How Africa
Every time we think of what to eat before going to bed, raw honey is the last thing that comes to our minds, that is usually because it is sweet, and eating something sweet before going to bed almost never ends well.
But the situation with raw honey is different because of its natural composition, and some doctors even recommend it to be consumed before going to bed.
One of the doctors that recommends raw honey before bedtime is the author of the book ‘The Honey Revolution: Restoring the Health of Future Generations’, Dr. Ron Fessenden.
Doctor Fessenen recommends that raw honey should be taken at many different times of day, including the most interesting one – before bed in order to support a healthy night’s sleep.
It doesn’t mean that if honey is one of the sweetest foods out there, it can’t be helpful for our body, because it is one of the most important ingredients for the repairing process overnight.
We don’t even need to mention that the honey must beorganic and raw, because most of the grocery store brands contain GMOs and are imported, and most of them are heated in the name of “safety” destroying most of the beneficial compounds. The best way to buy raw and organic honey is if you buy it directly from the farmers.
How is raw honey beneficialfor the sleep quality (and quantity)
Fessenden stated that raw honey contains “an ideal glucose to fructose ratio”, to support the liver, an organ that works overtime literally and figuratively, during the sleeping process.
When eating honey you ensure that the liver will have an adequate supply of liver glycogen throughout the day, and before bedtime can serve as the perfect liver fuel at night. And when combined with pure water, your body should have most of what it needs to perform its detoxing and restorative functions.
According to Fessenden, honey promotes a truly restorative and deep sleep in two main ways.
First, it supplies theliver with the adequate supply of glycogen while your body is fasting and the resources are low. Fessenden notes that the average liver of an adult has about 75 to 100 grams of storage space for glycogen, which varies between men and women of different body sizes.
Every hour the body consumes about 10 grams of glycogen throughout the day, leaving our resources of glycogen very low by the time we go to sleep at 11 p.m.
Fessenden says that, that leaves less liver glycogen than it is needed for eight hours of sleep if you ate dinner at 6 p.m.
So, if you take one or two teaspoonsof honey before going to bed, you’ll be re-stocking your liver with glycogen so that your brain doesn’t “sound the alarm” forstress response, which often occurs when glycogen is low. Honey is also useful for the release of melatonin in the brain, as it leads to the release of tryptophan in the brain and a slight spike in insulin levels. Tryptophan leads to serontonin which is further converted into melatonin in the dark.
Finally, if you add honey to your diet at night, you’ll be supporting your liver to start breaking down the toxins that are ultimately stored in fat cells.
Other health benefits of honey
Honey has a wide range of benefits that have been tested throughout time, and one of them is that it helps us have a restful night’s sleep.
Honey does not have an expiration date, and it never spoils, as it has been found in Egyptian tombs still intact after many hundreds of years.
The popular sweetener is also anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, great for athletes,excellent for reducing throat irritation, and much much more.
It doesn’t matter how you use your honey, just don’t forget to buy organic and raw from a local farmer: the benefits of honey have been known for thousands of years, but now the times have changed and the quality is not even close to the one before (unless you buy from a trustworthy organic farmer or beekeeper).
Source:
