Local Wildflower Honey and Allergies - 3 Fat Chicks on a Diet Weight Loss Community

cbmare · 03-20-2013, 12:06 PM

I heard a while back that taking 1 TBS of local wildflower honey a day may just help with allergies. I've been doing this for a while. My nose still runs all day long. I try not to take my Claritin all the time because I don't want to build up a resistance to it. However, it seems that some days I can't do without it.

I know it has to be local honey so I get mine at the farmer's market. You can't rely on that stuff in the stores that are manufactured from honey from who knows where. Some smaller markets here will carry local honey but it isn't labeled as wildflower so I don't know what type it is.

Have any of you done this and has it worked for you?

TripSwitch · 03-20-2013, 07:08 PM

I have several friends who swear by this... And I have one that says when she starting using local honey she was able to stop taking OTC allergy meds entirely which apparently was huge for her... I don't suffer from seasonal allergies, but if I did I would probably give it a try, just to see if it it helped at all...

cbmare · 03-20-2013, 07:34 PM

Thanks. I take it every morning. We'll see. I hope it starts to work soon.

TripSwitch · 03-22-2013, 11:16 AM

After doing some more research on the various potential health benefits of honey... I decided I'm no longer going to feel guilty about putting a couple of teaspoons of it in a cup of tea every once in awhile anymore... I think I was letting this all this talk of how "evil" sugar is in any form really start to get to me... so I think I'll take my chances with a little bit of honey...

cbmare · 03-22-2013, 11:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TripSwitch

I think I was letting this all this talk of how "evil" sugar is in any form really start to get to me... so I think I'll take my chances with a little bit of honey...

ITA. It is hard to know what to eat or drink any longer. Every week some sort of study comes out and lets us know that we've been killing ourselves because we're following the guidelines of the last study. Now niacin is bad for you if you take a statin.

Quite frankly, I'm enjoying my 1 TBS of honey each morning. If I have oatmeal, I put it on there. If not, then I just eat it. Oh, and it does NOT spike blood sugar.

Enjoy that tea.

ICUwishing · 03-22-2013, 02:43 PM

Tidbit from my DH, who is working through an advanced beekeeping course and husbanding two hives through our tough winter - quite a lot of honey is pasteurized, rendering all the valuable stuff in it quite useless. The enzymes that are especially helpful for allergies are destroyed at a temp of 117F, which means that if you're stirring it into hot food or tea, be aware. Ask questions to make sure what you're getting is raw, unfiltered honey. Our anecdotal experience with local friends and neighbors trying our first batch is that 3 out of 5 of the allergy sufferers believed they had less severe symptoms after a couple weeks. It's a tasty gamble!

cbmare · 03-22-2013, 05:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ICUwishing

Tidbit from my DH, who is working through an advanced beekeeping course and husbanding two hives through our tough winter - quite a lot of honey is pasteurized, rendering all the valuable stuff in it quite useless. The enzymes that are especially helpful for allergies are destroyed at a temp of 117F, which means that if you're stirring it into hot food or tea, be aware. Ask questions to make sure what you're getting is raw, unfiltered honey. Our anecdotal experience with local friends and neighbors trying our first batch is that 3 out of 5 of the allergy sufferers believed they had less severe symptoms after a couple weeks. It's a tasty gamble!

Thank you for this input. I am getting raw unfiltered honey. In fact, I just got another 3 lb jar at the farmer's market this morning.

I usually just spoon it out of the jar and eat it. It took me a bit to find the brand I'm using now. Fortunately for me, there are quite a few farmer's markets in the area and a couple of the smaller independent grocery stores carry local raw unfiltered honey. You just have to taste it to find what is right for you.

Good luck in your enterprise. This is becoming a fast growing small mom and pop type business. Once you get your hives producing they way you want (I guess you need bee whisperers LOL), then approach some of the smaller boutique restaurants to start serving it with some of their cheese or dessert courses.