Eat This Food DAILY to Live Longer (It’s Not What You Think)

Hey everyone, welcome to Dr. Josh Axe Show. Each and every week we explore the science and principles behind how to grow in body, mind, spirit, and take your health and your life to the next level. Today I'll be talking about the mind-blowing healing effects of honey, and not just honey— bee pollen, royal jelly, propolis. I'll go through how they can actually help balance estrogen in the body.

They can also boost testosterone naturally. I'll go through how honey might be the most effective natural cure for lung issues. It has anticancer properties, and some other things that are going to blow your mind. Most of the time when people think about honey, they think, oh, it's got sugar. It's not. Honey isn't sugar.

Honey is a superfood that has sugar in it that's been used for thousands of years as a form of medicine. I'm excited to share all of the incredible healing benefits of honey. But before I get into that, make sure to subscribe to the channel and hit the notification bell so you never miss a single thing. So here's the reality.

Honey has been established as one of the most powerful forms of plant-based medicine in history. And here's something amazing. Under the right conditions, honey doesn't go bad. In ancient Egypt, archaeologists have discovered pots of honey in tombs that are over 3,000 years old, and the honey is still edible. What other substance on earth that you can eat is still good after 3,000 years?

And in ancient Egypt, honey was so valued that it was often used as a form of currency, and spice traders would trade honey and essential oils and herbs and spices as forms of a currency. And sometimes even taxes were paid using honey. And as I mentioned, it was also used in trade. Now, other ancient civilizations prized honey.

We know the Jews, as you read about them in the Tanakh or the Old Testament, prized honey. We know the Greeks and Romans also used it for medicine and as a form of food. And studies have also shown recent studies that honey has amazing healing benefits for healing wounds.

In fact, if you have a wound on your skin, what works better than lavender essential oil, what works better than Neosporin or any other thing out there you could put on a wound is honey. It's also antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antifungal, antiviral, anti-diabetic, immune strengthening, estrogenic balancing and has anti-cancer properties.

And I have used honey as medicine in my home, in the Axe household as well. I'll give you an example. My daughter Arwen, when she was about 6 months old, she got a really, really severe cradle cap. And so she started getting it all over her head. And Chelsea and I, you know, adjusted Chelsea's diet. That didn't change it.

We put on some other really beneficial things, some natural things we bought for cradle cap. Cradle cap that was a blend of different oils and essential oils, and that helped a little bit. And finally, I, I realized, I thought, well, we haven't tried probably the best natural remedy of all, and honey.

We specifically, just so you know, we did Manuka honey, and we put it on her head, and after a week it completely disappeared. Okay, and we were trying many different things, natural things that didn't work. One week, completely gone. I've used this with a lot of patients who have eczema and psoriasis, and a lot of kids, and, and honey is amazing for that. Also, I had to have an ankle surgery.

This was about 6 years ago. And if you look at my ankle today, you really can't see a scar at all because afterwards I kept it soaked for, uh, 40 days in a blend of Manuka honey, calendula, and lavender. And I had virtually no scarring where almost anyone else, even using nap— even using, uh, anti-scar ointments, would still have scarring. And so it really is amazing.

It's something I've personally used. It's something that we've used again in our family. I've prescribed and recommended to patients. And so honey has numerous benefits. And we're not only going to get into honey today, I'm going to get into what makes Manuka unique.

I'm also going to talk about some of the unique factors that bees also create, such as bee pollen, royal jelly, and propolis, and what you want to use for different conditions to heal. Now, something that makes honey unique, as I mentioned, is its composition. It is about 82% carbohydrate, mostly a combination of fructose and glucose. It contains some protein.

Actually, what's sort of unique is that about 80% of the amino acids found in honey are proline, which is a similar, uh, which is a, a an amino acid you'd also find in bone broth. But proline is what makes up your skin and your gut lining and other areas, which I think is also why it's so good at healing wounds on the skin. It also contains minerals. The mineral it's the highest in is potassium.

So high levels of potassium and also certain B vitamins like B2, vitamin B3, folate, and some vitamin C. So remember, honey is carbohydrates, but it's also amino acids. It's also some very, very unique minerals and antioxidants. And honey contains an antioxidant called phenolic acid. And it's— and it also contains flavonoids. These are a type of antioxidant you'd also find in things like berries.

