Honey ‘Wards Off Arthritis, Helps Digestion, Restores Energy, Heals Wounds’

Bee-Made Bounty Aplenty
Honey is good and good for you
By Wayne A. Hall, The Times Herald-Record (USA), 5/14/2006

Bee and beekeeper preservation are why Hughes, a spokesman for the Southeastern Beekeepers Association, volunteers at the Orange County Arboretum's two demonstration hives to educate a public "uninformed" about honey and bees.

What's not to like about honey?

Honey and health

First and maybe foremost, there's the great medical spin-off: Honey heals.

Especially local honey that's jammed with good-for-you amino acids and enzymes.

Huge honey producers - Hughes won't name names - cook their product so it stays liquid on store shelves. That kills the benefits, says Hughes.

"You might as well throw it in the gutter."

Colored golden to deep amber, local honey - the pure stuff - wards off arthritis, helps digestion, restores energy, heals wounds. And most of all, says Montgomery-based Hughes, "honey is a supercharger for the immune system." There's beeswax, royal jelly, honey soap, and raw pollen - lots of bee-made bounty. And bee sting therapy is catching on for such ailments as arthritis.

Proof?

So many people with watery eyes and dripping noses have rushed into Newburgh's Overlook Farm Market to find locally grown honey, that the shelves were empty one recent Monday, says business partner Nina Penney.

"They take honey, lemon and hot water for their allergies," she said. "Throw away the Allegra."…