DOANI HONEY: BENEFITS OF HONEY

Honey isn't Just Sugar!

The fact is, honey is far better than what most people perceive. Researchers are turning up more and more new evidence of honey's medical benefits in all directions. The benefits of honey don't just stop at satisfying the palate; honey also offers incredible antiseptic, antioxidant and cleansing properties for our body and health, hot beauty and skin care tips for ladies, and amazing healing properties as a head-to-toe remedy, from eye conjunctivitis to athlete foot. Its powerful healing attributes have long been used thousands of years ago and known to promote healing for cuts, cure ailments and diseases, and correct health disorders for generations after generations. This honey not only fights infection and aids tissue healing but also helps reduce inflammation and scarring. In addition, it is often used for treating digestive problems such as diarrhea, indigestion, stomach ulcers and gastroenteritis. With more and more health experts and theories, such as the Hibernation Diet, supporting its benefits, this oldest natural sweetener just keeps getting better.

Every drop of honey holds the spark of life. Our forefathers had understood honey's remarkable healing gift and had used it successfully in curing most diseases. Sidr honey has been reported to be good for liver problems, stomach ulcers, respiratory infections, diseases resulting from malnutrition, digestive problems, constipation, eye diseases, infected wounds and burns, surgical wounds (incl. caesarian), promote speedy recovery after childbirth, facilitates menstruation, (with various herbs) it can be used against epilepsy, strengthened the immune systems, to promote general health and vitality.

Natural Aphrodisiac - Mixing Sidr honey with carrot seeds makes it an aphrodisiac. A blend of the honey with certain combination of nuts, ginseng and herbs are claimed to be better than Viagra, with no side effects.

Antioxidant - Some honeys are found to have as much as 75-150 mg ascorbic acid per 100g, while others have less than 5mg per 100g. Antioxidants are important in counteracting the damage caused to the body by free radicals which play a role in the aging process and in triggering diseases such as arterial disease and cancer. Research has found that darker honeys have higher antioxidant properties.

Antibacterial - Medical science is rediscovering the effectiveness of honey in the use of alternative therapies in areas where the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (the"super-bugs") spreads. Honeys may differ in the potency of its antibacterial activity thus affecting its healing abilities. Some honeys are no more antibacterial than sugar, while others can be diluted more than 100-fold and still halt the growth of bacteria.

The Hibernation Diet: lose weight while you sleep

The recent revolutionary Hibernation Diet created by a British pharmacist and a nutrition expert by making a powerful connection between poor sleep and obesity. It advocates incorporating mild resistance exercise and a healthy, balanced, and wholesome diet void of highly refined, processed foods such as white bread, pizza, burgers, chocolates, beer and sugar and suggest taking a generous spoonful or two of honey at night, either as a warm drink, a smoothie or straight from the jar.

You'll wake up feeling refreshed and your whole body will benefit. Your skin will improve its tone and texture. Your hair, nails, internal organs and mood will all reap the benefits. The hibernation diet is about recruiting your own natural recovery system for weight control.

Your brain demands constant energy but cannot store any. The energy your brain uses comes first off, from your liver. However, the liver can only store a small amount of energy at a time - about 75 grams.

During the night, your body needs new energy to build new cells for your bones, skin, muscles and all your vital functions. Your recovery gland (known as the pituitary, master of the recovery hormone production) that sends out the message, while you're asleep, to do all this reconditioning.

Working through your liver, your body spends at least 4 hours a night doing all this calorie demanding maintenance work, and these calories come from your fat storage. The first 4 hours of sleep, called slow wave sleep, is when your overnight repair system are their busiest.

During sleep, our body uses fat for energy during rest and recovery. For this to occur, our liver must be adequately stocked with fuel reserves to get through the 8 hour fast.

When our liver is fueled, our blood sugar is stable and our body can use fat stores almost exclusively for energy. One of the best ways to fuel our liver is to eat 1 or 2 tablespoons of honey within an hour of bedtime.

Honey has the same amounts of glucose and fructose.Your liver takes in the fructose. The fructose regulates glucose into the liver. That keeps your blood sugar level balanced all night. With no sudden highs or lows, your liver has storage to keep your brain fueled. Now your recovery hormones get on with their job and they use up your fat storage to do it.