But this antioxidant elevates agents such as beta-carotene, vitamin C, and glutathione in studies. Also, honey has been shown to be a natural antibacterial and great for wound healing. In fact, there's a great study done finding that honey inhibits pathogenic bacteria like staph infections, Staph aureus, and E. coli.

One of the things that makes it a natural antibiotic is that it has more of an acidic pH between 3.2 and 3.5. The other thing that makes it really unique, it has an osmotic effect on sugars and water. So think about this. This is amazing. Now, this is why honey Uh, could stay, stay, uh, edible for 3,000 years.

Um, it will bring in the right amount of moisture and then push out the wrong amount of moisture. So it— when you are trying to heal a wound on your skin, whether you got a bit, you know, a cut or a scrape or whatever it is, um, keeping the moisture level right is one of the keys to healing. You want to keep it a very, very specific moisture in order for it to fully heal.

In fact, if you get a scar that gets too dry, it'll, it'll It'll show a lot more. That's where you'll see a lot of scarring if it's too dry. And if it's too wet, one of the issues is it doesn't sometimes— maybe it actually can also inhibit healing.

So what honey does is it helps balance and create the perfect level of moisture, pushing out any too much fluid and bringing in the right amount of fluid from the air, keeping it the right pH and keeping it the exact correct level of humidity on the skin.

Now, one of the other things that makes it so powerful for healing wounds is that it can contains compounds that produce hydrogen peroxide via glucose oxidase.

So again, if you know the healing benefits of hydrogen peroxide, one of the issues with hydrogen peroxide, when you put hydrogen peroxide directly on a wound, it actually can be a little bit harsh on the skin in that area versus this creates— honey itself creates hydrogen peroxide in the perfect amount to restrict bacteria and viruses in the area.

Keeping it clean and healthy and optimizing the healing of the area. So when you look at honey, what it does, when you look at the method by which it heals, it is amazing. Also, honey has some really powerful anti-inflammatory effects.

It reduces swelling and it gets rid of pro-inflammatory, what are called cytokines, which is what causes that redness and puffiness, which can, which can sometimes over time keep the area from fully healing. It also has anti-diabetic properties. Isn't it crazy to think that honey is 82% sugar, yet in studies it reduced blood sugar of people with type 2 diabetes?

Also, it's got amazing cardiovascular effects. In studies, honey has been shown to lower LDL, VLDL, triglycerides, and CRP levels. CRP is an inflammatory marker, all while increasing HDL cholesterol, cholesterol, and it actually stimulates the production of of nitric oxide, which if you've ever taken beetroot juice powder, that's why beetroot juice is so beneficial.

This nitric oxide stimulates something called vasodilation, which means it regulates blood pressure but also gets more blood to the area to support healing. So when you put honey on an area, it actually attracts more blood to the area in order to improve the healing. Of the area, which is why, again, it is so powerful at everything from burns to scars to cuts.

Here's another thing that's amazing about honey. It has anti-cancer effects. In fact, one study found it causes something called apoptosis of cancer cells, which means it programs cancer cells to die. It's been shown in studies to be effective against breast, colorectal, and prostate cancer. So again, there are loads and loads of benefits.

So remember, we're just walking through here these benefits one more time. It's honey is incredibly healing because it contains compounds that create hydrogen peroxide. That is an antiseptic that disinfects wounds.

It's high in unique forms of sugar that create an osmotic effect that draws out excess fluid and reduces swelling, but keeps it the proper pH at the same time and moisturized in order to properly heal. It's high in nutrients including vitamins, minerals, amino acids. It's antimicrobial and inhibits bacteria and funguses. It's anti-inflammatory.

It is high in antioxidants, so it reduces oxidative damage. So again, with something like a scar or even internally in your body, it's going to act as an antioxidant. Helps with moisture retention, as I mentioned, and it helps oxygenate an area, enhancing blood flow and bringing more oxygen to an area of the body that's damaged. So, I mean, it's just a great ingredient.

Now, there was a study done here specifically about honey for wound healing. And here's what they found. Honey dressings healed burns 4.7 days faster than conventional dressings and 5.1 days faster than silver sulfadiazine. So this is a medication. Actually, honey works better and it also had fewer adverse side effects compared to the medication. So listen, it healed it 5 days faster.

