Speaker (Deanna Minich) frames nutrition as a spectrum rather than an extremist, all-or-nothing view and advocates moving from refined sweeteners toward natural, whole-food options. She recommends honey (permitted in her 21-day Whole Detox program) for both culinary and medicinal uses — citing traditional use and modern studies — and highlights specific applications: locally produced honey for allergies, Manuka honey for coughs and immune support, honey for wound and skin healing (including her nightly topical use), and antioxidant benefits that may counter oxidative-stress–related disease; she also notes a study suggesting organic honey may protect against pesticide-induced DNA damage. She cautions that diabetics and others sensitive to sugars should be careful, emphasizes glycemic impact (honey in a mixed meal is preferable to alone), and directs viewers to read her blog and share feedback.
Chapters
I think what often happens in nutrition is we get into a very extremist view. So we take a strong position on one thing and it becomes very all or nothing, black or white. And one of the things I really do like to cultivate within the work that I do is this idea of a spectrum that there really isn't just a yes or a no. And one of those areas that we see this happening in nutrition is this whole idea of sweeteners. And when we think of sweeteners in general, we think, no, those are bad, we shouldn't be having anything that's sweet. And indeed, I do think that we have to watch sweeteners. And in fact, I'll be the first one to say that we are an over sugar consuming society and culture and we're having way too much in the form of refined sugars. However, that said, let us just reel back from that for a second and put it in perspective. Because if we look at ancient traditions and cultures, even back to the ancient Egyptians or Hippocrates, many times there was an acknowledgement of needing something sweet in the diet. And this was in part because we have sweetness as one of our primary tastes. And if you look at infants from a very young age, we are primed to seek for something sweet. So I don't think that we should completely negate all things sweet. I just think that we have to move along the spectrum away from things that are refined and into things that are more natural and whole food based. So one of the things that I want to talk about is honey. And in my book Whole Detox, I talk about the different sweeteners that are permitted and those that are excluded. And one of the ones that I do permit on this program, it's a 21 day program, is honey. Honey is goodness. If you look at the research, there is so much good information about honey that's out there, whether from the traditional use of honey or from the more recent Western perspective and science based approach. So in my blog what I'm talking about is all of the medicinal uses of honey. So for things like allergies, looking at locally produced honey sources, or even things like cough, I remember when I lost my voice, I had laryngitis some years ago. One of the things that helped me was having Manuka honey, which is a strong, you know, a very specific type of honey that's known to be very medicinal and good for the immune system. I also think about wound healing and the skin and external applications of things like honey. For example, the one strong staple food not just a food product, but skin product that I use is honey based and I put it on my skin every night. And if I don't do it, I do notice a huge difference. There's something about the healing, therapeutic properties of that honey. The other thing is if we look at some conditions, some chronic diseases that are connected to things like oxidative stress, we see that honey can offset some of that. Now, I do think that we have to be careful with certain populations of people like diabetics who are going to be a little bit more sensitive to not just sugar, but all sweeteners. And so definitely we need to focus on what our healthcare practitioners are saying about sweeteners for us specifically because we are working probably and I hope that we are with people that know our physiology well and have labs on us. So high amounts of any type of sugar or sweetener is not going to be good. But there is also the idea that too much of anything is probably not going to be good for us. But when we need to choose a healthy sweetener, honey is one of the ones that I recommend. And it is because it's been around a long time. It is because it's unrefined. And there was even a study showing that organic honey helped to prevent against the pesticide induced damage that we see to DNA. So we're even seeing newer studies talking about the more recent benefits. So let's keep it in perspective. Let's look at the whole composite, the context, the way of eating. And we have to keep in mind things like, of course, glycemic impact glycemic load. Having something like honey in a mixed meal is going to be better than having it on its own, where it's going to impact blood sugar even more. So read more about honey in my blog this week. Give me your thoughts, your your ideas and have a great week.
