How to Heal with Dark Raw Honey: 7 Powerful Health Benefits

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Pure, raw honey is a delightfully sweet and sticky liquid that was to be found flowing abundantly in the promised land of Canaan.

Dark-colored raw honey has remarkable health benefits that will be an essential addition to your kitchen and medicine cabinet.

The greatest civilizations of ancient times like the Egyptians, Greeks, and Chinese, have left behind evidence of their consumption of honey for its nutritional and healing properties.

They used honey in the following applications: throat infections, tuberculosis, eye disease, parasites, and wounds to name a few. 

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The 7 most powerful health benefits of dark raw honey that have been found in recent studies:

1. Anti-Inflammatory properties
2. Antimicrobial activity
3. Sore throat relief 
4. Alleviates cough
5. Lowers blood glucose levels
6. Reduces the risk of heart disease
7. Anticancer effects

What is Raw Honey?

All honey is extracted from a honeycomb found within a beehive.

Raw honey comes straight from the honeycomb and can be filtered or unfiltered after collection.

Unfiltered raw honey contains small amounts of bee pollen, beeswax, and possibly bee parts. 

Generally, mass manufacturers of regular honey, filter and pasteurize it to create a uniform and stabilized product.

The pasteurization process uses high heat to prevent it from fermenting by killing natural yeasts found in the honey.

High heat also stabilizes the composition of the honey preventing crystallization which is highly attractive in our current consumer market. 

Raw honey has not undergone the pasteurization process and may be filtered or unfiltered.

Raw honey will also have a greater number of nutrients and medicinal properties because it has not been processed with high heat.

Beneficial Components of Raw Honey

In general, honey’s main components include carbohydrates (95-97%), proteins, vitamins, amino acids, minerals, and organic acids.

Pure raw honey contains super compounds such as flavonoids, polyphenols, reducing compounds, alkaloids, glycosides, cardiac glycosides, anthraquinone, and volatile compounds.

Honey contains fructose and glucose which are the key components to its nutritional and physical effects on human health. It is acidic with a pH between 3.2-4.5.

It contains all 9 of the essential amino acids as well as most of the nonessential amino acids.

The protein portions of honey include important enzymes such as diastase, invertases, glucose oxidase, catalase, and acid phosphatase.

Folate and vitamin C are the main vitamin contributors in honey but are low compared to the recommended daily intake. (Samarghandian, et al., 2017)

The two main bioactive compounds in honey are flavonoids and polyphenols.

These two properties act as powerful antioxidants. (Samarghandian, et al., 2017)

Components of DARK Honey 

The USDA has classified the different colors of honey as follows:

• Water white
• Extra white
• White
• Extra light amber
• Light amber
• Amber
• Dark Amber

Studies have shown that darker honey has high levels of antioxidants than lighter-colored honey, therefore making dark honey superior for medicinal applications compared to light honey.

They contain higher levels of phenolic acids which are the major compounds for antioxidant activity which will be discussed shortly. (Samarghandian, et al., 2017)

The color of honey depends on the nectar of different floral sources that honeybees decide to feast upon.

The floral varieties that produce dark honey have a higher concentration of minerals found in the soil.

According to the National Honey Board, darker-colored honey has a more robust flavor than light-colored honey such as clover honey.

Darker varieties of honey are found all over the world, from Manuka honey of New Zealand to buckwheat honey of Illinois buckwheat flowers.

Where to Buy Dark Raw Honey

The best place to buy a raw dark type of honey is at your local farmers market or health food stores.

You may be in luck, such as myself, to have a wonderful friend who happens to be a beekeeper.

Last year, she shared a gorgeous jar of dark amber honey with me.

The flower source of her honey bees is unknown because her honey has been generally a golden color in previous harvests.

Who knows where her bees decided to buzz to create this precious amber elixir?

I knew this jar was special so I have reserved it for medicinal purposes which I will share.

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Significant Health Benefits of Dark Raw Honey and my Approach to its Use

1. Anti-Inflammatory Properties of Dark Raw Honey

Inflammation has ravaged the immune system of our modern-day society.

This is due to the destructive nature of free radicals and reactive oxygen species that occur in the human body during metabolism.

These harmful reactions may lead to various diseases.

These potent antioxidants in dark honey induce an anti-inflammatory effect against oxidative stress. (Samarghandian, et al., 2017)

2. Antimicrobial Activity of Raw Honey

The main components in honey that contain beneficial properties against noxious microbes include some of the following,

• enzymatic glucose oxidation reaction,
• low water activity, an acidic environment,
• glucose oxidase,
• and hydrogen peroxide.

Honey amazingly has the minimum concentration necessary to completely stop the growth of bacteria!

The investigation of Manuka honey (a dark variety of honey) has the highest level of non peroxide activity.

This special quality significantly prevents the growth of e.coli and staphylococcus aureus. (Samarghandian, et al., 2017) 

Raw Honey for Wound healing

When applied to an affected area, honey induces an immune response to that area.

It triggers blood to bring in reinforcements from the healing properties of white blood cells to begin tissue repair.

