by
Stepy —
April 29, 2014
- Organic and Raw honey is one of nature’s most valuable treasures.
- As its name states, raw honey is not filtered, unaltered, unprocessed, and is harvested directly from the honeycomb to your pantry, courtesy of nature’s little honeybees.
- It is one of the organic food on planet earth!
- Besides being delicious, forever lasting, and a healthier alternative to sugar or artificial sweeteners, organic and raw honey has many medicinal properties.
- The overuse of antibiotics is becoming an epidemic in the United States.
- They are prescribed for almost everything.
- The issue with over consuming antibiotics is that they kill good bacteria in the gut, making it more difficult to fight infections in the future.Our immune system gets used to them.
- A report published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that in 2010, health care providers prescribed “258.0 million courses of antibiotics in 2010, or 833 prescriptions per 1000 persons.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is now reporting that the infectious organisms that antibiotics usually target have adapted to the drugs, because they have been used for so long.
- A study published by the American Chemical Society shows that honey may begin to play a bigger role in fighting infections.
- “The unique property of honey lies in its ability to fight infection on multiple levels, making it more difficult for bacteria to develop resistance,” explained Susan M. Meschwitz, Ph.D., the leader of the study.
- Honey uses a combination of tools, such as hydrogen peroxide, high sugar concentration, polyphenols, acidity, and osmotic effects to kill bacteria.
- “Honey may also disrupt quorum sensing, which weakens bacterial virulence, rendering the bacteria more susceptible to conventional antibiotics,” Meschwitz stated.
- Quorum sensing is the way bacteria communicate with each other, and may affect biofilms and the release of disease causing toxins
- Another advantage of honey is that it does not target the essential growth process of bacteria like conventional antibiotics. The issue with this type of targeting is that it causes the bacteria to become resistant to the drugs.
- Honey is packed with polyphenols, including phenolic acids, caffeic acids, ellagic acid, and p-coumaric acid. “Several studies have demonstrated a correlation between the non-peroxide antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of honey and the presence of honey phenolics,” Meschwitz added.
- The team also found that honey has potent antioxidant properties, making it effective food for treating infections and boosting the immune system. “We have run standard antioxidant tests on honey to measure the level of antioxidant activity,” Meschwitz explained. “We have separated and identified the various antioxidant polyphenol compounds. In our antibacterial studies, we have been testing honey’s activity against E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, among others.”
- When purchasing honey, make sure it is organic, raw, and from a reputable source.
- We recommend Living Tree Community Foods.
- Note: The content on our website is for educational purposes only. Please consult your health practitioner or a qualified expert.
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