The Bees' Knees: A Spoonful of Honey Can Soothe Burns, Calm Coughs
Robert Latkany, MDAugust 18, 2009
Anne Lee reports in this month's Fast Company Magazine that it takes 12 honeybees to make one teaspoon of honey in their lifetime. 
So the next time you have some honey you should appreciate it a little more. Not only does it taste good but it also has some health benefits as well. A study by Paul et al showed that a single teaspoon of buckwheat honey before bedtime was the preferred treatment for nocturnal cough and sleep difficulty in a child with an upper respiratory infection when compared to honey-flavored dextromethorphan common ingredient in over-the-counter cough and cold medicine) and no treatment. Superficial or partial-thickness burns on your skin were 6 times more likely to heal by 15 days if gauze pads were placed over wounds covered with honey rather than silver sulfadiazine (common topical antibacterial burn cream) according to Wijesinghe et al.
However, not all honey is the same. Some types are worth more than others. The next time you consider self-treating a burn with honey, make sure you reach for a reasonable jar. It can get pricey- according to Fast Company’s Lee, a teaspoon of Tregothnan Manuka Honey costs about $11 per teaspoon.
Evidence Based Diet: Honey Dipping Chicken Fingers
Honey dipping sauce
Ingredients
2/3 cup of clover honey
2/3 cup of pureed honeydew melon
1 tablespoon of Dijon spicy mustard
1. Mix the pureed melon, honey and mustard and set aside to chill
Chicken Fingers
Ingredients
1 ½ pounds of boneless skinless chicken breast cut to 2 inch long strips
1 cup of plain bread crumbs
1 egg
2 cloves of garlic diced
6 tablespoons of canola oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1. Mix the chicken strips with a scrambled egg
2. Place the bread crumbs on a separate plate
3. Bread the chicken strips (discard any left over bread crumbs)
4. Heat the canola oil in a large frying pan on medium high heat for 1 minute
5. Add the chicken strips and sprinkle the garlic around the pain
6. Cook covered for 4 to 5 minutes on each side (flip once) or until golden brown
7. Serve on a platter with the dipping sauce in the center
The Skinny on Honey
• The U.S. had 2.3 millon honey-producing bee colonies in 2008.
• Honey bees tap 2 million flowers and fly more than 55,000 miles to make one pound of honey.
• 95% of American beekeepers are hobbyists with fewer than 25 hives.
• 1,600 commercial beekeeping operations produce 60% of American honey.
• California, which produces more than half of the world's almonds, needs almost 1 million colonies of honey Bees to pollinate that crop.
• The average worker bee makes 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.
• Last year, 161 million pounds of honey were produced in the U.S., up 8% from 2007.
• One tablespoon of honey contains 64 calories, compared with 45 calories for a tablespoon of white sugar.
Please read our legal disclaimer.
Write a comment
- Required fields are marked with *.
Bookmark with:
What are these?