Another study found that honey healed wounds 69% faster than antiseptic washes and gauze. Also, it was shown to help heal ulcers 41% faster. Also, honey was shown to be more effective than those who used Epsom soaks for gangrene. So it was also more effective against that. Now, I do want to say this.

If you have a wound or a serious burn, the fastest way to heal it is have honey on it and then also get in a hyperbaric chamber. That combination is hard to beat. Or if you've got a burn, honey mixed with aloe vera mixed with lavender, lavender essential oil, that's a great combo for, for, for that specifically.

Now, another thing that you've probably heard of when it comes to honey, its benefits, is it's effective at fighting seasonal allergies. There was a study done for 8 weeks on 2 groups of people, one that consumed a tablespoon of raw local honey daily while the other got a placebo. So they didn't— they got something fake.

The honey group showed a 60% improvement in symptoms such as sneezing, itching, and runny nose compared to only a 10% improvement in the placebo group. The honey group also used 50% fewer antihistamines compared to the placebo group. Here's the reality: if you have seasonal allergies, you should consume a tablespoon of honey year-round.

And not only honey, you should actually do some bee pollen, and then when you get into season, a little bit of propolis and royal jelly with it. So if you do bee products year-round that are local, it is by far the single most effective anti-allergy thing. Now, what a lot of people do is when they're sick, then they'll do a little honey, or when they're having allergy symptoms.

No, what local honey does— honey has over 200 microbials in it as well, okay? And it acts as a natural form of an immunization. So when you get local honey, your body is getting microdoses of pollen, and those microdoses of pollen allow your body to build up a tolerance to pollen.

So then when you have a lot of pollen in spring and fall during allergy season, your body has built up a tolerance to it and, and a natural immunity to what you're being exposed to. So again, if you really want to get rid of allergies, use raw local honey along with raw local bee pollen, especially throughout the entire year.

Now, I also want to mention here some of the amazing benefits of honey for heart health and lowering cholesterol and triglycerides. There's a study done over a 15-day period, and those who used honey every single day had around an 8% reduction in overall cholesterol, 11% reduction in LDL, 2% in triglycerides, and a 2% increase in HDL cholesterol. So we know it's even good for heart health.

And let me say this, there's a pretty big difference between honey and table sugar or even dextrose. When you look at honey versus regular sugar, here is what a study found. When you consume dextrose or sugar, it increases your plasma glucose by about around 53% at hour 1. Wow. And then around 3% at 2 hours and then a decrease of around 20% at 3 hours.

So, and the other thing about eating regular sugar is it caused a significant rise in insulin and C-reactive protein. Honey, on the other hand, increased PGL— that stands for plasma glucose levels— only by 14%. So again, get this: regular sugar increases blood sugar by 53%, honey only by 14% at 1 hour. Okay?

And the rise in insulin and C-peptide was lower than dextrose by, by later in the Okay, so basically the moral of the story is this: honey has only a fraction, probably about on average 1/4 of the amount of impact on your blood sugar as regular sugar does early on after consuming it.

So there are loads and loads and loads of benefits here of honey, and it's very, very different than consuming regular sugar. Um, also, as I mentioned, has great benefits for inflammation. In fact, one study over 15 days found it reduced CRP levels by 75% and also lowered homocysteine levels.

So again, honey has tremendous benefits, as I've covered, and you should use this as your natural form of sweetener. Honey is my number one natural sweetener that I use on a regular basis and that I recommend you use. So anytime Chelsea and I are doing recipes, let's say we're making— this, this week we made sourdough pancakes. We use some of our sourdough starter.

We use some ancient einkorn and I think some other flour we brought in, some coconut oil, some pasture-raised eggs, and then honey as the natural sweetener. We use honey in baking muffins. We use it in cakes. We use it if we're making our own dark chocolate bars at home. We use it constantly all the time.

So if you can use honey in a recipe, just, you can go online and search for honey and sugar equivalent and use honey in replacement in many recipes. Now, I want to talk about another compound that is found in honey, but also you can take as a separate supplement that has loads of benefits, and it's bee pollen. Now, bee pollen is actually much higher in amino acids than regular honey.

It's actually 35% of it are amino acids. It's also higher in B-complex vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin E, and minerals, also contains a unique amount of antioxidants. And I want to go through the benefits of bee pollen according to studies.

