Do you carry Honey in your gear?

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Jul 12, 2002
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Maybe you should. I've known about the medicinal values of honey for years and like how it flavors up my food. The following was sent to me by a friend today and it broadened my respect for the ancient food source considerably. Of course, as with any natural medicine, it's value is only as good as the expectations and personal beliefs of the user. But from where I stand, it good stuff.

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Medicine in the Food Cupboard

Today, many people are battling to maintain themselves and families on limited incomes. But there is a simple product in the pantry which is a medicine and cosmetic as well as a food.

Honey is mankind's oldest food and medicine but has been overpowered by heavy advertising by the drug companies which now take $600 million per year from the New Zealand economy. Honey is a universal medicine and the other bee products of royal jelly, propolis, bee pollen, wax and venom have specific uses that we will not cover here today. Here are 22 tips from the world of apitherapy (medicine from bees) to cut your doctors' bill. There are 750 different kinds of honey but any will do for the following uses, although the more liquid honey is the easiest to use.

01) Honey for Burns: Apply freely over burns. It cools, removes pain and aids fast healing without scarring. Apart from being a salve and antibiotic, bacteria cannot live in honey.
02) Bed Wetting: A teaspoon of honey before bed, aids water retention and calms fears in children.
03) Sleeplessness: A dessert spoon of honey in a mug of hot milk aids sleep.
04) Hyperactivity: Honey is mild as compared to sugar, with minerals, vitamins, amino acids etc. Replace all white sugar with honey. White sugar is highly stimulating with no food qualities!
05) Nasal Congestion: Place a dessertspoon of honey in a basin of hot water and inhale fumes after covering your head with a towel over the basin. Very effective.
06) Wounds or Grazes: Cover wound with honey and a bandage. Excellent healer.
07) For Fatigue: Dissolve a dessertspoon of honey in warm water or quarter honey balance of water in a jug and keep in the fridge. Honey is primarily fructose and glucose and so it is quickly absorbed by the digestive system. (Honey is a unique natural stabilizer - ancient Greek athletes took honey for stamina before competing and as a reviver after competition.)
08) Facial Deep Cleanser: Mix honey with oatmeal approx. 50/50 till thick and apply as a face-pack. Leave on for half an hour then wash off. Great as a deep cleanser for acne etc.
09) Poor Digestion: Mix honey with apple cider vinegar approx. 50/50 and dilute to taste with water - aids digestion. (Also reputed to be wonderful for the joints.
10) Hair Conditioner: Mix honey with equal quantity of Olive Oil and cover head with a warm towel for half an hour then shampoo off. Feeds hair and scalp. Hair will never look or feel better!
11) Sore Throats: Let a teaspoon of honey melt in the back of the mouth and trickle down the throat. Eases inflamed raw tissues.
12) For Stress: Honey in water is a stabilizer - calms highs and raises lows. Use approx. 25 percent honey to water.
13) Anaemia Honey is the best blood enricher by raising corpuscle content. The darker the honey the more minerals it contains.
14) Food Preservative Cakes with honey replacing sugar stay fresher longer due to natural antibiotics. Reduce liquids by approx. one-fifth to allow for moisture in honey.
15) Heart patients: These people are well advised to replace white sugar (sucrose) with honey, natural fructose and glucose.
16) Hayfever: Chewing the tops of comb honey stimulates the immune system due to minute amounts of pollen. During the season chew for 20 minutes a teaspoon of bee cappings (tops) five to six times per day. Highly effective and useful for asthma suffers as well.
17) Osteoporosis: English research has shown that a teaspoon of honey per day aids calcium utilisation and prevents osteoporosis. Essential from age 50 onwards.
18) Long Life: One common fact worldwide is that the most long-lived people are regular users of honey. An interesting fact yet to be explained is that beekeepers suffer less from cancer and arthritis than any other occupational group worldwide.
19) Migraine: Use a dessertspoon of honey dissolved in half a glass of warm water. Sip at start of attack. If necessary repeat in 20 minutes. Always effective (so tip goes) as migraine is stress related.
 
