Honey Chamomile Toner

 Honey Chamomile Toner

    Ingredients

·         1 cup - water

·         2 tablespoons - chamomile flowers (or 1 bag of chamomile tea)

·         1 teaspoon - honey

·         2-6 tablespoons - apple cider vinegar

Directions
Pour freshly boiled water into a mug or heatproof container with the chamomile. Allow the tea to steep for ten minutes. Remove tea bag or strain the solids from the tea. Add the honey and vinegar to the tea, then stir well to dissolve the honey. Pour the mixture into a clean bottle.

To Use
After cleansing your face, dab the toner onto your skin liberally using a cotton ball or soft cloth. Follow with a moisturizer as needed. This toner will remain fresh for about one month. After 30 days it is best to discard any toner that is left and make up a new batch.

 

Honey Facial Wash

                       Honey Facial Wash

Ingredients

1 teaspoon - honey

1 drop - lavender essential oil

Warm water

Directions

Place honey on the tips of your fingers, and add 1 drop of essential oil to the honey. Rub the honey on your fingertips to warm the honey. Massage the honey onto your dry face (avoiding your eye area). Allow the honey to sit on your face for a few minutes, then rinse off with warm water and a facial cloth

 

Eating Real Honey?

                                             Eating Real Honey?

Many of you know that I love exploring and surveying honey on the shelves and in the world wide web. It opens my eyes to see how much real honey is coveted and how honey can be so craftily marketed all over the world. The following products are what I have found and observed and my spontaneous thoughts on them. We have to be leary when buying honey because labels and claims can get really wild!

                                                              1. "Creamy Honey"

 

Being creamy doesn't equate to "no water added" or "100% pure". Liquid honey can be 100% pure too. And creamy honey can also be adulterated. Look, honey merchants, educating consumers on honey is already hard enough; so don't add to the confusion please

2. "Concentrated Honey"

See if you can appreciate this whole string of descriptions - "natural honey", "pure honey", and honey "in pure concentrated form". The more its contents are described, the more suspicious if there's any real honey in it. Somehow, I just find that the term "concentrated form" sounds more appropriate for processed sugary syrups. What do you think?

3. "Honey Sauce"

 

"Corn syrup sauce" would be a more honest name for this product than "honey sauce". Notice "honey" is not first but fourth on the list of the ingredients. It's disturbing to see how the number of ingredients has dramatically increased on just a teeny weenie packet of "honey". And I wonder if people have given up on reading labels because they have just grown too long to be read?

4. "Honey Fructose"

If people really know what "fructose" is, I don't think this supposedly healthy product can still stick and hang around. "Fructose" is literally translated into Chinese as "fruit sugar", which automatically sells well in countries populated by Chinese. Yet another high fructose corn syrup in dark disguise.

5. "Sugar Free Honey"

I am not surprised to see this, especially when the tide of "going sugar free" is turning more and more aggressive. Its real contents? 0% honey and 100% Maltitol, which has been marketed as a healthy, natural sugar substitute for diabetics.

6. "Blended Honey"

Looking at the proportion of ingredients - 40% pure honey, 60% syrup, you would agree that "Blended Corn Syrup" would be a more correct label than "Blended Honey". Well, of course no one is surprised, but I sometimes wonder how many people would enquire about the "syrup" they are eating.

7. "Honey Syrup"

Oops, no ingredients listed on the bottle, just two claims "natural and artificial flavour" and "instantly dissolves even in cold beverages" in its product description. Recognise how hard these sweeteners are trying to pit against real honey?

8. "Rock Sugar in Honey"

Just when you think that things can't go any worse with those honey jars in the stores, I found this one which made me shake my head for a while. For those who have never seen real honeycombs before, those pieces of those so called "Chinese rock sugar" would easily come across as honeycomb pieces. And the ingredient indication its jar label says "100% pure New Zealand honey". I just can't believe these jars of honey could escape the eyes of our food authorities.

9. "Honey", Really?

These three tiny packets of sweeteners are collected from three different restaurants, but they are all by "Smuckers". The first is basically corn syrup and the second contains water, sorbitol (a highly processed sugar alcohol) and a host of unpronounceable chemicals. By the time it comes to the third with a "honey" label, I am not sure if it's really honey anymore, and the missing section on "ingredients" doesn't help. What kind of food does this brand believe in?

