Everyone likes honey. Honey represents love and friendship. Apart from its medicinal importance, honey has also received cultural and religious significance. Even God likes honey. Science says that honeybees have existed for the last 50 million years. But no one knows when man got honey from his nest. Man has been collecting honey since ancient times.
Cultural importance of honey:
Honey has also received cultural significance. In ancient Egypt, honey was used in cakes and biscuits. And it was also used to cremate the dead bodies of people (mummies).
In ancient Rome, the government used to collect taxes in the form of gold from the people. But those who could not afford gold, they used to give honey as tax.
The Greeks have a special tradition. When a Greek bride enters her groom's house for the first time, she has to dip her fingers in honey and make a cross mark on the wall with her honey-dipped fingers.
Bear likes honey. In the children's book, we can see pictures of bears eating honey.
Religious importance of honey:
Honey is very important for the Yahudi people. They celebrate their new year with "Rosh Hashanah". On New Year's Day, they eat honey dipped in apple pieces and welcome the New Year. And we can also see pictures of honey and apples in their New Year greeting cards.
The Honey Buddhist Festival plays an important role in "Madhu Purnima". When Gautama Buddha was in the forest, a monkey offered him honey to eat. As a commemoration of this event, Buddhists celebrate the Madhu Purnima festival. That day they offer honey to old monks (ascetics).
Even in the Quran, Bible and Vedas, the importance of honey has been explained. They say that honey is a healthy and nutritious food.
Honey
Production of honey in honey nests:
Honeybees prepare their own food. In the winter season or when there is a shortage of food resources, they use the honey prepared by them as food. In a bee's nest, there are three types of bees. A typical nest consists of a queen bee, several male bees and about 40 thousand female bees. Female honeybees are good workers. They lay eggs and also collect nectar from flowers.
Honeybees leave their nest in search of nectar and after collecting a sufficient amount of nectar they return to their nest. In this process they release Nesonov pheromones. With the smell of these pheromones, it is easy for other bees to detect a particular flower and special nectar. They also release these pheromones at the entrance to their nest. This helps identify their own nest and chamber inside the nest. To produce one pound of honey, honeybees travel about 24 thousand miles and together they collect nectar from three to nine million flowers!
Inside the nest, Hyannis swallow nectar and exit the mouth again. In this process their saliva is mixed with nectar. This process of taking and leaving the nectar inside the pancreas continues until the raw nectar becomes a special solution. All honeybees in the nest carry out this process. Later this special solution of nectar gets deposited in many small holes which are present in the nest. They do not close these holes.
Amrit contains water content and natural yeast. This yeast helps in clotting the sugar content in the nectar. This process continues in the nest. The amount of water in the nectar evaporates and the sugar content increases. Now this slurry becomes edible and is called honey and in Sanskrit it is called "honey".
Honey is a mixture of sugar and its compounds. It contains glucose, fructose, sucrose, water, and carbohydrates. It also contains vitamins and minerals.
Honey in Ayurveda: Difference between natural raw honey and boiled honey:
Ayurveda says that natural raw honey is a medicine. But boiled honey is a slow poison. When the honey is boiled, some of the compounds present in it act as a slow poison. Natural raw honey contains minerals, vitamins, enzymes, amino acids and carbohydrates. When we boil honey, some of these compounds will be destroyed and toxic enzymes will be produced. Boiled honey is harmful for blood veins. It causes swelling of blood veins leading to problems in blood circulation in the body. So we should stay away from boiled honey. When purchasing honey, make sure that there is natural raw honey and not boiled. Unfortunately, the honey we get in the market is boiled honey.
Ayurveda also says that we should not give raw natural honey to children below eighteen months and also to people with weakened immune system.
Honey in the form of medicine:
If you have an ulcer, add a little turmeric to one spoon of honey and apply it on the affected area.
If you have high blood pressure and cholesterol, add one spoon of honey and one table spoon of lemon juice to a cup of warm water and drink it daily in the morning. Cholesterol levels in the body will decrease.
Honey acts as an antiseptic good for wounds. It is also good anti bacterial.
If you have a cold and cough, take one spoon of honey daily. It reduces phlegm.
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