There was a double-blind placebo-controlled trial on humans that was done for 12 weeks, and they found that those who consumed a teaspoon of bee pollen a day increased their lymphocyte activity by 40%, and the placebo group only by 10%. Now, this is important if you want to fight cancer. This is important if you want to eliminate food sensitivities.

This this is important for fighting autoimmune disease. It's just important for boosting your immune system. If you want to fight any type of viral infection better in the future and protect yourself, bee pollen helped you do it according to the studies. Also, it was shown to be very effective against seasonal allergies— a 40% reduction in symptoms compared to the placebo group at only 12%.

And that was only after 6 weeks of using bee Another study found that bee pollen actually improves athletic performance. This was done on athletes for 8 weeks. They found there was a 20% improvement in endurance and 15% lower fatigue levels. So if you're feeling yourself, you're tired, you have low energy, this is good. Now I want to share when I was a triathlete.

So when I was in college undergrad, I went to University of Kentucky, and when I was there, I was on the triathlon team and I was starting to get into natural health. Well, at the time there were these, these gel They were called Goo, and, and they had a lot of fake ingredients in them at the time. And maybe they're better now. I don't know.

I haven't looked at them in years, but I didn't want to do the fake nutrients. So what I would do is I would take honey and mix in sea salt, and I would just have honey and sea salt and use those as my gel packs when I was doing my races or just training.

And so that's great if you have a young high school athlete, you know, or you yourself are a marathon runner or a CrossFit athlete or doing some form of endurance and you ever do those gel packs, a much better replacement is doing raw local honey. Now, there's actually a brand that sort of embraced this called— I think it's called Stinger.

And I think that brand is probably okay, okay, probably a good brand to do. But probably doing raw local honey yourself from— with, with your own sea salt, like Celtic salt or Himalayan salt, is probably an even upgraded version of what that is.

Now, sometimes it's good also to have some amino acids in there as well mixed in, but you could easily make your own recovery gel or bar using something like honey. Now, also with bee pollen, I want to mention this. Bee pollen has been shown to reduce liver enzymes. I mean, it even improves liver function.

So if somebody has a fatty liver, which happens if somebody becomes insulin resistant and consumes, consumes too much sugar, Honey actually protects against that. So I think for most of you, if you can just get rid of almost all added sugar in your house, replace it with honey, you are going to be much, much healthier for it. Another incredible healing compound in honey is called propolis.

Now, propolis is a natural wax-like resinous substance that bees collect from plants and use in their hives. Now, actually, there are certain types of trees that honeys build their hive next to that actually allows the, the, the, the bees to create more propolis. But basically, propolis is one of the most powerful immune-boosting substances on the entire planet.

It's been used for medicine for thousands of years. There was a double-blind study done on propolis's ability to balance out and strengthen the immune system. And in a study In this study, over 8 weeks, it was found that those who consumed propolis daily increased their NK cell activity by 45% versus the placebo at only 10%.

Now, NK cells are known as natural killer cells, and they're the most important cells in your body for killing cancer. They're also the most important cells likely for fighting viruses. So if you struggle with an infection Yeah.

So if you have an infection such as Lyme disease, Epstein-Barr, CMV, or any sort of hidden infection within your body, propolis from honeybees is one of the top probably 3 forms of medicine you could ever consume. So listen, if you have an infection, take propolis and take raw local honey daily. It enhances the immune system.

And again, as I mentioned, it's been shown to be very, very effective against viral infections. Also, propolis has benefits against bacteria. One study showed that it inhibits Staphylococcus by 78%. It inhibits E. coli by 70% and Pseudomonas by 65%. So it's a powerful antibacterial that also is effective against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Like MRSA.

So doing a propolis manuka mix would probably be the best against that. Propolis, as I mentioned as well, really helps boost the immune system by about 40%. There was a 12-week study done examining the impact of propolis on NK cell activity in cancer patients. Here's the results. There was an increase in NK cell activity by 55% and a reduction in tumor size by 30% in participants.

I mean, this is really cutting-edge medicine when we're talking about the power of propolis. And I started using propolis early in my career, and then I came across a man, an amazing, um, man from Israel who was in, uh, studied Chinese medicine, and he prescribed it to a lot of his patients for any type of infection.

And when he started using it and recommending it that much, I— him and I had a conversation. I started recommending it, and the results I started getting with people with Lyme disease and Epstein-Barr and just a number of infections. It was really powerful. And also, I started recommending it as really the only form of sugar, along with fruit, that I ever recommended to anybody who had cancer.

