before going to bed. It decreases flatulence and increases the metabolic rate and also the quantity of urine among children.

Honey retards the effects of organic ageing because of the presence of vitamin B5. It is being increasingly used in the West in anti-wrinkle creams, tonics and health foods. Honey regulates the hormonal functioning of the body, particularly the reproductive organs of women. It is especially beneficial for menstrual irregularities and discomfort during menopause.

As a demulcent, honey with warm water can help treat constipation, indigestion, bronchial afflictions, chronic cold, asthma, troublesome cough and sore throat. It is an ideal food for growing children and adults if taken with milk regularly. A spoonful of honey with fresh ginger juice is a very good expectorant.

Honey is more often used in curing rickets, marasmus, malnutrition, etc. In old age it is especially useful in providing energy and heat to the body. It also dries up phlegm and clears mucus.

Asthma patients can get much relief by drinking a teaspoonful or two of honey in with warm (boiled) water.

With lime it can be applied externally on the temples to treat headaches or on the abdomen to cure colic. Honey by itself or mixed with ghee when applied to burns, ulcers and wounds heals them quickly.

A mixture of honey and alcohol is believed to promote hair growth. Honey is also useful to check cardiac pains and palpitation of the heart.

The chemical composition of honey makes it an important household item. Undoubtedly, honey is a rare gift that nature has blessed man with.