Should you really avoid eating honey?

Photo credit: photodune.

By Noor H. Salem

I receive an incredible amount of questions regarding whether honey is a beneficial food to consume, or whether it’s something to stay away from.  Many of my clients claim they are confused about whether or not honey is really a health optimizing food, due to contradicting statements they hear. I’ve realized many have come to believe it’s equal to the brownie on your plate, while at the opposite end of the spectrum, we have our holistic doctors who swear by its miraculous benefits. Many people claim that it’s not beneficial due to the high calorie and sugar content. They decide to buy zero calorie sweeteners instead.

While some people may assert that sugar is sugar, many holistic healers, including myself, put honey in its own category due to its unique beneficial enzymes, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and anti-viral benefits. Of course, I’m talking about Organic Raw Honey, local if possible. Anything taken from the Sunnah of our Prophet (pbuh) should not be questioned, let alone the Quran! None knows what’s better for us than the One who created us to begin with.

“Then eat from all the fruits and follow the ways of your Lord laid down [for you]. There emerges from their bellies a drink, varying in colors, in which there is healing for people. Indeed in that is a sign for a people who give thought.” [Quran 16:69]

The benefits of truly pure honey are simply outrageous. Put aside swallowing capsules of antibiotics, and skip unnatural medicine that bandage our sicknesses instead of heal us from within. Honey has healing properties for ulcers, anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties, blood sugar control, cough suppressant, and it even boosts your immunity. Honey soothes the intestinal linings of your stomach. I always advise my clients with allergies and food intolerance issues to take a spoon of organic raw honey, local if possible, every morning. Even more exciting, some studies prove that doctors who used honey as healing for cuts and wounds healed faster and cleaner than those treated with alcohol and iodine. Eating a spoon of Organic Raw Honey every morning could do you wonders, and after a workout it helps with glycogen restoration in your system too.

Let me emphasize a point though, if you’re referring to the cute looking teddy bear honey that’s on sale for 99 cents at the supermarket, then yes, I’d definitely advise that you completely avoid eating it or feeding it to your kids. Not only is this honey heavily processed, it’s unnatural. Believe it or not, they add sugar in the majority of brands. Even honey that does not come in a teddy bear container may not be 100% natural, and raw. Raw honey is unpasteurized and unfiltered, thus, contains optimum benefits for your overall health.

An immense issue in our country today is that people are trying to eat sugar-free, low-fat, and carbohydrate free diets. Yet, people are unhealthier than ever before in history. Obviously, because these sugar-free sweeteners are chemically made to be sweet, in a scientist’s lab, not nature. They weren’t produced by bees and plants, and they are very unnatural. Putting these chemicals into your body could be toxic and harmful in the long run. Not to mention, these sweeteners are not satisfying, they chemically turn on your brain to crave for more. So enjoying that spoon of Organic Raw Honey daily is much more satisfying than pouring these artificially made sweeteners into your food. I always advise my clients to just stop the obsession of counting calories, but instead start counting chemicals. Stocking up on “sugar-free” and “low-calorie” snacks full of 30+ ingredients, hydrogenated oil, high fructose corn syrup, and plenty of chemicals we can’t pronounce is not a healthy diet. The spoon of honey may have sugar, but it is made of natural sugar with amazing benefits.

With your enjoyment of eating it come numerous healing benefits too. What more can we ask for?

Editor’s Note: Noor Salem is a Certified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, and is CEO of her own wellness practice, Holistic Noortrition, LLC. Noor specialized in women’s health, weight loss, and food intolerance versus allergies. She offers individual and group health coaching programs, and is a speaker on the topic of holistic health at workshops and seminars. The views expressed here are her own.