Honey also induces the generation of antibodies. (Samarghandian, et al., 2017)

Honey is the oldest known treatment for wounds and plays an important role in my first aid kit.

How to apply Raw Honey on wounds

I have personally used honey many times for mild to moderate wound healing.

I simply wash the affected area, apply a thin layer over the wound and apply a bandage if needed.

My experience healing with Raw honey

Honey has beautifully healed some pretty gnarly scrapes, cuts, and deep punctures, and recently, as I’m writing this blog post, burns.

In the case of my burn situation, I used peeled raw potato to calm the intense heat radiating from my skin, changing it out when it began to feel hot again.

Once the heat began to wane, I applied my stash of dark honey to the burn and felt instant relief from the pain.

To keep sticky honey from spreading everywhere, I put on a bandaid. 

3. Use Raw Honey for Sore Throat Relief

Honey is a common household item that can be used as a sweet treat for a sore throat (pharyngitis).

Pharyngitis is an infection usually caused by Streptococcus spp., viruses, other bacteria species, fungi, or pollutants in the air.

Manuka honey (dark honey in particular) is an effective treatment for sore throats.

Honey with its naturally viscous texture coats the inner lining of the throat and kills destructive microbes whilst having a soothing effect. (Pasupuleti, et al., 2016) 

How to take Raw honey for a sore throat

It is as easy as taking a spoonful of honey, making sure not to drink any liquids afterward to prevent washing the honey layer off of the throat.

4. Alleviates Cough with Raw Honey

Cough from an upper respiratory infection can be very disruptive to the daily rhythm of life, especially when it comes to nighttime coughs.

A comprehensive biomedical review of honey found that the use of honey as a cough suppressant was the best option compared to treatments such as dextromethorphan and diphenhydramine.

This is due to the incredible antioxidant and antimicrobial components of honey where a darker variety of honey such as Maknuka or buckwheat could be a better choice.

How to take Raw honey for cough

The same study also found that for both children and adults who took a measly 2.5ml or half a teaspoon of honey decreased the effects of a persistent cough, therefore, allowing for better sleep at night. (Pasupuleti, et al., 2016) 

5. Raw Honey Lowers Blood Glucose Levels

The composition of honey’s sugars is about 1:1 fructose and glucose, making it a highly nutritious food for the body.

Multiple studies have shown that honey’s potent levels of antioxidants (remember dark honey has the most) create a protective effect against metabolic syndrome.

Metabolic syndrome is a group of diseases such as obesity, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia (high cholesterol levels), and high blood pressure. (Ramli, et al., 2018).

6. Raw Honey Reduces the Risk of Heart Disease

Honey’s powerful antioxidant effects from flavonoids and polyphenols may reduce the risk of heart attacks. It also may reduce coronary heart disease by:

• Dilating blood vessels
• Reducing clots from blood platelets
• Prevent LDL (low-density lipoprotein) from oxidizing 

However, research and clinical trials on humans should be done before validating these heart health claims. (Samarghandian, et al., 2017)

7. Raw Honey has Anticancer Effects

Honey may have significant anticancer properties that include

• inducing apoptosis,
• antimutagenic,
• antiproliferative,
• and anti-inflammatory pathways.

Honey changes the immune system to respond to abnormal cell changes.

It prevents cell proliferation and causes mitochondrial membrane depolarization (destroys) different types of cancer.

However, the effects of honey and cancer need to be further studied to understand its full potential. (Samarghandian, et al., 2017)

Conclusion

Natural raw honey is truly a testament to God’s loving care. He has provided what we need for wellness and healing through His created natural means.

It’s wonderful to be able to correlate the “science” behind a natural process that has been known and utilized by ancient cultures for millennia.

Many studies have presented the powerful health benefits of pure raw honey and have also distinguished the increased benefits of dark-colored pure honey. 

It is safe for people above 1yr of age to consume honey.

Although studies present raw honey’s positive effects on heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, further research on humans is needed to fully understand the health benefits and applications. 

 What is your experience with honey?

I’d love to hear all about it and please share your honey remedies in the comments!

References:

1. Samarghandian, S., Farkhondeh, T., & Samini, F. (2017). Honey and Health: A Review of Recent Clinical Research. Pharmacognosy Research, 9(2), 121-127. https://doi.org/10.4103/0974-8490.204647
2. https://honey.com/newsroom/presskit/honey-color-and-flavor
3. https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/Extracted_Honey_Standard%5B1%5D.pdf
4. Pasupuleti, V. R., Sammugam, L., Ramesh, N., & Gan, S. H. (2016). Honey, Propolis, and Royal Jelly: A Comprehensive Review of Their Biological Actions and Health Benefits. Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/1259510
5. Ramli, N. Z., Chin, Y., Zarkasi, K. A., & Ahmad, F. (2018). A Review on the Protective Effects of Honey against Metabolic Syndrome. Nutrients, 10(8). https://doi.org/10.3390/nu10081009
6. https://www.cdc.gov/botulism/prevention.html