“Sugar pie, honey bunch
You know that I love you
I can’t help myself
I love you and nobody else”
-The Fourtops
Okay, so I wouldn’t say that I only love honey. But it’s dang tasty, y’all! And if you’ve been on The Bourbon Cactus blog for any amount of time, you know that I am a BIG proponent of local, raw honey.
But why local, raw honey you ask?
Well….here’s the skinny on
Why you should only be consuming local, raw honey.
Don’t hassle me, I’m local
First off, let’s define what local honey actually means.
Honey is considered local when it is harvested within 50 miles of where you live. So you don’t have to have a beekeeper in your city to have local honey. (Well, unless your city is huge! Haha!)
And honey is not necessarily local to you if it comes from your state. I know a lot of grocery stores now carry “local” honey that is harvested or produced from that particular state. Make sure you read the label well if you plan on purchasing this.
But as long you get honey that is harvested within a 50-mile radius of your city, you are good to go!
What is raw honey?
Raw honey is honey that goes straight from the honeycomb to your jar – or whatever container it’s in.
You want to make sure the honey you buy DOES NOT say pasteurized or filtered. And you absolutely want to read the label to make sure it is 100% pure honey. Nothing added. (ahem…sugar.)
The processes of pasteurization and filtering honey strips it of the nutritional benefits. And why would we want to do that?
*I will note that you should never feed honey to a child under 1 year of age. Honey can contain spores of bacteria that can cause botulism. For adults and older children, this is no problem, but the spores can colonize in an infant’s digestive tract and produce deadly botulin toxin.
Benefits of local, raw honey
Now to the good part: why you should be consuming local, raw honey.
Honey is excellent for allergy relief.
Due to the bee pollen and propolis contained in honey – and the fact that it’s local – it’s a great defense against seasonal allergies. Plus, raw honey contains anti-inflammatory properties which are also beneficial in subsiding those sinus and allergy symptoms.
Honey is nutritionally good for you.
Yes, you read that right…honey is actually good for you!
Raw honey has a high nutritional value due to the components of minerals, vitamins, amino acids, antioxidants and more. (You can read more about the constituents of raw honey here or here, on the NCBI website. It’s pretty interesting.)
Plus, since honey is a natural sweetener, you avoid all the nasty stuff that is in conventional sugar and artificial sweeteners. And in correct doses, raw honey can even lower glucose levels. Moderation y’all!
Honey is nature’s medicine cabinet.
So I’ve already told you that raw honey is anti-inflammatory, contains powerful antioxidants and other key nutrients, but it is also antimicrobial. When bees synthesize pollen, hydrogen peroxide is produced. This is passed through to the honey.
We all know how useful hydrogen peroxide is at cleaning wounds. The same premise is true for raw honey inside the body making it great at fighting whatever ails ya.
And if you want to, you could even use raw honey topically on burns, dermatitis, ulcers, etc.. This same article from Integrated Medical Insights explains how the anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and antioxidant properties of raw honey make it good for wound healing.
I don’t know about you, but I would much rather be putting foods in my body that help it rather than hurt it. So for me and my family, consuming local, raw honey is a no-brainer. And knowing what is going into my body and where it’s coming from is important to me. Plus I love supporting the economy by purchasing from my local peeps.
Do you use local, raw honey in your home? How do you use it; as a sweetener, medicinally, what? I’d love to know!
Great info! (Also, I loved the What About Bob reference 😉 )
hahaha! Yaaaas! We love that movie in our house. 😀
We love honey in this house! I do need to pay more attention to the local ones!
You’ll be amazed at how much better it tastes: I think it’s part psychological – knowing you are supporting your neighbors – and part just very good honey.😄
Wow what an excellent article. I buy local honey and sooo happy to learn here about its health benefits. All makes sense.
It’s always satisfy knowing what we’re doing is actually good for us!
Love raw honey! However, I recently have also been buying Manuka Honey from New Zealand; have you tried it? Lots of fabulous health benefits!
I have heard of it! It is one of the richest honeys in antioxidants, vitamins, & minerals due to the pollen of the manuka bush. I haven’t tasted it, but I’ve heard the taste is great!
I have tried raw honey and quite liked it!
I’ve been using local honey to help with allergies. Thank you for sharing so many other great uses!
Aside from being our sweetener of choice, allergy help is probably our main use as well.
I couldn’t agree more! We have friends who have a large honey business and we buy from them. Soon, though, I will be going outside to harvest my own. I got bee boxes for my birthday last month! 🙂
Oh my goodness! That’s so exciting! I always thought beekeeping would be way cool.
We ALWAYS buy local raw honey. We have someone at our church that is a beekeeper. My youngest son loves it in his oatmeal instead of sugar. It tastes so much better, too!
Doesn’t it though! And you are super lucky to do have a friend that is willing to share.
I love local honey too! We have a place near us that does the best lavender honey. Delicious in tea!
Oh…my…that sounds like heaven!
I love honey! Thanks for sharing!
Absolutely! Thanks for stopping by!
MMMM! Lovvvve raw honey! We use it as mostly a sweetener or topping to super healthy things like biscuits. Lol
BAHAHAHAHA! It’s all about balance. 😉