How to use honey to prevent PMS, boost your immunity, and feel sexy (including 3 of my favorite recipes)

I’m a strong believer in the healing and hormone balancing properties of honey. Honey is a key ingredient for stabilizing blood sugar, for promoting strong immunity, and for supporting your sex drive. It’s one of those ancient remedies that has helped women for centuries. Honey is also a wonderful addition to your diet when you’re in the midst of scaling back your intake of sugar, like candies, soda, fruit juices, that allows you to satisfy your cravings without doing your hormones any harm.

Honey is so easy to add to your day-to-day - a spoonful in your tea is just wonderful - but it’s also great for healthy juices, smoothies, and baking. It is my number one favorite sweetener and I make the most of it. As I talk you through the health benefits of honey I’m going to share my favorite recipes that highlight and showcase each of the healing properties of honey.

Honey to prevent your PMS

Honey is the perfect substitute for the white stuff (sugar). Poorly-managed blood sugar is the root of all hormonal health issues. I have yet to meet one woman suffering with PMS who had her blood-sugar levels balanced out. That’s because it’s impossible to have well-controlled blood sugar without making a conscious effort. Imagine a chart with a flat horizontal line running across. My goal is to have you, and all women, see only gentle undulations from that ideal blood sugar stasis and not the dramatic peaks and troughs that most of us will experience if we don’t keep an eye on what we eat. Those peaks and troughs are what make us soar and then crash in our moods and they spell disaster for our hormones.

Using a “softer” sweetener like honey in your tea and when baking will go a long way towards keeping your blood sugar stable. It will also satisfy the sweet cravings you may experience prior to your period. Honey is less likely to cause those peaks and troughs, but will give you the glucose that your body needs.

When I’m craving something sweet and satisfying I whip up a batch of these:

‍Chocolate Sweet Potato Brownies

‍1 raw medium sweet potato (purple skin/white flesh) – 2 1/2 cups when grated

2 whole eggs

½ cup melted coconut oi

l⅓ cup raw honey

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

½ cup raw cacao powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2½ tablespoon coconut flour

¼ tsp pink himalayan salt

Instructions:

‍Preheat oven to 375 °F

Combine wet: grated sweet potato, eggs, vanilla, honey and coconut oil oil in a large mixing bowl and stir together until well incorporated.

Mix dry: cacao powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt and coconut flour.

Combine wet into dry and mix well.

Pour the mixture into a 9 inch square baking tin lined with parchment paper.

Cook for 25-30 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes before carefully removing the brownies from the tin.

Honey to boost your immunity

Raw honey contains an immune system-boosting living probiotic bacteria. This soothes the microbiome and in turn supports strong immunity. Your immunity is created and sourced in your gut. If you are prone to colds, honey can have immediate antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and soothing qualities that will also calm coughs and sneezing. The World Health Organization actually counts honey as a demulcent, which shows it relieves sore throats and coughs. It can also aid in the production of white blood cells, improving the body’s ability to fight infection. Honey helps to draw out the benefits and allow the body to absorb the goodness of citrus and ginger, other immunity-boosting ingredients. In the winter cold-season I like to protect myself from common illnesses by sipping this juice a couple of times a week.

‍Cold-busting, immune-boosting juice

‍3 carrots

1 beet

Juice of ½ a lemon

1 T of chopped ginger

½ cup of pineapple

Juice of ½ an orange

1 teaspoon of raw honey

Honey for your libido

Honey is an ancient aphrodisiac dating back to the times of those wise Egyptians. It contains boron, which helps regulate your hormones, plus nitric oxide, which is released naturally during arousal. It’s also a good source of magnesium which is a key micronutrient for everything hormonal balance related!  If you’re looking to feel more sexy, passionate and turned on - try my special smoothie recipe.

‍The Passion Pour

‍Avocado

Strawberries

Raw honey

Almond milk

Pinch of cayenne pepper

The best kind of honey

Now, not all honeys you find in the supermarket are the same. If it comes in a small plastic bear then it’s definitely processed honey, which is no different to refined sugar. Much of this processed honey is actually just high fructose corn syrup, which is fed to and then regurgitated by bees to make a cheap and mass-produced sweetener. It really matters what kind of honey you choose - processed, non-organic can actually harm your health. If you’ve never tasted raw honey, you don’t know how honey is meant to taste. Unstrained, raw honey is the good stuff: full of honeycomb, propolis, and pollen, every spoonful contains natural goodness. Plus, it delivers plenty of sweetness without the immediate blood sugar spike from refined sugar/processed honey.

I use Really Raw honey. The flavor of this honey is worlds above the over-processed mainstream brands and the accompanying nutritional benefits are even better. Really Raw honey is not only organic, but since it’s never processed or heated, it retains all its potential health benefits. As an added bonus: Really Raw sources all of its honey from local beekeeping operations, and every jar is packaged by hand. That means every jar tastes just like the seasonal honey you’ll find at your local farmers market.Ready to try a spoonful for yourself? Well, you’re in luck, because for a limited time, Thrive Market is offering my Flo-sisters a free jar of Really Raw honey. And if you’re an existing Thrive customer you can get in on the fun, too - you’ll also score a free jar with your next purchase over $50 by clicking here!

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Always remember, that once you have the right information about how your body really works, you can start making health choices that finally start to work for you! You can do this - the science of your body is on your side!

To your FLO,

Alisa