But generally, propolis, by the way, doesn't really have sugar in it, which is one of the things that also is, is great about it as well for some of these conditions we're talking about. Another thing propolis great for is for oral health. In fact, it reduces plaque and gingivitis inflammation. Also, it's been shown to reduce inflammation and CRP levels.

There are so many benefits when it comes to propolis. Now, let's talk about royal jelly. Royal jelly is a unique substance that's similar to honey, but if you've ever tasted it, it has a different flavor. But this is what the bees make for the queen bee. And queen bees live on average 40 times longer than other bees. Okay, think about this, increasing your lifespan by 40 times. That's amazing.

And so royal jelly has been used for— as a longevity superfood as well for thousands of years. So if you want to add years to your life, it's one of those amazing compounds such as astragalus and reishi mushroom. And certain types of berries that we believe can extend your lifespan. And I'll go into that research here in a minute. Before I do, though, I want to go into some of the other benefits.

Royal jelly has been shown to help balance female hormones and, by the way, male hormones as well. But there was a study done on postmenopausal women over 12 weeks, and they found that those who used royal jelly daily had a 50% reduction in symptoms around menopause And, or, and for the placebo group, a 25% reduction.

The side effects— about 5% of the participants had some mild GI discomfort, but that was really the gist of it. So 95% of people use royal jelly, don't have side effects, and feel great using it. Royal jelly also was shown to lower cholesterol, boost HDL cholesterol by 7%.

It was shown to help balance blood sugar levels In fact, really, really—I mean—a 5% reduction in A1C levels, and this is amazing for something that does have some sugar in it. Also, it helps with brain function over a 12-week period. Royal jelly improved brain function by 20%, and here's where it also gets to be really beneficial. It is incredible not only taken internally but also topically.

An eight-week study. So, in this study, using royal jelly as a— combined with a cream base on the skin resulted in a 25% improvement in skin hydration, 20% increase in skin elasticity, and overall people looking younger. So, loads of benefits there of royal jelly. Now, a few— a small group of people, about 4%, said it did irritate their skin a little bit.

86% Said no, we just saw great benefits of using royal jelly on our skin. Now I want to hit on the benefits of longevity and anti-aging. I have 3 studies here, one on fruit flies, one on mice, and one on humans. The one on fruit flies found using royal jelly daily increased the lifespan of fruit flies by 25%.

The way it worked is why— by enhancing stress resistance resistance and reducing oxidative stress on the body. There was a study done on mice that found it increased their lifespan on an average by 18%. The way it worked was delayed age-related conditions and reduced oxidative stress. And a study was done on human biomarkers.

They found that using royal jelly increased the length of telomeres, reduced anti-inflammatory markers such as IL-6 and CRP, and improved Improved mitochondrial function and antioxidant levels. So this is amazing. Royal jelly actually improves the function of mitochondria in your cells and increases longevity.

So royal jelly, again, loads of benefits there, and one of my top 10 longevity foods you could consume to extend your lifespan. Now, I want to talk about one other honey product or a form of honey here, and that is manuka honey. I often get questions about, Dr. Axe, what's the difference between regular honey and manuka honey?

Well, manuka honey is a type of honey produced by bees that pollinate the flowers of the manuka tree, which is native to New Zealand and southeastern Australia. Now, one of the compounds that is unique to this manuka tree is that manuka honey contains high levels of methylglyoxal. It's known as MGO. It's a compound with potent antibacterial properties.

MGO is derived from the conversion of dihydroxyacetone, which is found in high concentrations in the nectar of Manuka flowers. So these bees go to these really unique flowers and they get this substance that then when they create honey is a powerful natural antibiotic.

Now, Now, when you go and buy different types of Manuka honey, you'll see then one of the other things on the label is what's called the UMF factor. That stands for Unique Manuka Factor. This UMF factor is a grading system that measures the antibacterial strength of Manuka honey.

And UMF ratings are based on basically the concentration, how concentrated is this MGO within the honey itself, and the higher the rating, the higher the antibacterial potency.

Now, Manuka honey with a UMF rating of 10 or higher is considered to have significant therapeutic effects on the body, and a study published in the British Journal of Oral Surgery evaluated the effectiveness of Manuka honey at reducing sore throats in patients who Mm-hmm. Who had undergone radiotherapy for head and neck cancer.

