Once upon a time, we had a beehive in our backyard. I loved being an amateur beekeeper and we especially loved having a source of (really) local honey. Unfortunately, the kids didn’t love the occasional stings from stepping on a bee, and we had a devastating winter and wax moths took over the hive.
Health Uses for Honey
Our love of raw, local honey stuck around though, and while we don’t use it that often in cooking or eating (since we try to really limit sugar and fructose), I still have many daily uses for honey.
1. As a Natural Face Wash
Sound strange? I thought so too at first, but after trying it, I am a believer.
I usually use the oil cleansing method to cleanse my skin naturally, but if I wear makeup or need to wash my face more than once per day, I use honey.
Honey is naturally antibacterial and is a much gentler way to cleanse skin than harsh soaps and detergents. It doesn’t strip the skin’s natural oils but can hep soften skin and remove blackheads or whiteheads.
Here’s how to wash your face with honey.
2. To Speed Skin Recovery from Cuts and Burns
The same antibacterial properties that make honey excellent as a natural face wash make it wonderful for speeding recovery from cuts and burns.
Raw manuka honey is now being used in medical settings to help protect wounds (especially with burns) and speed recovery. I’ve seen it work several times in our family- once when my husband had a bad cut on his foot and once when I sliced through most of my finger with a spiral slicer. (The picture on the left is only four days after a really severe cut that bled for almost an hour and that opened back up twice the first night. The combination of topical honey with lavender essential oil and consuming a lot of gelatin helped it heal incredibly fast.)
There are some specific tips for using honey to speed recovery from cuts and burns in this post, but from that article:
“Regular raw/manuka honey can be used and I keep both of those on hand, but I also keep a specific medical-grade honey on hand since it has been verified to have a high concentration of manuka for additional antibacterial properties. I have the following three things at our house for burns and cuts:
- Medihoney Gel for burns and cuts
- Medihoney wound paste
- Medihoney wound dressings for big wounds“
3. Honey as A Cough Remedy
In the rare event that someone in our family comes down with a cold or flu, I use honey to make a natural herbal remedy.
This is one of the most simple natural uses for honey. I combine herbs like Ginger, Cinnamon and Marshmallow Root with raw honey to create a natural cough suppressant that also boosts the immune system to help the body bounce back more quickly.
Here’s the recipe: Natural Herbal Cough Syrup Recipe
4. Herbal Cough Drops
If you’re feeling really ambitious, you can even make herbal cough drops with honey and herbs. I’ll warn you, it can be tricky to get just right and really frustrating if you lose a batch, but if you manage to get them just right, the resulting cough drop is really effective and free of the artificial flavors and dyes that most cough drops have.
Natural homemade cough drop recipe.
5. Honey Shampoo
Honey isn’t just food for the skin- it is good for hair as well. I usually use my homemade mud shampoo or my coconut milk shampoo, but sometimes, when I want my hair to be extra silky, I’ll wash or rinse with raw honey.
The method is simple: just massage a small amount of honey into the scalp and hair and rinse. It is like a shampoo and conditioner in one and it works really well.
I often follow this with my homemade sea spray if I want extra volume or just let my hair air dry for super-silky hair.
6. For DIY Marshmallows
Store bought marshmallows are a disgusting combination of corn syrup, sugar, cornstarch, emulsifiers, and artificial flavors and colors. Traditional marshmallows (while still high in natural sugars) were a much better alternative of real food sweeteners and gelatin (which has many benefits itself).
We don’t make them often, but occasionally we make homemade probiotic marshmallows with real marshmallow root, raw honey, probiotics and gelatin. These are a great treat for the kids without the artificial ingredients.
7. Natural Sleep Aid
I don’t usually have trouble sleeping, but when I do, I have a simple go-to remedy that has never failed me. I simply scoop out a teaspoon or so of raw, organic honey and sprinkle it with about 1/2 tsp of salt. Instant sleep.
From my understanding (thanks to my wonderful doc), in a perfect world, we would have a natural cortisol spike in the morning, which would slowly decline through the day and reach a low at night. This isn’t happening in most cases (a topic for a post of its own) but many people have elevated cortisol at night.
Dr. Christianson talks about the importance of not consuming carbs in the morning and consuming them in the evening (from certain sources) since carbs naturally raise insulin and lower cortisol. You don’t want this in the morning, but when it is hard to fall asleep, this is exactly what you need.
