Honey has moisturizing properties that can make skin smooth and supple. Below, we’ll introduce the various beauty benefits of honey.
What are the benefits of honey?
1. Cleanse the skin
Honey has strong antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. Applying a small amount of honey or a beauty product made with honey and other ingredients can effectively inhibit the infection and survival of bacteria on the skin surface, thereby protecting and cleaning the skin and helping it to maintain its smoothness, radiance, and vitality.
2. Moisturizes the skin
Honey has strong moisturizing properties and can absorb moisture from the air. This not only effectively prevents moisture loss from the skin’s surface but, under certain conditions, can also replenish the skin’s moisture needs. Honey also has amazing permeability, which plays a positive role in maintaining youthful skin and complexion. It allows nutrients to penetrate the skin effectively and be absorbed, and it also forms a protective film on the surface, providing both nourishment and hydration. Especially in the dry winter climate, honey can prevent chapped skin.
3. Improves skin texture
Honey’s nutritional components are all natural nutrients. Its monosaccharides, vitamins, enzymes, and other bioactive substances are easily absorbed by skin cells, effectively improving the skin’s nutritional status, making the skin delicate, maintaining a natural rosy complexion, and also helping to delay skin cell aging, thereby delaying or reducing wrinkles.
Most people know that honey has skincare benefits. A honey bath can moisturize and soften the skin, making it more supple and elastic. Furthermore, using honey-infused shampoos can smooth hair cuticles, replenish lost nutrients, and leave hair soft and shiny. Honey also effectively removes bacteria and shine from the skin’s surface, reducing acne and blemishes caused by bacteria. Combined with natural exfoliating particles like oat kernels, it thoroughly removes dead skin cells without any irritation.
There are two correct ways to consume honey:
One way is to mix it with cold boiled water. This way, the vitamin C oxidase in the honey will not be destroyed. In summer, it also has the effect of relieving heat, detoxifying and mild purging.
Secondly, it should be taken with warm water (below 40 degrees Celsius). This method can replenish qi and nourish the body without destroying various nutrients. However, in daily life, many people are accustomed to taking honey with hot or boiling water, which is unscientific. This is because doing so will destroy some of the phytochemicals and vitamins in the honey, resulting in excessive amounts of hydroxymethylfurfural, which greatly damages the nutritional components of the honey.
Furthermore, dissolving honey in hot water will deactivate its enzymes, causing it to darken in color, lose its aroma, and alter its taste, resulting in an unpleasant sour flavor. This is also the main reason why pure natural honey is better than processed honey. The first step in processing honey is to distill the low-concentration pure honey purchased from beekeepers at high temperatures to achieve a concentration of 42-43 degrees Celsius. However, high temperatures cause significant damage to the nutrients in honey.
Be careful about foods that should not be eaten with honey.
Honey should not be mixed with soy milk: its protein content is higher than that of milk, while honey mainly contains about 75% glucose and fructose, as well as a small amount of organic acids. When the two are mixed, the organic acids combine with the protein to produce denatured precipitation, which cannot be absorbed by the human body.
Honey should not be eaten with tofu: Tofu is sweet and salty, and has a cold nature, capable of clearing heat and dispersing blood stasis. Eating it with honey can easily lead to diarrhea. Furthermore, the various enzymes in honey and the various minerals, plant proteins, and organic acids in tofu, when consumed together, are not conducive to the body’s biochemical reactions.
Honey should not be eaten with leeks: Leeks are rich in vitamin C, which is easily oxidized by the copper and iron ions in honey, rendering it ineffective. Additionally, honey can promote bowel movements, and leeks are rich in fiber, which also has a laxative effect, potentially causing diarrhea.
