Sleep problems arise not only in people in old age, but also in young people after suffering stresses, worries, intense physical or mental work. In this case, it is not necessary to immediately rush to the pharmacy for a patented medicine, the problem of poor sleep can be solved by home remedies. In this article, we will consider how to take honey before going on a night's rest in order to sleep well.

Honey features

This product is produced by bees collecting flower nectar. In the bee's body, special enzymes are added to the collected sweet juices, as a result of which their composition changes. Bees carry these juices to the hive, where they are stored in honeycombs and gradually turn into honey.

Did you know? Bees are amazing insects whose role in the process of pollination of flowers is vital for wildlife. They are social insects that live in organized hive colonies and are subject to a well-defined hierarchy in their community.

There are different types of this product that differ in color, taste and texture. Floral - from lavender, linden, acacia, are usually golden-whitish in color and have a very aromatic smell. Buckwheat or fir - have a reddish-brown color and a spicy taste, remain in a liquid state for a rather long time, without crystallizing. Each variety has not only its characteristic taste, but, according to experts, different healing properties.

Calorie content

People who are not too knowledgeable in honey are not sure enough whether this product is so nutritious and useful as its manufacturers and sellers advertise. Scientists claim that this substance has a relatively high energy content, approximately 320 kcal per 100 grams. Due to its high sugar content and low water content, the product can be stored for a long time.

Honey has a lower calorie content than regular sugar, but has a stronger sweetening ability. Thus, if you use it to add sweetness, you will need a much smaller amount than sugar, but with the same satiating properties. Sugar compounds in honey are a much smaller burden for human metabolism than regular table sugar: they lead to less severe fluctuations in blood sugar levels, which reduce craving for food. This can be especially helpful for obese or dieters.

Important! Any food, including healthy, becomes dangerous if it is poorly processed or stored in unsanitary conditions. This also applies to honey - the quality does not always meet the expected. Quite often, unscrupulous sellers dilute an expensive product with sugar syrup, so it is better to purchase sweets from familiar beekeepers or under the sign of a well-known, trustworthy trading company.

Chemical composition

Honey consists of 75% invert sugar, that is, a mixture of equal parts of glucose and fructose. In addition, it contains 20% water and other sugars (sucrose, maltose), the amount of which depends on the type of honey product.

Vitamins and Minerals

100 grams of honey also contains 0.2 g of minerals (calcium, potassium, sodium, chlorine). In addition, there are enzymes, amino acids, trace elements (iron, zinc, copper) and vitamins (vitamin C, thiamine, riboflavin and niacin), but only in very small quantities. The exact composition of the product may vary slightly depending on the variety.

Properties of honey for the human body

The honey product has always been used in traditional medicine, and now it is very popular as a home remedy. It has anti-inflammatory, antibiotic and anti-allergic effects, strengthens the immune and cardiovascular systems.From a pharmacological point of view, honey cannot be characterized as a medicine. Nevertheless, honey and bee products (propolis, beeswax, royal jelly) are used in medicine for medicinal purposes, this treatment is called apitherapy.

Did you know? Honey has been a popular product for hundreds of years. It is used to add sweets to drinks (tea, coffee, milk) or to prepare desserts, pastries, marinades for meat and vegetable dishes.

Benefit

Evaluating this product for individual ingredients is completely wrong. This is a variety of active ingredients and their balanced natural proportion in relation to each other. All this has a positive effect on individual organs of the human body. The quality and therapeutic effectiveness of honey can vary greatly depending on the botanical and geographical origin of the product. The flower harvest contains more vitamins, and buckwheat or forest contains more minerals and trace elements. Examples of the interaction of various honey ingredients:

1. Vitamin B1, contained in honey, is necessary for the dissociation of sugar, while it is supported by the trace element manganese. Once again, magnesium is absorbed by the body only in the presence of vitamin D6.
2. Only in the presence of vitamin C and a trace mineral copper can the plant iron contained in the product be used by the human body. The iron content in forest bee harvest (up to 3.4 mg per 100 g) can be twice as much as in beef. Chromium has the ability to enhance the action of insulin, and is also known as the "glucose tolerance factor" and is important for the utilization of glucose in the body, since it ensures the full development of insulin in the cell.
3. Amino acids are the main building blocks of the protein, and the honey product has two important compounds: acetylcholine and choline, so it can become a good therapeutic support in the treatment of various heart diseases. Choline increases sugar utilization and promotes the incorporation of fructose into the liver glycogen. After consuming this sweetener, 80% more glycogen is produced in the liver than when it consumes the same amount of isolated glucose.
4. Organic acids contained in the honey substance come mainly from the salivary glands of bees and act as a stimulant on digestion.
5. The pollen content in honey can cause a negative allergic reaction, such as hay fever or asthma. Allergists recommend that patients who are allergic to pollen drink at least one teaspoon of honey per day in order to gradually get used to the allergy-provoking element.
6. In addition, honey contains more than 100 different natural flavors, as well as inhibitory and antibacterial substances. These inhibitors are responsible for the calming effect of upper respiratory tract infections. An old home remedy, warm milk or tea with honey is still effective in treating colds.

