Spring into honey! What’s Manuka honey?

Since this is a special time of the year for me … it’s the time when I look over my cabinets and re-supply my natural-health spring tune-up supplies.

At the first signs of spring’s approach, I start thinking about local honey, allergy tea and sometimes even bee pollen, which has many great benefits.

Bee pollen is often used to charge up the immune system and sometimes even prevent seasonal allergy symptoms!

I should mention here that my father, a sometimes beekeeper, always insisted that bee stings were good for your health. (Maybe they were a source of bee pollen.)

Of course, spring is bee season –

And bee products have traditionally been revered as preventative medicine, especially among the natural health crowd.

There are also herbal remedies that are made by placing herbs in raw honey and allowing the mixture to crystalize … then you just eat the herbs and honey mixture or add some of it to your favorite hot tea.

Recently researching honey, I noticed something odd in the articles I found.

It was this: I found an obvious difference of opinion regarding the health benefits of honey.

Some strongly emphasized that honey is just a type of liquid sugar that has only minor health benefits, while others made a big deal out of the healing properties of honey, barely mentioning its sugar content at all!

And I can see several reasons for this disagreement, one being that there are different types of honey for different purposes.

Some honeys are simply meant to be a sugary liquid sweetener, and these honeys mostly contain a mix of honey from widely different sources.

But there are other types of honey, some made purposefully to be a source of healing for a particular geographic area, with particular bees, exposed to particular allergens active in that particular location.

This kind of honey is called “local honey,” and when local people eat local honey (absorbing tiny bits of local allergens,) they often do experience a souped-up immune response and fewer allergy symptoms.

In fact, local honey is praised for containing antioxidants and having anti-inflammatory properties, which translated means: it makes you feel better!

There is also a question of buying raw or pasteurized honey.

While pasteurizing the honey kills off bacteria so it lasts longer on the shelf, the unpasteurized “raw” honey keeps a greater amount of the good stuff like antioxidants and other immune-support chemicals gained from the bee’s interaction with plants.

So, raw is healthier for you … but remember not to give it to very young children.

To me, it seemed that I actually found a larger number of articles than usual belittling the healing properties of honey, saying it was only sugar.

But this may be because a certain type of honey – Manuka honey –has been praised in the news lately as a possible help for those with memory loss.

And sometimes when a new suggestion for treatment emerges, it can upset the apple cart, making people feel uncomfortable, which could spawn negative reports for the product.

But also, some may be concerned that persons with memory decline will neglect established treatments, hoping that honey instead will take care of the condition, hence the discouraging suggestions.

But I actually tried Manuka honey, and I did seem to notice a lasting increased mental perkiness, along with decreased memory uh-ohs.

Manuka honey is unique, made by bees that gather their pollen mainly from the flowers of Manuka trees in New Zealand and Australia.     

And in this case, it is thought that the pollen gathered by bees from Manuka flowers may have some healing properties for memory disorders.

When you look into Manuka honey, you will see the milligrams of MGO listed. MGO is a natural chemical compound that gives Manuka honey its zing!

And even though you can find MGOs of 100 and higher, a 30 to 70 MGO is considered effective for health support.

In fact, the kind I tried was 30 + MGO, and I got some good results after slowly eating two jars. But if you are trying this product for memory support, I’d go with the 150+ MGO rated honey.

But if you can’t find Manuka honey, you could try some other honeys — such as Wildflower honey and Clover honey – which are also reported to have anti-bacterial properties (makes you feel better.)

So to get the best health boost from your honey, you’re looking for local, raw, “unpasteurized” honey, or a particular type of healthy honey like Wildflower, Clover, or Manuka, for instance.

This article was written by Vanna Silverwood, medical writer and outspoken advocate for natural medicine: see more at Simplynaturalmedicine.com. Encouraging stability, helping you clarify your health goals … we are always“Natural by nature!“