Quick Tips: Honey

Last week was a rough week, for a few reasons I won’t get into here. One of them was that nagging feeling I was getting sick.  Specifically, the feeling in the back of my throat all week. You know the one - the slightly painful, slightly scratchy one that makes you think you’re starting to get sick. I have a hunch it’s from a night spent downtown singing along to great music, but it’s also just that time of year. This is the time of year when I drink all the tea I can handle, and when I go through about a bottle of honey every couple of weeks.  Honey is MAGICAL! It is soothing and healing, and not just because it feels good.Honey can be a natural antihistamine if you have bad seasonal allergies. The important piece here is to go for honey that’s made locally - the whole point is that it was made by bees who are pollinating the same plants that you would experience. You’ll be exposed to microdoses of the pollen that usually aggravates you, which will help you build up your tolerance to that same pollen and lessen your allergic reaction.Try it...by adding a sizeable dollop of honey to your tea, yogurt, oatmeal, or even just hot water daily starting a couple of weeks before your allergies usually hit. If you’re a spring and summer allergy sufferer like me, you may want to start around March (or whenever things start to turn green again) and keep consuming honey daily until your allergy season ends.  For me, that’s July or August. Honey is also a long-lasting throat coat and throat soother. A few years ago, I was in New Orleans in March for a couple of conferences for 8 days straight. That’s 8 days in hotel rooms, conference rooms, and outdoors when everything was just starting to bloom after a winter in the frozen tundra of Chicago. I had a scratchy throat the entire time I was there and had to do a lot of talking, so I found myself some local honey and took it by the spoonful. I took it in the morning, throughout the day, and especially right before I went to sleep at night. I went through an entire bear-shaped container in those 8 days!Try it...If you find that you have trouble falling asleep due to a scratchy throat, take a generous spoonful of honey right before you get in bed. The honey will soothe and coat your throat and help you fall asleep. I used to fall asleep with cough drops when my throat was sore which is a bad idea because 1. It’s a choking hazard and 2. If you just let your cough drops sit in your mouth like I did, all the sugar can really mess up your teeth. You can take a spoonful (or two) of honey at bedtime, or anytime during the day when you need a little extra relief. There are many more benefits of honey...here are a few sources you might find interesting:

1. 21 Science-Backed Health Benefits of Honey
2. 10 Health Benefits of Honey
3. Liquid Gold: 7 Health Benefits of Honey That Could Heal Your Whole Body

Note: Wintertime is not a good time to get local honey (since there are no flowers for bees to pollinate in most states) but the soothing capabilities of honey exist no matter what source you get your honey from.  You could also stock up on local honey during the summer!  Now don’t mind me, I’m off to make my daily cup of tea.