10. "Imitation Honey"

Spotted on the shelves of Target when I was in the US, this is probably the most honest bottle I have seen on this list. There is practically zero effort in hiding anything (so at least honey consumers are not duped and can easily stay away from this). Blatantly named "imitation honey", it contains maltitol, an artificially produced sugar alcohol. So, its target consumers are obviously believers of sugar-free sweeteners.

 

 

 

How much honey can I eat every day?

          How much honey can I eat every day?

A frequently asked question about honey dosage from our visitors - How much honey can we eat every day? What is considered excessive?

My response is: "Eat as much as you can?" No, of course not!

As a very general rule of thumb, in the case of a normal, balanced diet, not more than 10 teaspoons of honey (which is about 50ml) per day is recommended. This amount is formulated based on advice from some trusted honey stores, and not based on any medical point of view backed by scientific data.

Nevertheless, how much honey can one eat is actually a tricky one. The amount of honey considered to be optimum depends a whole lot on a person's diet and lifestyle. For instance, one could be taking foods with very low sugar content every day, leading a very active lifestyle, and following a disciplined exercise regimen, while on the other extreme end; another with a sweet tooth could be taking plenty of high-sugar stuff and living a sedentary lifestyle. Hence, apparently, the daily amount of honey to be prescribed for different people would not be the same.

As per the widely-known principle, excessiveness of any food, including honey is not wise. But note, not all sweeteners are equal. One excellent way to healthier eating is to use honey in our everyday food, for example, replace empty-calorie table sugar with nutritious honey in your routine beverages, spread honey instead of jam on bread, etc, For instance, if all this while you have been taking tea, coffee, or juices with table sugar in all your regular meals, you could straight away replace the sugar with honey. Some Benefits of Honey visitors have another concern about honey, that is, if eating honey, a very sweet liquid, would cause them to gain weight. Actually, the principle of weight gain is very simple: When you eat more than what your body needs, regardless of whether it is sugar, fat, or honey, the excess calories are stored as fat which in turns leads to weight gain. Read "Using a Calorie Counter to Lose Weight". The idea here is to not to introduce more sugars into your body with honey but to replace as much as possible the processed, refined and artificial sugars in one's current diet with a more superior, healthier sweetener, honey.

"How much honey is enough? Generally, three to five tablespoons of honey a day is sufficient. A good regimen to follow is to consume a tablespoon or two of honey in the morning with fruit or yogurt or cereal. Another tablespoon should be consumed at bedtime. In between, another one or two tablespoons can be ingested with fruit snacks, in baked goods, or as used in cooking. Honey contains about 60 calories per tablespoon. Generally, the percentage of ones' total caloric requiremnets provided from simple sugars should not exceed 10%. Thus, the 180 to 300 calories a day provided from honey is sufficient, unless excessive energy demands allow for additional consumption."
~ Dr Ron Fessenden, MD, MPM, The Honey Revolution.

 

If you are doing a full fasting, taking in only liquids and no other foods (which is not a normal diet), I learned from a honey fast book that an average-size adult could take up to about 150ml to 200ml honey mixed with water or tea everyday for a few days. Read "My First Honey Water Fast – The Wins and Woes" if you are keen to discover how a honey fast works. Please note that this recommendation is for a full-fasting with just honey water for detoxification purposes, lasting only a few days. The only source of carbohydrate/energy during the fast is the honey consumed. Hence, the daily honey dosage for such a fast could look something like this – two glasses of water/tea each time with a tablespoon of honey (about 15ml) each, for breakfast, lunch, at 3pm, dinner, and before bedtime. All these would add up to about 150ml of honey in total for a day.

Most Unbelievable Honey Benefits That Many People Don't Know

                    Most Unbelievable Honey Benefits

 

Incredible honey benefits!

Eat honey, a good old-fashioned food designed by nature for us human beings!

1. Honey is the only sweetener that isn't man-made or processed and has antibacterial properties and many healing effects.

2. With about 18% water and a pH of 3-4, honey is very stable and can last for literally centuries when stored properly.

3. While empty calories from refined sugar contribute health issues and obesity, honey reduces fatty accumulations in our cardiovascular system.

4. Unlike refined table sugar or sucrose, honey does not ferment in our stomach to pose any danger of bacterial invasion.

