Honey is a nutritious natural health food. Regular consumption can improve gastrointestinal function, maintain skin and delay aging.
However, honey should not be prepared with boiling water or boiled at high temperatures. Because it contains fructose, glucose, vitamins, trace elements, organic acids, nucleic acids, a variety of amino acids and enzymes that help the body digest and absorb and promote material metabolism. High temperature destroys some of its active enzymes and vitamin C. In this way, it is just like sugar water, and its health care effect is greatly reduced.
Therefore, it is best to use warm boiled water or cold boiled water below 40℃ to prepare honey, which is suitable for different people and times. Generally speaking, people with weak and cold constitutions, such as cold hands and feet, intolerance to cold, and pale face, should use warm water to prepare honey; people with strong fire who usually feel hot and dry in the body, flushed face, eyes, and dry mouth and throat should use cold boiled water. Prepare. In autumn and winter, when the weather is cold, it is better to use warm water; in midsummer, use cold boiled water to brew honey to relieve heat and relieve fever. It is also a good refreshing health drink.
It is more appropriate to drink honey water 1 to 1 and a half hours before meals or 2 to 3 hours after meals. Patients with hyperacidity, hypertrophic gastritis, and gastric or duodenal ulcers can drink it one and a half hours before meals. It can inhibit gastric acid secretion, reduce irritation to the gastric mucosa, and is conducive to ulcer healing; while gastric acid deficiency or Patients with atrophic gastritis should drink cold honey water and eat immediately. People with neurasthenia can drink honey water before going to bed, because honey has the effect of calming the mind and improving sleep.
It should be noted that: Try not to use honey water with diarrhea-causing or cold foods at the same time, such as tofu, leeks, etc., otherwise it will easily cause diarrhea; it is best to consume no more than 30 grams of honey per day (1 to 3 tablespoons).
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Honey can improve the composition of blood and promote cardiovascular, brain and blood vessel functions, so regular consumption is very beneficial for cardiovascular patients;
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p>Honey has a protective effect on the liver, can promote the regeneration of liver cells, and has a certain inhibitory effect on the formation of fatty liver;
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Eating honey can quickly replenish physical strength , eliminate fatigue, and enhance resistance to diseases;
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Honey also has a bactericidal effect. Regular consumption of honey not only does not harm the teeth, but also plays a role in the oral cavity. It has the effect of sterilization and disinfection;
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Honey can treat moderate skin injuries, especially burns. When honey is used as a skin wound dressing, bacteria cannot grow;
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People with insomnia take 1 tablespoon of honey orally (added to 1 cup of warm water) before going to bed every day, which can help them fall asleep as soon as possible;
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Honey can also relieve constipation (this statement only applies to acacia honey, not date honey).
How to choose honey
The taste of good honey is unforgettable once you taste it
Good honey has low water content and is shiny. Consumers should choose better ones. The most effective way to use honey is to smell and taste it. As long as you remember the taste of really good honey, it will be easy to distinguish between bad honey and bad honey.
Don’t just buy honey for cheap
Generally, the wholesale price of honey is 40 yuan-60 yuan/kg, while the price of organic pure natural honey and virgin forest honey is about 100 yuan/kg. About kilograms. Including transportation costs, product packaging, intermediate channels, etc., a 500-gram bottle of natural honey sold in a store will generally cost no less than 30 yuan.
Do not choose honey with a lot of foam
Immature honey has a high moisture content, and the yeast in it is easy to ferment and produce gas, thus forming a large amount of foam and a special sour taste of wine. Try not to choose honey that has a lot of foam before opening the lid. Mature honey has less moisture and can be stored at room temperature. Generally, it will not produce gas or acid during fermentation.
Oil honey may not be safe
Most flowers are non-toxic, but a few types of honey contain toxic ingredients. If there happens to be a small batch of honey that collects a large amount of pollen from these plants, and the honey is an unprocessed "original product", then it may be dangerous.
