The real thing. Photo by Indigo Goat.

As of late there has been a great deal of debate about the nutritional qualities of honey. I’m here to set the record straight.
Some of what’s in this article will make you scratch your head in amazement.
Some of you reading this are very educated in the field of nutrition and will not know this information.
Some of you may say that I am entirely wrong and have no scientific basis for what I’m saying. Look it up, it’s all there.
Let’s get down to business shall we?
Know first that when I talk about honey I talk about only raw, unfiltered honey, straight from the hive. This junk in the stores isn’t worth a penny of your money unless you have an unusual grocery store like I do.
So what is so great about honey? More than you ever knew…
The sugar in honey is comprised of a couple of things – Fructose, Glucose, and a small amount of Sucrose. Glucose is absorbed into your blood rather quickly whereas fructose gets in there more slowly. This mix makes honey the ideal food for sustained energy, the long release of insulin that’s not overly bearing on your body. Now this is usually what turns people off to honey, its high sugar content, but you must remember another massive benefit of raw honey, its mineral content.
Raw honey contains many trace minerals including niacin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and zinc. This isn’t an exhaustive list by any means, there are many more. I tell you this because raw honey has such a high mineral content that the minerals actually act as a buffer to the fast absorbing sugar forcing it to be absorbed more slowly. Cool huh?
Minerals are probably the most underrated micronutrient in the public’s diet right now. What do they do? They modulate cellular activity, they feed your heart, pancreas and brain, and they have a small part in regulating your immune system. Minerals take a part in every place of your body. Seriously, enough magnesium can reverse heart disease.
Let’s talk about enzymes. Raw honey is the most enzyme rich food in existence. What do these enzymes do? It’s been found that the enzymes in honey are by and large most useful for digestion. You can test this by taking a spoonful of honey 30-60 minutes before your next meal. You will notice that after the meal it feels like you didn’t eat anything at all, and you’ll be hungry sooner. These enzymes in the lab have also cured every stomach disorder we know about. But ill talk more on that later.
This can have massive implications for the lifter whether you lift for strength, health, size or performance, the more food you can assimilate the faster your recovery and the greater your strength.
As a serious lifter and athlete the last thing I want to do is get sick…with anything at all. Honey has great antibacterial properties. So much so that in WWII it was used on wounds of burn victims mostly and later on, they found it healed much faster with less scar tissue.

This is a list of things honey has been shown to cure or greatly aid in:

• Colds
• Respiratory problems
• Ulcers
• Constipation
• Allergies
• Hay fever
• Gangrene
• Internal parasites
• Nasal Congestion
• Anemia
• Osteoporosis
• Migraines
• Honey kills microbes directly
• Honey can draw the poison from a poisonous bite

Dr. Molan from the Waikato University in New Zealand said the ability of honey to reduce inflammation and neutralize free radicals is “remarkable“.
Let’s go over it again:
Honey can increase your energy, reduce your recovery time, cure just about anything that is bothering you, raise endurance, give your body the necessary minerals to function at a higher level, increase your appetite, give you greater strength and heal your skin if you decide to burn it all off.
I think we have something here.