Important! Honey should be natural and collected in places far from megacities. Cities should not be in close proximity to the apiary, the minimum distance between them is 16 km.

Medicinal properties:

1. One of the common uses of honey is wound healing. The composition of this product prevents the growth of pathogenic microorganisms, because honey deprives bacteria of water and contributes to their compression and death. In addition, special ingredients (inhibitors) that can fight against pathogens were found in it. Thus, a sweet product applied to the wound will have a disinfecting and antibiotic effect, relieve inflammation and heal the damage more quickly.
2. Honey can also have a laxative effect on the human body due to its high fructose content. This is often used, especially in the treatment of children with constipation: one or two teaspoons of honey can bring relief to the child.
3. In addition, the honey product has a strengthening effect on the immune system. From time immemorial, it has been used as a home remedy for the prevention and treatment of colds.

Important! To care for damage to the skin, not ordinary food honey is used, but special, for wounds. He undergoes additional training for use for therapeutic purposes, it is sterilized and its consistency is regulated.

Harm and contraindications

Honey is not free from sugar, on the contrary, this product is saturated with it. Although it is a possible alternative to traditional sugar, the product cannot be used in large quantities. In the prevention of caries in children, it is undesirable to sweeten drinks or food with honey, so as not to provoke the occurrence of this disease.If a person has diabetes, he needs to consult a doctor before including honey in the diet, because the product contains sugar that is harmful to diabetics and slightly less harmful fructose. It is also undesirable to eat a sweet product for people with diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, certain types of cardiovascular diseases and obesity. Nutrition for children up to a year should not include honey. The bacterial spores or pollen contained in the product can be very dangerous for the child, because his intestines cannot yet fight them. In addition, pollen contained in the substance can, although rarely, cause allergic reactions.

What doses can be taken

A healthy daily dose for an adult is 1-2 tablespoons of pure honey. This will provide the body with immunity, add health and energy, since the substance is a rich source of essential nutrients.

How to use honey at night

By increasing the level of insulin in the blood, bee sweetness stimulates the brain to produce tryptophan, which subsequently becomes serotonin and promotes good sleep.

Sometimes people experience periods when fatigue and physical exhaustion make it difficult to fall asleep in a deep and calm sleep. In these cases, an evening intake of a tablespoon of honey helps, about 25 g. In cases of chronic insomnia, you must consult a doctor to find out if there is a need for a more serious treatment.Terms of use:

1. The product must be natural, purchased directly from the beekeeper. Honey from the supermarket undergoes additional processing, which leads to the loss of many important properties.
2. Reception should occur immediately before bedtime. The effect will be especially noticeable after the body gets used to the daily dose of a pure, organic and healthy product.

Did you know? As a result of a study by the Austrian Association of Beekeepers, it was found that the number of certain immune cells (T lymphocytes) can increase with daily consumption of honey.

How honey has a sleep effect:

1. This tool stimulates the liver at night, and also turns into energy and supplies the body with enough vitamins, minerals and glucose that promote liver health.
2. The product provides glycogen, which helps the liver perform nightly functions of cleansing and detoxification. It is at night that the liver and lymphatic system perform the functions of removing toxins from the body. When a person goes to bed, the liver has already processed most of the glycogen, therefore, after an additional dose of the honey product at bedtime, the body will optimally perform its tasks, as a result of which the sleep will become stronger.
3. One tablespoon of honey helps the human brain secrete melatonin. Many people with insomnia, for the opportunity to fall asleep, use melatonin capsules from a pharmacy. But such a simple action as consuming a spoonful of honey at bedtime can help speed up the secretion of melatonin naturally. Melatonin helps regulate the body’s internal clock, sleep and wake cycles. Melatonin is also consumed by people with insomnia or who are worried about quitting cigarettes, in which cases this remedy can also be useful. Melatonin is also known as "health hormone." It helps a person improve immunity, accelerates and facilitates tissue repair during sleep.
4. The product increases the level of insulin in the blood, which stimulates the release of tryptophan into the brain. Tryptophan is converted to serotonin, which, in turn, is converted to melatonin. Melatonin inhibits the release of insulin, which helps the body further stabilize blood sugar levels at night.

Important! If a person acquires the habit of sweetening tea or coffee with honey instead of sugar, or drinking a glass of water with honey, the benefits for the body will be multiple, and health will be significantly strengthened.

Useful Tips

Do not heat it before swallowing, mixing with any other liquid or solid food (for example, hot tea, hot milk). Temperature destroys most honey enzymes. When using it, you need to keep it in your mouth as long as possible before swallowing, so that the substances contained in sweets (essential oils, minerals, glucose) get directly into the bloodstream.Also, the product that has melted in the mouth will directly feed the cells of the oral cavity (salivary glands, taste buds on the tongue, cells in the gums). These cells need an increased amount of energy and good carbohydrates to restore their structure. Better eating gum cells mean a low risk of local disturbances (infections, bleeding, degeneration) and the rapid saturation of other body cells, for example, heart cells during physical effort.

No need to rush to resort to medications in search of sound sleep. Insomnia or superficial anxious sleep can be driven away by using a spoonful of honey at night in its natural state or by dissolving the sweetness in a glass of warm milk (water).