Honey: Cholesterol & Antioxidants

Do you have problems with your cholesterol?  If so, you might want to pay careful attention to this post. 

What is cholesterol?

Cholesterol is very important to the function of the body.  There are two kinds of cholesterol; one is referred to as "good" cholesterol and the other as "bad" cholesterol.  The "bad" cholesterol is known as LDL, or Low-density lipoproteins.  It is known as "bad" cholesterol because it sticks to the walls of the arteries.  High-density cholesterol, or HDL, is the "good" cholesterol because it cleans out the dangerous LDL stuck on the arterial walls.  High cholesterol is a major factor for heart disease, which is the nation's number one cause of death. 

Lower your LDL cholesterol with honey

Several important studies have been done on the effects of honey on cholesterol and it is being found that honey shows very good results in lowering the LDL cholesterol significantly and also increase HDL cholesterol.  Honey itself contains no cholesterol.

(For a little more information on the results of these studies see these two links:  http://www.webmd.com/cholesterol-management/news/20020819/honey-almonds-lower-cholesterol
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2203073.stm)

Antioxidants

Results of various research has also shown that honey is a great source of antioxidants.  In fact, it contains about the same level of antioxidants as many fruits and vegetables such as spinach, apples, bananas, oranges and strawberries!  (It's the darker honey that has the highest amount and in a later post I am going to go into more detail about the different kinds of honey and the importance of what plants the bee's eat from that makes a difference in the honey.)

So exactly what is an antioxidant and why should I care whether or not honey is a source of antioxidants?  Well, antioxidents are a substance that protects cells from damage caused by free radicals.  And free radicals can lead to arthritis, cancer and stroke.  So, keeping your antioxident level up is important.  We get antixodents from vegetables, tea, nuts, fruit.....and honey!

The best way to incorporate honey into your health regime is to do it by replacing your sugar intake with honey and using it in various foods.  To lower cholesterol and boost your antioxident level use 4 tbsp of honey to 16 oz of water.