It sounds crazy but it works wonders.
p.s. Honey isn’t the only wonderful thing bees make! Find out more about why I have bee pollen and bee propolis in my kitchen cabinet as well. (Although admittedly they are not as delicious!)
How have you used honey? Any other unusual uses I missed? Share them below in the comments! 🙂
How to Preserve Winter Squash Without Cooking It
»
I was wondering about the ratio you gave for the honey and salt as a sleep remedy.
I tried it the other night and it almost instantly made me throw up for several minutes…Maybe 1 tsp honey with 1/2 tsp salt is too much salt? I am not allergic to anything nor do I have a sensitive stomach. I was wondering if you have heard of this before?
Thanks for your help 🙂
My family has used honey for years topically on cuts and scapes. As a child I had some pretty horrendous accidents resulting in major scrapes- an example- riding my pushbike, flying through the air and slidings across the asphalt on the road. I ended up with a massive scrape all up my arm and elbow. Same on my knee. Mum would put honey on it and cover it up with bandages. The next day- what could have been huge thick scabs, once the dressing was removed, I would be left with tender, shiny, pink, healed skin. Keep applying it daily until completely healed. Even prevents scarring. Big or small cuts or scrapes, this stuff works! Cant vouch for it enough!
I use honey mixed with with table sugar daily as a face scrub. It works great and is great for zits! The antibacterial effects gets rid of pimples in less time. My kids have used it and it is not drying like some potions. I use probably about 1:1 ratio, it can be varied to suit the consistency you like. I tried organic sugar but prefer white sugar as it is finer. The only issue is it has to be stirred every morning in the shower, but it is a small issue for me.
Great website!
I am from India and we use honey religiously in food and cosmetic products.
So, first thing in the morning on an empty stomach, when you add 1 tea spoon of honey with a glass of luke warm water plus 1 table spoon freshly squeezed lemon along with a pinch of salt (optional), one tends to lose weight naturally. I have been doing this for years and it does wonders.
I do the same almost every morning but add a little raw organic unfiltered ACV too
Interesting comments and usage ideas. I’m not sure there is a relationship from bee sting allergy, which I most certainly do have and using other bee products. I have never had any problems other than stings. My inner arm, wrist to elbow was once really badly burnt used cold running water for 20 minutes (a very long time) then honey just ordinary from the pantry, not a trace of scarring and it healed quite quickly too. Wonderful stuff honey …
Great blog article! I use Manuka honey on my eyelashes. I normally have allergy eyes and since using the Manuka honey on my eyelashes, the itchiness is gone plus it also helps reduce under eye puffiness.
What is the reason for the salt in the honey for sleeping? I use honey when i get a cold sore. it cuts healing time in atleast half
The combination helps proper sleep hormone production
These are really great tips. I’m going to remember the “honey sleep treatment.” I read some time ago that taking a spoonful of honey before bed also helps your metabolism and *might* help you lose weight. I think it has to do with the production of cortisol that you mentioned, Katie. I don’t do it, but I might start mixing in a little bit of honey in my evening chamomile tea.
Right now I am using a honey/ACV combination on a skin rash that broke out on my leg last night. I thought it could be the beginning of shingles (which I’ve had once before) but the rash is almost gone this morning and doesn’t look like shingles sores. I’ve read that it does help with shingles rash/sores though, and I did use the ACV when I had shingles. I think the addition of honey to the ACV is even better!
Cough syrup (to stop coughing at night): equal parts honey, lemon juice, whiskey. I’m going to take a look at your cough syrup next. Thank you for sharing it.
Thank you, Katie, for all you do. I love this blog and recommend it to my friends and family.
Is face washing with honey once a day good for people with very dry skin? I tried the oil cleansing method, but it’s too time consuming.
I washed my hair with honey this morning for the first time ever – wow, I can’t believe how well it worked! I have short, thick, oily hair, and I have been washing it with castile soap (followed by an ACV rinse) for the past 10 months. It works fine but I was looking for something with a better pH balance. I was skeptical about the honey but it is great, plus I gave myself a honey facial at the same time. I never have time for a honey facial in the morning and my skin is so soft today! I tried washing my hair with an egg earlier this week (also used the ACV rinse with it), which worked, but it left my hair pretty dry. I think I’m going to use the castile soap in rotation with a few of these other natural hair “washes.” Thanks for all of the great information!