For thousands of years, cultures have been using honey for other purposes besides sweetening their breads and drinks. The Egyptians would also use it as an embalming agent or to feed the soul after the body had decomposed, German peasants would use honeycombs and honey to pay taxes to their lords, and other cultures would use honey for the antibacterial components to heal rashes, burns, and wounds.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Currently, there is a lot of buzz in the nutrition world regarding honey and its healing and nutritional characteristics, but is honey the \u201cmiracle\u201d food?\u00a0 Whether or not you do or don\u2019t think that honey is a \u201cmiracle\u201d food, honey has some very good qualities.\u00a0 Honey is a great alternative sweetener to others, such as table sugar, but it still has 64 kcals per 1 tablespoon.\u00a0 You can use less honey and still have the appropriate amount of sweetness. Honey can be used as a great baking substitute for sugar, also adding slightly more liquid and a bit of a binder to the end product.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Other health claims of honey include great sources of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. There are trace amounts of minerals and vitamins, but nothing of substantial quantities to improve overall health.\u00a0 You would need to intake a large amount of honey to ensure the trace vitamins and minerals would count towards your daily needs; however, there would also be a large increase in sugar and calories.\u00a0 Some honey does contain antioxidants such as phenols, enzymes, flavonoid-like compounds, and a few organic acids.\u00a0 There are many sources that state the pollen in raw and local honey is good for seasonal allergies and other immune functions; however, once again, there is no actual prescribed quantity to ensure this will happen.\u00a0 Sources state that taking in 1 tablespoon per day may<\/em> help to increase your immune system against seasonal allergies.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n In the long run, honey is a great alternative to sweeteners such as sugar due to the fact that you can use less. The research to support honey and its immune capabilities continues to be conducted; however, it still lacks viable and concrete answers.\u00a0 \u00a0The moral of this story is to enjoy your honey in baked goods and your tea, but try to avoid using it in mass quantities!<\/p>\r\n Written by Vicki Hayman, MS, University of Wyoming Extension Nutrition and Food Safety Educator<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For thousands of years cultures have been using honey for other purposes besides sweetening their breads and drinks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14960,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[421,957],"tags":[298],"class_list":["post-1283","newsletters","type-newsletters","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthy-living","category-newsletter","tag-honey"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwyoextension.org\/uwnutrition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletters\/1283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwyoextension.org\/uwnutrition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwyoextension.org\/uwnutrition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/newsletters"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/uwyoextension.org\/uwnutrition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletters\/1283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16802,"href":"https:\/\/uwyoextension.org\/uwnutrition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletters\/1283\/revisions\/16802"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwyoextension.org\/uwnutrition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwyoextension.org\/uwnutrition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwyoextension.org\/uwnutrition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwyoextension.org\/uwnutrition\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Alternative<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n