Manuka Honey: Food as medicine

摘要

For more than 10,000 years, humans have eagerly consumed honey, originally collecting it from wild bees. Cave paintings in Spain show women gathering honeycombs, using tall ladders to reach the bees' nests and carrying the honey away in baskets. In ancient cultures, people used honey as both a medicine and a food. Egyptian medical prescriptions from 5,000 years ago recommend herbal mixtures with honey for treating a variety of conditions, ranging from headaches to cough, as well as to sweeten other,more bitter remedies, making them easier to tolerate. (Compliance with doctors' orders was an issue even during those times.)