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Honey
A Food And Tonic
Honey is a food and a tonic, Honey is a first class food. It is very easily digestible. It is assimilated quite readily also. This is a most nutritious natural food. It will strengthen a weak heart, a weak brain and a weak stomach.
Honey is a product of the nectar of flowers. It is a mistake to say that honey is gathered by bees from flowers. Bees are nature’s Halwais. They manufacture sweets better finer and healthier than any sweetmeat maker with all his skill, dexterity, ingenuity and many ingredients can ever make.
Green plants manufacture sugar for their own use. This is carried with the cell sap to the different parts of the plant either for direct assimilation or future use. All the flowering plants concentrate a quick supply of food at the base or at the bottom part of their flowers to help the proper growth of the ovaries. The excess solution is thrown out at the base of the flowers. This thrown out solution of the cell sap with sugar is known as ‘nectar’. The nectar is changed into honey in their mouths by the honey bees. Every hive imparts a new flavour because in every hive the nectar is drawn from different flowers and plants.
Honey contains all the mineral elements found in the human body. It contains 80% of nutriment in the most assimilable form. It contains the sugars levulose and dextrose, formic acid, iron and various accessory components. It contains enzymes. These enzymes disintegrate or break up complex foods into substances that can be easily digested and absorbed. Honey does not require digestion at all. It is ready for absorption into the blood without any change. It goes into the blood stream directly. It should form an article of your diet. A teaspoonful of honey will keep the stomach in order for ever.
Honey is a heart stimulant. It is useful in cases of malnutrition. It should be given for general physical repair. Honey kills bacteria and thus enables the body to overcome diseases. Disease germs cannot grow in honey. Honey is substituted for orange juice and cod-liver oil. It is useful in bronchial catarrah. Sore throat, coughs and colds. Diabetic patients can take honey with advantage.
Honey also acts as a laxative. It enters into the combination of Chavan Prash and other kalpas. It is taken on combination with amalaka fruits as a kalpa. As soon as a child is born its tongue is smeared with honey. This is the first food that the child takes.
Honey can be taken with milk, cream or butter. It is a restorative after serious illness. It invigorates, energises and vitalizes the system. It improves health. It is more stimulating than alcohol and helps weak digestion.
Honey is a diffusible stimulant. If you take a tablespoonful of honey in hot water when you are tired or exhausted by over-exertion, it will brace you up immediately. You will become strong and active again. If the honey is bitter do not take it. Soak 10 almonds in water at night. Remove the skin in the morning. Take them in the morning with one or two tablespoonfuls of honey. This is a potent brain tonic.
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