Honey, referred to as nature’s natural nectar, is a sweet, thick and sticky food substance produced by bees and some related insects. Bees produce honey from sugar-rich floral nectar of plants through regurgitation, enzymatic process, and water evaporation. The honey that is produced is stored as a primary food source in wax structures called honeycombs inside the beehive.
Perhaps you just know the advantages of drinking a glass of warm water first thing in the morning or possibly you have only heard about how awesome honey is for your skin and other benefits. However have you heard what wonders combining honey and a glass of warm water can do for you on the whole?
Why mix honey with warm water?
You can just take in a spoonful of honey and get the health benefits, but mixing it with warm water increases the rate of uptake by helping the body to absorb it faster. This is because it is broken down more than just pure honey. Also, adding water helps to hydrate your body, thereby increasing blood flow. This makes nutrients move around your body faster.
The benefits of drinking warm water with honey
- Boost your immune system
Raw, organic honey is full of vitamins, enzymes and minerals that lead the forefront against protecting against infections. One research presented at the Society for General Microbiology’s Spring Conference in Harrogate, UK found that Manuka honey may even help reverse bacterial resistance to antibiotics. Moreover, honey is an antioxidant, which helps the body fight those bad free radicals that cause mayhem in our body and on our skin.
The natural glucose in honey also aids in ‘respiratory burst’. Respiratory burst is the action your cells take when they encounter bad bacteria, and this is vital to helping your immune system.
Reduce your allergies
Drinking a glass of warm honey water each day will help enhance your immunity to allergies. Regular intake of small amounts of honey will bit by bit desensitise your body to the impacts of pollen and other allergens, so it could be an approach to help you reduce sensitivity to allergens.Helps keeps you ‘regular’
Honey is known as a mild laxative and thus, drinking a glass of warm of water with nature’s natural nectar first thing in the morning helps to improve your digestive system. The antiseptic properties of honey help lessen the acidity in your stomach while increasing mucus production in the intestine. Also, it helps with mild constipation and therefore drinking a small amount each morning will help keep you on a regular cycle.It helps to detoxify your body
Another benefit of drinking honey and warm water is that it helps to flush out toxins from your body. By aiding you to get regular, it helps you to recurrently rid your body of toxins that can build up and cause disease. Addition of lemon to the mix enhances the benefits. This is because lemons help to increase urination thereby dispelling waste products more frequently and keeping your urinary tract healthy.Reduces inflammation
Honey contains considerable amounts of compounds such as flavonoids and other polyphenols which may function as antioxidants. This means that it helps fight against bad inflammation and reduces chronic inflammation. The reason why the body gets inflamed is that a hormone called prostaglandins is produced to fight off infections and help heal the body, but sometimes these hormones are produced when not needed, and they cause damage rather than help. Consuming honey will help to get rid of these non-used substances that cause inflammation.Provides an energy boost
Honey water is so good in the mornings, because it will give you an energy boost. This is because of the fact that honey is full of natural sugars which can provide you more energy in a healthier way than artificial sweeteners. First thing in the morning, you are probably slightly dehydrated and that alone will make you feel tired and sluggish. Drinking a glass of warm honey water will rehydrate you, and increase blood flow to the brain and it will give you an energy boost from the natural sugars that are contained in the honey.Rejuvenates the skin
A combination of warm honey and lemon juice is great for the complexion as it increases the production of collagen, help fight bacteria, and also, helps to purify the blood of toxins that can cause breakouts and dull skin. Honey (nature’s natural nectar) also contains antioxidants that fight oxidative stress in the body that can cause the early onset of the signs of ageing.
References
- https://explainedhealth.com/7-benefits-of-drinking-warm-water-with-honey/
- http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/9-benefits-honey-water-you-never-knew.html
What if I mix with normal temperature water, not warm one? Will I get the same benefits? I am taking honey with water almost every day, not just warm water. Am I missing the benefits?
No you are not missing the benefits. In fact, if the water is too hot it will destroy the antioxidants.
No please @hafiz34, you are not missing the benefits. As I said you can just take in a spoonful of honey and get the health benefits, but mixing it with warm water helps to improve blood circulation.
Also, as @lenqan rightly said if the water is heated for long period some of its components may be destroyed.
Hi! Thanks for an interesting post. I also like honey and I think it is a shame that there are people who make a fraud on this wonderful food. I think it is important to buy from a small, local bee farmer to be sure that you get real honey and not some fake glucose syrup with flavors. I rather pay extra to get real honey.
Also one thing, you write that honey should be put in warm water. It is important not to warm the water too much. If it is too hot the heat will destroy some of the antioxidants and/or the vitamins.
By the way, heard of Manuka honey? Frauds on Manuka honey are extremely common, but there are certified bee farmers. This is a honey with unique characteristics and has very good benefits on humans, especially regarding the immune system. Some scientists say it is as effective as antibiotics. If you haven't heard of it, check it up.
Cheers!
I appreciate your inputs @lenqan. Thank you for stopping by.
I checked your profile after reading this post and I am seriously questioning your claims of being a medical student from this post. There have been many studies that have effectively disproved multiple claims in this post.
First:
Bees make honey from nectar, not pollen but there would be a very minute amount of flower pollen in the honey, except that most people are not allergic to the pollen of flowers or at least are not symptomatic of flower pollen because it is very sticky and doesn't float through the air very well, instead they are allergic to pollens form things like trees and grasses which will be nearly non-existent in honey meaning you would need a lot of honey in order to have any effect.
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In my second source they looked at the effect of honey on allergy rhinitis (inflammation of the mucous membrane inside the nose) and the people eating honey were taking roughly 1g/kg each day (which would cost me around $33 a month for natural honey and $23 a month for regular, I am a college student, that is almost a third of my food budget) and was only more effective than the control group (with placebo) after the 8 week mark (so it wold cost me between $43 and $66 for slight, non-permanent, improvement for my allergies)
I can attack every point you made in this post and back it up with data, but I used a similar number of sources to counter one of your points as you have for all of your points...
I don't think you really understood my point there. In my write up I said "...so it could be an approach to help you reduce sensitivity to allergens". The key word here is could which according to oxford dictionaries says;
My point is that many of these arguments have tons of research that actively debunks the claims or only half-heartedly supports them and only does so because they haven't gone through a true peer review. That was using one example to show how weak it is to be claimed as an "Amazing health benefit of drinking a glass of warm water with honey every morning " and it was one of the stronger of the claims. The other strong claim is with honey being able to reverse antibiotic resistance (it can't btw, bacteria can develop a resistance to the honey just like all others and it isn't a very strong antibiotic and only affects a specific type of antibiotic resistance, generalized claims are bad for arguments)
Saying there are benefits to drinking honey, fine, but back up your claims. You use two very questionable (and very unreliable) sources. Like want me to start pulling out problems with your post and back each one up completely?
So just to clarify, since that one reason discussed above is potentially a benefit, does that mean that this post only outlines 6 true benefits to drinking a warm glass of honey? (the answer is no btw, if you want a full reason then I will gladly tear each invalid point apartt)
I had heard some of these, but not all. Very interesting and great to know. Thank you for the post.
Great tips there
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