Over a 6-week period of time, the Manuka honey group saw significant improvements over those in the standard care group, and the results were by 50%. Okay, so 50% less sore throats and taking 50% less medication. So think about the improvements there. If you are a patient with a sore throat, and this be from a radiation treatment, it could be from having strep throat or a sore throat.

People that use Manuka honey daily had 50% less pain from their sore throat, and they were able to take 50% less of the medication they were on. I mean, truly remarkable when you think about how powerful Manuka honey is. Another study found that Manuka honey was very effective at killing off H. pylori, a type of bacteria that can grow in the gut that causes stomach ulcers.

And this is also something something that is connected to SIBO, which stands for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. If you're somebody that has peptic ulcers, have ever had one, you should use Manuka honey as your form of sweetener. Or if you're somebody that has SIBO, you should use Manuka honey as your form of sweetener as well.

And it's been shown in studies to reduce H. pylori by approximately 80% in some cases. So it's really, really powerful. Powerful when we look at the benefits there of Manuka honey. So I think if you're thinking about fighting allergies, you should use raw local honey, okay? If it's allergies, if it's boosting your immune system.

But if you're looking at sort of a natural antibiotic and to help peptic ulcers or to help something like an infection topically, or as we mentioned, fight a sore throat, Manuka honey is probably the better option.

So it's important to know that These compounds made by bees, everything from raw local honey, manuka honey, bee pollen, propolis, and royal jelly should all be used in your home medicine cabinet because they all have various benefits. Now, I want to talk about a few more powerful facts about honey, and that is how it's recommended in the Bible.

In fact, honey is mentioned in various religious texts, The Bible, the Quran, and the Torah, highlighting its significance in culture and religion. And in Proverbs 24:13-14, it says, eat honey, my son, for it is good. Honey from the comb is sweet to your taste. Know also that wisdom is like honey for you. If you find it, there's a future hope for you and your hope will not be cut off.

Also, Proverbs 25:16 says, and if you find honey, Honey, eat just enough, not too much of it, or it will make you sick. And by the way, this is an important point here. Remember, you can have too much of a good thing. When I say you should use honey, I'm not telling you that you should do a cup of honey a day. Okay? I'm not saying that.

What I'm saying is most of the studies show between 2 teaspoons to 2 tablespoons a day of honey are safe and effective. Doing more than that, you probably don't need more sugar than that. Now, unless you're an athlete and you're out working out a lot, then, then as a source of fuel, then you can actually do more.

But for most of you, between 2 teaspoons and 2 tablespoons a day of honey is safe and effective. Now, if you're also eating a lot of sugar and you're like— let me give you an example, because I literally have had somebody do something like this before.

They are— they, they stick to their same standard American diet and they're eating desserts, and as a supplement, they just down 2 tablespoons of honey. Honey.

That itself isn't going to bring the same benefits versus you say, okay, I've got some added sugar in my diet, or I'm making some healthy things like muffins or pancakes, and I'm going to swap out— instead of doing the coconut sugar or the cane sugar or, or even just regular sugar, I'm going to substitute regular raw local honey instead.

That's where the benefits really come in at a whole nother level, when you're swapping out something bad for this thing that's Now, it's still good on top of your regular diet, but it's even better if you can also lower your sugar consumption at the same time. I want to mention this as well. A lot of honey today isn't real honey.

So there is a huge difference between real, raw, local honey and conventional honey you buy at a lot of supermarkets. In fact, listen to this. 76% Of store-bought Got forms of honey are fake. They're filtered, they're pasteurized, and they don't have what you want in them, all of the— with all of these healing properties.

So processed honey undergoes pasteurization and filtration to make it more clear. And also, when that happens, you are heating it up to the point where it kills most of the enzymes, and you're filtering out all the beneficial compounds. In In fact, you're filtering out a lot of the pollen, the propolis, and a lot of the minerals and nutrients, and you're just left with sugar.

So just— and by the way, there's something called the real honey test. And here's how you know if honey is filtered or if it's raw, local, and real. Take a glass of water at room temperature. And if you take your honey and you pour it in there and it starts to dissolve and it sort of easily mixes then that's fake honey. That is honey's been filtered, it's been pasteurized.