I've got some ration pack packages... 5-6 em in my gear. Quick sugar, not to mention the essentially quick clotting.
 
Personally, I'm a bit skeptical of all these claims, but especially the burn issue. While this might be OK on 1st degree burns (think redness/sunburn), I think it's use on 2nd (blistered) or 3rd (blackened) would be a bad idea. If you are going to be treated, anything that goes on a burn will be removed at the burn unit. After seeing quite a few burns, and having friends who suffered them at work, I can tell you that this is an incredibly painful process.

If you're going to try it, I would save it for small, minor burns.
 
I use honey instead of refined sugar for nearly everything when it comes to food. I have heard about several of the medicinal uses before, but haven't tried them. I seldom take honey on the trail with me, though, because its kinda messy. Anyone found a less sticky way to pack and dispense bee vomit?


BTW- Sassafrass/sumac tea with a little honey in it is tasty and refreshing, hot or cold. :)
 
Honey has been known to cause botulism in young children. So take care in who you give it to.
 
Yep, Even though bacteria can't live in honey, the botulism spores can and cooking doesn't kill them. So, it isn't recommended to feed honey, even in cooked food, to children under a year and probably shouldn't be fed to toddlers until past 2 years of age.
 
Here's how it works.It has been properly researched and shows that honey increases the flow of leucocytes therefore speads healing . In addition it has antibacterial action. I have used it as a wound dressing for many years and find that it works very well, better than anything. For burns I use a salve that contains vitamin E and aloe vera, both proven to be excellent .I knew it worked well when I poured boiling water over my hand, immediately applied the salve and the next day there were no blisters, no problems !
 
Corn Syrup is the major sweetner in all foods and has the same problem as honey in regards to botulism. Neither should be fed to young children as they have no need of high levels of refined carbohydrates and you are much better off not getting the kid hooked on sweet tastes at such a young age.

That being said I highly doubt that the most unhealthy food that any kid is eating would be honey, check out how much trans fatty acids are being consumed, look at the oxidized cholerterol, the omega-6/omega-3 fat ratio, levels of fat soluable vitamins, level of phytates in unsprouted grains, levels of refined white flour, etc. .

-Cliff
 
For ease of packing, is there such a thing as crystalized honey or dehydrated honey or other form that would retain the positive dietary attributes of liquid honey in a dry non-messy form that could be packed easily? Maybe even an instant honey product in a "just add water" form?

:confused:

TIA
 
My understanding is that only raw honey should be used, because processing causes the honey to lose many of it's qualities.

We get ours from a local all natural/organic food outlet that sells honey bulk.
 
I have been brought up around bees and honey all my life (last name Imbery=Inn bee keeper) although there are many uses via old wives tales for honey, I realy, sorry, dont trust most of them. As a sorce of quick energy, sure. Provided it is in a great container. Cuz sertain realy big animals out there like honey...and if they smell it, they will come to root it.
I prefer using diferent thing than honey in the bush. Like using pine tree sap for *minor* burns (sun burn and the like...worse than that, a Doctor is advisable). Pine gum for enduring quick energy. Pine needle tee for insomnia and vit C...well actuly I think the pine is the coconut of the great NW
 
Im with RokJok, I would like to carry honey, but I am afraid the container will leak = big mess in bag....that would suck....longbow what kind of container do you keep honey in?
 
I carry it in a small plastic food grade container with a screw on lid. It holds about 4oz. or so. That goes into a small ziplock bag for insurance.
 
Bees reduce moisture in honey down to around 15%. Higher than that it ferments.If you could remove all moisture you would hav e crystals. BTW I forgot to mention when using honey as a wound dressing a scab does not form so when you change dressing you don't tear open wound. BTW there is a dressing available that contains dextrose, invented by the medical 'profession', I wonder where they got that idea ?? Of course they will tell you that using honey is nonsense !!!!
 
I love honey. I have been taking them for breakfast for years.
There are different varieties. Some have special qualities that truly enhances one's healthy and adds a lingering glow of health on one's cheeks!
 
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