Honey not only tastes great, it is also great for you. Honey contains sugar in the form of complex carbohydrates, which simply put, means that it takes your body awhile to digest it. This in turn allows for your metabolism to offset the sugar load.

Contrast this with the ever present corn syrup, which is basically sugar water. This ingredient, added to just about every processed food including even some lunch meats, will jack your blood sugar up higher and will increase that waist line much more easily than honey. I mean no harm to our corn farmers-I just would prefer that corn were marketed as an alternative to gasoline, for example. Corn is great as a vegetable, not as a food additive.

Not only does honey offer a great alternative to adding sugar in meals, it also has been used for wounds. It turns out that honey contains more than just carbohydrates. It has been shown to help heal difficult wounds such as diabetic ulcers. It  works well on many burns.

Honey also is a great natural treatment to use when you have a sore throat. Unlike the over the counter products, which basically are useless and will cost you beacoup dinero, honey is effective in reducing sore throat pain and even has some antiviral activity.

However, one thing honey may contain is botulism spores. These spores are completely safe for almost all of us and cause no known problems with the exception of one age group: newborns up to 3 months of age should not be given honey. Their immune systems are immature, allowing botulism spores to grow and produce the toxin.

Newborns with infantile botulism (medicalese) may have poor muscle tone (in other words be floppy), have difficulty swallowing and have difficulty breathing. This is because botulism affects the nerves which supply the muscles.

The next time you enter the supermarket, take a few minutes to look at the ingredients. Try to avoid foods with corn syrup, fructose or sugar. Instead choose healthier alternatives, which might contain honey.