6 ways to identify true and false honey
When buying honey, you can use six intuitive and simple methods to identify true and false honey: looking, smelling, pouring, pulling, grinding and tasting.
Looking at the gloss and viscosity, good honey is clear in color and as bright as oil. When the honey bottle is shaken, it vibrates very little. After the shaking stops, the honey hanging on the wall of the bottle will slowly flow down.
The second smell is the sweet fragrance of real honey, and the unique floral fragrance can be smelled after brewing different nectars. Each type of honey has a unique fragrance. It is pure single-flower honey, most of which has the same floral fragrance. If it ferments and deteriorates, you can smell a sour smell or alcohol smell; if more sugar, maltose or starch is added, the unique aroma of nectar will be lost.
Three-inverted honey bottle. High-quality honey has a sticky texture due to its low water content. If you turn the sealed honey bottle upside down, you will find that the air sealed at the mouth of the bottle is difficult to float and bubble.
Pull the "honey strands" four times, use a small spoon or toothpick to stir up some honey and stretch it outwards. Real honey can usually pull out thin and translucent "honey strands", and the strands will automatically retract after being broken. And takes on a spherical shape.
For Wumo granules, buy milky white or light yellow natural "crystalline honey". You can pick out the crystal part and grind it with your fingertips. The crystallized granules of real honey are fine and will melt completely; while the crystallized granules of fake honey are fine and fine. The crystalline particles are hard and clump together, and grinding them with your fingertips will leave behind particles that are not easily melted.
After six tastes, real honey is sweet and greasy, while some honey has a slightly sour aftertaste. Honey tastes like honey, and sugar tastes like sugar. Pure honey is sweet and slightly sour, with a soft and delicate taste. The fake honey has a weak honey taste and a light and short aftertaste. For example, honey mixed with sucrose has a short aftertaste and a strong syrupy taste; honey mixed with urea tastes sweet but salty; honey mixed with thickeners has a sticky texture and a pungent odor.
A piece of white paper can reveal fake honey
There are two ways for citizens to identify purchased honey at home.
First, look at the method of penetration. Pure honey will not seep out easily when dropped on white paper, while honey mixed with water will gradually seep out.
The second is the refrigerated crystallization test: honey will become solid after being stored in an environment of 4 to 14 degrees Celsius for a period of time. This is a physical phenomenon of honey. Real honey has poor crystal transparency and poor crystallization levels. It is relatively "soft" and does not feel gritty when you twist it with your fingers. The crystals are very soft when you prick them one by one with chopsticks. Fake honey cannot be pricked and is very solid when frozen.
Honey tips
1. Sophora nectar and jujube nectar are more guaranteed. Some fresh honey species on the market, such as wolfberry honey, honeysuckle honey, and aloe vera honey, may be blended. Because these crops are rarely grown on a large scale. To ensure quality, it is recommended to buy popular honeys such as locust honey and jujube honey, and do not be too superstitious about functional honey.
2. Take it with cold water to moisten the intestines and warm water to nourish. The water temperature for preparing honey should not exceed 50 degrees Celsius, otherwise the nutrients will be easily lost. Take it with warm boiled water (about 40 degrees Celsius), and the nourishing effect is good; take it with cool boiled water (room temperature), and the effect of laxative is more obvious.
3. Spread honey on bread without losing nutrients. Spread honey on bread or steamed buns and eat it to fully retain the nutrients of honey. In addition, it is healthier to add it to milk for breakfast instead of sugar.
4. Avoid contact with metal objects during storage. Honey is acidic, so do not use metal containers for storage, and do not leave metal spoons in honey bottles for a long time to avoid reactions.
5. Honey is easy to crystallize, regardless of its quality. During the storage process, honey sometimes crystallizes. Crystallization of honey is a normal phenomenon and has nothing to do with quality, nor does it affect consumption. Generally, honey is easy to crystallize below 13 degrees Celsius.