Medicinal Honey

Medicinal HoneyHoneys healing properties have been touted for generations. People world-wide claim that honey helps with colds, sore throats, and coughs. Modern science shows that honey contains antioxidants, acids, proteins and minerals that help heal and strengthen our bodies. Honey can also fight bacterial infections thanks to its antimicrobial properties.

Adding herbs to honey turns ordinary honey into “medicinal honey” and is a powerful tool for the winter months. Medicinal honey is easy to make and you can customize it to your personal physical challenges and taste.

For Coughs Try Onion Honey. Onion honey is suggested if you tend to be challenged with winter coughs, garlic if you tend to get sinus infections or mix both if you tend to get both in the winter. Take a glass bowl and make a layer of either onions and cover with a layer of honey. Cover the bowl with either a plate or plastic wrap and let it sit on the kitchen counter overnight. By morning the honey will begin to turn into syrup. You can leave this mixture right on the counter and take one tablespoon two times a day as prevention or up to four times a day if you are ill. If you will not use up the batch you made within the week you can strain out the onions and put the honey in a glass container and keep the mixture in the fridge. Onion honey works well for children and adults but the honey can sometimes be a bit sharp for children under age 6.

Yummy Honey for Kids – (over one year old only). Medicinal honey is a great kid-friendly way for children to take herbs. Making a medicinal honey together with your children is a great activity for kids and parents and children love to watch the herbs melt into the honey. Kids tend to be more compliant with taking ‘healthy-stuff’ if they help their parents make it. For children’s honey I make the honey as above (use less onions for your kids batch) and add gentle kid-friendly herbs to the mix like elderberry, lemon balm or linden flowers and I also add cinnamon sticks and vanilla beans. Elderberry is a great source of vitamin C and antiviral, lemon balm is calming and antiviral, and linden flowers helps with fevers and flu. Cinnamon tastes great and also helps with stomach flus and vanilla is just yummy. (If you use fresh herbs after a week or you will have to strain the honey and refridgerate).