Versus if you take your honey and it sort of sinks down to the bottom in a clump, that's real raw local honey. That's what you want. Okay, so you can actually do this honey test at home, and you want to make sure that you are buying honey. And again, as I mentioned earlier, you ideally want to buy local honey if you're trying to fight allergies and get a lot of these benefits.

Now, Manuka honey obviously isn't local to many of That's fine if it's not local for the various reasons we've talked about.

But all other forms of honey, you want to buy locally and see that it's— like, for instance, when I buy honey, I go to the Franklin Farmers Market around Nashville, Tennessee, and I buy honey that is from either Franklin or Goodlettsville or an area there close to Nashville in my region so I can get all of those benefits.

So it's really important that when you are buying honey, you're buying honey that is honey, you are buying real quality honey or you're not going to get all the benefits that I just discussed. Now, listen to this as well. This is why you want to make sure you're buying raw, local, real honey.

In 2003, Smucker's recalled over 12,000 cases of honey and Sara Lee recalled products which had used 100,000 pounds of that same batch of honey. It had come from China and was contaminated chloral amphenicol, which is used in eye drops and has been linked to leukemia. And so we see this with a lot of these big conventional brands.

They're shipping over these products from China that are highly toxic. So when you buy honey, buy the real thing. All right, I want to jump back into these Bible verses here as well and the amazing benefits of honey as it's referenced in the Bible.

In Ezekiel 22:30, 26, it says, on that day I swore to them that I would bring them out of Egypt into a land I had searched out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands. I mean, God to His people says, listen, I'm going to give you a richness and a beauty. And He uses milk and honey. Milk signifies richness and fullness.

Honey represents sweetness and passion and joy. And so honey has So it has not only these physical attributes, but also is referenced in terms of sort of a spiritual and metaphorical wellness and bliss as well. It really is an amazing superfood and compound. A few other Bible verses, Deuteronomy 8:8 says, a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil, and honey. Wow.

Now, I want to mention here, a lot of these foods we just referenced are referenced as longevity foods throughout history. Wheat and barley made as a sourdough bread, we know is called the bread, is often referenced, typically wheat, barley. That was what was made, probably an ancient einkorn and a barley during the times of the Bible. They would do that as sprouted and as a sourdough bread.

That's going to be much more beneficial than any other grain. Grains. Vines referencing grapes. So we know grapes are high in resveratrol and extend lifespan. We know figs contain— figs contain fisetin. They were used for fertility and as a natural antioxidant for anti-aging. Pomegranates contain ellagic acid, which helps lengthen lifespan. Olive oil, powerful polyphenols.

And then honey is also referenced as one of those longevity superfoods. Proverbs 16:24 says, gracious words are like honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. And then in Matthew 3:4, we see a prophecy here about John. It said, John's clothes were made of camel's hair and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.

Now, actually, there's a Bible verse before that in Isaiah that references John and talks about honey. And then here we see here in Matthew, him eating wild honey and locusts, and those were able to sustain him for his ministry. So incredible benefits. And then the last thing I really want to get into here are the powerful benefits of beekeeping and eating honey for longevity.

Now, you may know this, but beekeepers are often called apiarists, and they've been noted for their longevity and overall great Several studies and observations suggest that beekeepers tend to live longer than the average population. A study found that male beekeepers had significantly longer telomeres than non-beekeepers, suggesting a potential for increased longevity.

This study involved 60 men over the age of 30, half of whom were beekeepers. And if you are watching here on YouTube, you can see this chart. I think it's amazing. These are the longest living professions. Number one of every profession in the entire world, the longest living profession is beekeepers. There is an additional 10 years of added life for beekeepers.

That's a 20% increase in life expectancy in some cases. Tennis players are the next highest at 9.7 years. That's close to that 20% increase. Clergy members around 5 to 6 years. Olympic athletes, 5 to 6 years. Doctors and physicians, an added 4 to 5 years. Farmers, 4 to 5 years. Fishermen, 3 to 4 years. Academic professors and teachers, 2 to 3 years.

And artists, musicians, and painters, 2 to 3 years. And I think there's something interesting about this list here. When you look at beekeepers, I'm going to get into why they live longer in a second. But tennis players, there's another study found that found that people People that play racket sports have an increased lifespan.

So if you are a person and you play tennis or pickleball or a racket sport, it adds years to your life. So this isn't just pro tennis players. This is people that generally just play tennis or in a similar way, play pickleball. Clergymen, we know there's more of a spiritual health— tennis, obviously hand-eye coordination, good for your brain, good for your physical health.

