Honey is amazing. If you’ve ever enjoyed a teaspoon of honey stirred into your tea or drizzled over your granola, you’ve essentially consumed the essence of 25,000 flowers. That’s right, it takes the nectar of 25,000 flowers to make a single teaspoon of honey.
It’s almost unimaginable how much work bees must invest to create just a little bit of honey, not to mention enough to fill a single jar. Fortunately, the industrious honey bee and her sisters typically make not only enough honey to support their hive throughout the winter, but enough extra so that we can responsibly harvest and enjoy it too.
Pure honey contains the naturally sweet liquid that honey bees make from plant nectar. It’s the soul of the flower—it’s the distillation of summer. And what a wonderful treat that is for us especially during these cold winter months.
When you choose honey over table sugar, your body’s blood sugar levels rise more gradually and this phenomenon will help prevent post-meal hyperglycemia. Honey also has other health benefits including antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. One teaspoon of honey contains only 21 calories in addition to trace amounts of vitamin C, magnesium and antioxidants.
Given its essential goodness, here are some easy ways you can incorporate more Bee America honey into your diet:
- Use honey to sweeten salad dressing
- Stir honey into coffee or tea
- Drizzle honey on top of toast or pancakes
- Mix honey into yogurt, cereal or oatmeal
- Sweeten smoothies with honey instead of sugar
- Glaze warm muffins with honey
- Spread peanut or almond butter over whole grain toast and top honey
- Add honey to marinades for meats, poultry and seafood
- Substitute honey for sugar in baking recipes*
*Honey Substitution Baking Rules:
- For every 1 cup of sugar, substitute 1/2 to 2/3 cup honey
- For every 1 cup of honey you're using, subtract 1/4 cup of other liquids from the recipe
- Add 1/4 teaspoon baking soda for every 1 cup honey used
- Reduce the temperature of the oven by 25°F