So some principles of this new lifestyle are: going to bed with enough fuel in your liver to feed your brain, using honey as the fueling mechanism at night and exploiting your own body's capacity to burn up fat reserves.

Natural honey when taken prior to bed is believed to be able to fuel the liver, speed up fat-burning metabolism, ease stress hormones and help us get a better night's sleep. This oldest natural sweetener also contains a wide variety of vitamins, including vitamins B6, B1, B2 and B5, and minerals such as calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorous, potassium, sodium and zinc, anti-oxidants and amino acids, the building blocks of proteins.

This is what I learn about the Hibernation Diet: due to its 1:1 ratio of fructose to glucose, honey is the most ideal food that can provide a fueling mechanism for the body at night, keeping blood sugar levels balanced and letting your recovery hormones get on with burning fat stores. This proposition that honey reduces blood glucose level was published in the Journal of Medicinal Food in April 2004. However, to most people, eating before bedtime, in this case eating sugars seems to defy common sense. Moreover, eating late at night is often discouraged by many people who believe that during bedtime, metabolic rate is low and the body cannot burn calories and would easily put on weight. Being a honey enthusiast, I naturally wanted to know more about how the hibernation diet works scientifically for the good of the body.

Fructose also triggers the glucose enzyme in the liver allowing the liver to take in as much glucose as it requires. This has been referred to as the Fructose Paradox. In other words, fructose lowers the Glycemic Index of glucose; fructose enters the liver and opens the gate for glucose entry preventing a rapid rise in blood glucose. This natural blood glucose regulator found in fruits, vegetables and honey, regulate blood glucose levels and stabilize blood glucose to maintain a regular supply of glucose to the brain.

First of all, are you a candidate for the Hibernation Diet? Ask yourself these questions ...

- Do you wake regularly during the night?
- Do you have night sweats?
- Do you experience acid reflux during the night?
- Do you get up to go to the bathroom during the night?
- Do you feel nauseous in the early morning?
- Do you wake up exhausted?
- Do you have a dry throat in the morning?
- Do you get night cramps?
- Do you feel weak in the early morning?

If "yes" is the answer for any of these questions, it could mean that instead of burning fat and repairing muscles, your body has produced a stream of stress hormones while you've slept.

The hibernation diet also goes on to explain how fructose in honey fuels the brain which is the most energy demanding organ, burning up to 20 times the fuel of any other cell in the body. We become exhausted after having to concentrate for a lengthy period. That's why we often hear that mental exhaustion is worse than physical exhaustion. The brain needs glucose to survive, however glucose occupies a large amount of storage space and there is no room in the brain. And the liver is the only organ that can both store and release glucose into the circulation. This is why looking after your liver glycogen amount by ensuring that the liver and the brain are well provided for both in the day and at night is so critical. Any fall in blood glucose is detrimental for the brain. The adrenal glands to be activated and the adrenal hormones if overproduced can lead to conditions such as heart disease, osteoporosis, obesity, diabetes, poor immune function, depression and other distressing health problems.

What I find inspiring to read is that we burn an amazing 70% fat during rest, 35% during low level exercise, 20% during moderate exercise, and a low 10% during intense exercise. During sleep we should burn fats. However, if the liver is not fueled prior to bed, we release stress hormones from the adrenal glands which raise our heart rate and blood pressure. These hormones instead of burning fat, degrade muscle and bone. The liver must deliver 10 grams of glucose every hour -- 6.5 to the brain, 3.5 to the kidneys and red blood cells. As the liver capacity is only 75 grams, most people go to bed with a depleted liver, activating the adrenal glands and do not recover. And if you do not recover you do not burn fats. The hibernation diet essentially aims to encourage people to reap the benefit of your body's own natural recovery system and optimize their recovery biology or fat burning biology, as explicitly termed by the author who believed that this diet is not only to a healthy weight but unlocking energy resources you never know you had.

So, if you interested to have a more in-depth account of this honey diet, check out the book "The Hibernation Diet" in which you will find details of the suggested diet plans for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and the different types of resistance exercises described in clear steps.