We know Olympic athletes, of course, there's a physical benefit there. There. Doctors probably have a lot of wisdom about how to care for themselves. Farmers spending more time outside, as do fishermen. And we know academic professors and teachers, what it does for learning and wisdom, and artists doing what they love.

There's sort of a peace about that and fulfillment in doing what you were created to do. But there— here are the reasons why beekeepers have the longest life of all professions.

One, beekeepers frequently consume They also consume honey and propolis and royal jelly and bee pollen, which we talked about all the benefits for the immune system, for reducing inflammation, for protecting the body against infections, and its longevity benefits. Also, beekeepers, they have an active lifestyle. It's physically demanding.

You got to lift heavy equipment, carry honeycombs, manage hives, and also tend to have other— but it's a lot of outdoor activity. Also, Stress reduction.

The meditative nature of beekeeping and even the sound of the bees, I believe it's more of what's called a theta wave, is that buzzing noise has been compared to— it's a form of white noise, which calms the nervous system when you are spending time around bees.

Also, just living in a natural environment, if you're a beekeeper, the flowers, the greenery, spending time outside is good for respiratory health. And the Mindset and mental health. I think it really, if you're a beekeeper, there is a mindset about hard work. I think some of the bees rub off on you. I mean, there's actually sayings out there about, I'm as busy as a bee or as hardworking as a bee.

And sort of seeing the way the bees work can develop sort of, I think symbolically, it impresses upon you a level of dedication and perseverance and even patience due to the daily interaction with bees. And so there are so, so many benefits of everything from eating things bees create to spending time with them in nature.

And I'll tell you, one of the things that breaks my heart more than anything is knowing that because of our genetically modified organisms and a lot of our farming practices and how bad we're hurting the environment is we are killing bees. I think that it's true That I read this years ago as I was reading some medical literature that we literally could not survive without bees.

Do you hear what I said? If all the bees on the planet died off, humans could not survive because of the pollination of what it does for fruit trees. Fruit trees is a lot of the world would stop existing. It would literally start to crumble without the bees. So the bees are critical to the health of our ecosystem. They're a core core to our health.

And so as a sort of added thing I want to mention here, do everything you can to support bees and to not support genetically modified foods and to not do anything that could hurt the environment and harm bees, because bees are crucial to our health and our longevity. And remember some of the takeaways here of what we've talked about here. Honey isn't sugar.

Honey is a superfood that is antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antiviral and has amazing healing benefits for, for extending someone's lifespan. Remember, use honey but not too much— 2 teaspoons to 2 tablespoons daily— and make sure it's raw, local, or Manuka honey. And also try out some other bee products. Remember, bee pollen is amazing for seasonal allergies and for a superfood for endurance.

Propolis is amazing for endurance and fighting viral infections, balancing the immune And overall fighting, again, any sort of virus is where you should use it. Royal jelly, an amazing longevity superfood and hormone balancing as well. And again, it's great for wounds, as we talked about. Manuka honey, another good one there. Eczema, psoriasis, lots of benefits there for those sort of issues.

I hope you've enjoyed this. This has been actually— I have loved talking about honey because it's something that I— when I think about honey, I see God. You know, God's hand in bees. Think about it. He created something in bees that if bees didn't exist, we may not be able to exist. And something that is that, you know, that incredible.

You know, we are meant— when you read in Genesis that we come from the dust and mud, we come from the earth. We are, as humans, deeply connected to this earth. And other beings like bees on the earth that God put amongst us that we are called to steward over, as it says there in Genesis.

And so we're called to be good stewards and actually protect the bees as they help protect us in a very similar way. And so anyways, I see God's hand in His work and all of it. I think it's a beautiful thing. Hey, if you've enjoyed this episode on honey. Do me a favor, share this episode. I just want to thank you, all of you.

I see so many of you on Instagram and Facebook and via just texting people that tell me about it, that somebody— that you shared, uh, this show with somebody. So I just want to say thank you for being on mission with me to help heal people and help heal the planet. Also, hey, thanks so much for subscribing. Remember, every time you subscribe, share, and like this episode.

It allows it to grow in popularity, reach more people, and also allows me to bring on better guests and spend more time covering topics. So thanks so much for being a part of the show, being part of the community, and I can't wait to see you on the next episode.