5. Honey is a monosaccharide, the simplest form of sugar that cannot be further broken down, passing directly from the small intestine into the blood stream without causing any irritancy to our digestive system as sucrose does.

6. Honey is the most ideal fuel for burning our body fat stores during sleep due to its 1:1 ratio of fructose and glucose.

7. As the most superior burn treatment, honey relieves pain effectively and heals wound faster with minimal scarring.

8. Honey contains vitamins and antioxidants; in fact one unique antioxidant called "pinocembrin" is only found in honey.

9. According to researchers, honey is a more effective and safer remedy for children's coughs than over-the-counter medicines.

10. Doctor D.C. Jarvis, author of "Folk Medicine" advised that mixing the apple cider vinegar with honey would enhance the healing power of the vinegar.

11. Anabolic honey, a concentrated source of fructose, glucose, is a preferred sweetener choice for athletes.

Honey-Lime Facial Treatment

        Honey-Lime Facial Treatment

 

Ingredients

2 tablespoons – honey

1 – lime

 

Directions

Begin by halving lime and juicing it into a small container, either by hand or with a lime juicer. Next, add honey and stir together until fully incorporated. Apply cleansing treatment by gently massaging onto face. Leave on for 15 minutes. Rinse with warm water.

Cinnamon and Honey

                    Cinnamon and Honey
 

The cinnamon and honey combination is popularly used for:

1) Improving body metabolism & Weight Reduction

2) Lowering Cholesterol level.

3) Type II diabetes or pre-diabetic condition, regulating blood sugar levels.

Instructions:

1. Dissolve a teaspoon of cinnamon powder (or ground cinnamon) in a cup of boiling water.

2. Stir and cover to let the cinnamon steep for 20 to 30 minutes. (Shorten the waiting time if you prefer a thinner drink.)

3. Filter away any big particles and add a teaspoon of honey. (The cinnamon residue can also be consumed, but removing it helps to make a much more palatable cleansing drink. Downing a cup of spicy, chalky suspension with an empty stomach first thing in the morning is not an easy feat for all. But if you don't mind drinking with the residue at all, reduce the amount of ground cinnamon and use just half a teaspoon of it.)

4. Take it in the morning with an empty stomach about half an hour before breakfast. Repeat for a few weeks to see results.

NOTES:

1. Honey is added only about half an hour after mixing the cinnamon and boiling water. Step 2 allows the drink to cool down before adding honey. Hot water destroys the live enzymes in the honey. For more tips on how to handle and store honey, read "Honey Storage Tips".

2. For those who need to cut down the preparation time due to the morning rush, you can prepare the mixture in advance the night before. Mix the cinnamon with lesser amount of boiling water and leave it in the fridge. Next morning, strain off the particles and warm up the drink by adding some warm water and honey.

3. Many people who have tried this concoction found it to be effective in boosting their body metabolism and helpful in their weight loss efforts. I have tried it for general detox purposes and have found it to be especially helpful in moving my bowel. However, many are hesitant to try this concoction due to the intimidating prospect of a spicy mixture direct. From the various feedback posts on this mixture, I gathered there are two extreme reactions to its taste - "love it" or "hate it". And what do I personally say about the taste? If you are using Cassia/Chinese cinnamon, it's pungent, spicy, and woody. The honey in it definitely makes it much more palatable. (Note: In Ayurvedic medicine, it is believed that honey enhances the medicinal effectiveness of the cinnmaon formulation.

I recommend you check out Ceylon cinnamon, which is also known as the real cinnamon. It is much milder and more pleasant in aroma and highly contrasted with Cassia cinnamon in taste. Also, it doesn't seem to produce an offensive blob of slime that you see when mixing Cassia cinnamon with hot water. Its exorbitant price and lack of accessibilty is however a big deterrent for many consumers. For a more detailed comparison of the two types of cinnamon, go to: Ceylon Cinnamon Versus Cassia Cinnamon.

Warning: Can Children Take Honey Cinnamon?

It is perfectly fine to sprinkle a pinch of cinnamon on to your child's toast or oatmeal. But taking cinnamon as a regime in teaspoons may not be safe for young children. Honey itself is safe for children above 18 months, but there are differing opinions on how safe cinnamon (especially Cassia Cinnamon) is for children. Thus we would err on the side of caution and recommend this honey cinnamon recipe only for adults.