#holistic solution

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All honey are not equal. What you see in your local supermarket is just a small selection of all the different kinds of honey! There's raw honey, pasteurized honey, ultrasonicated honey and the list goes on. 

To many, myself included, Manuka Honey is the bee's knees! (I pre-emptively apologize for all the lame honey puns and jokes. There will be many!)

In all seriousness, I consider Manuka Honey to be the king of all honey. Not only does it carry the same antifungal, antimicrobial and antiviral properties that all honey possess but all those properties are at their highest levels in Manuka Honey. 

A little bit on Manuka: it is a tree that's found in New Zealand (mostly) but also in parts of Australia. It's a variation on the commonly known tea tree (which is often marketed in essential oil-form as aromatherapy but also marketed in natural skincare as a treatment to acne). That alone should raise your eyebrows. But it gets better!

Here are some helpful links to articles that do a much better job at explaining the properties and benefits of Manuka Honey: The benefits of Manuka Honey (via Telegraph), Methylglyoxal & The Benefits of Honey, WebMD talks about the medicinal uses of Manuka Honey and Dr. Oz explains the benefits of Manuka Honey (VIDEO)

You might think that all this buzz regarding Manuka Honey is just marketing. But I can attest that it's not. There is actual research and science that proves that Manuka Honey has all these beneficial factors that's rare to find in nature. (It's just another reason why we should be worried by the millions of bees that are turning up dead.)

Sorry for the tangent.

When eaten or mixed with beverages like tea, it heals your body from the inside: it fights infections and inflammation. When you apply it to the skin, it alleviates the itch from eczema, it kills the bacteria that causes acne and heals scratches, scrapes and cuts quickly, painlessly and holistically.

What I use Manuka Honey for:

I apply it to pimples when I see one is causing a bump on my face but hasn't turned red or painful yet. I take a tiny amount of Manuka, apply it right over the pimple and I put a Band-Aid over it for at least 30 minutes but usually I do it on overnight. Then I wash it off with warm water

I put it on almost everything that calls for honey or sweetener. I've already mentioned I put it in my Turmeric Tonic and Turmeric face mask

In the winter, my tea consumption jumps exponentially and I drop a teaspoon or so in my tea to sweeten it but also to rev up the biological benefits of tea (usually metabolism-busting green tea)

Some people even use Manuka Honey to clean their faces in lieu of traditional cleansers like Neutrogena. It's quite simple to do, take some honey and slather it on your face, let it rest for a few seconds then wash off with a face towel that's been soaked in warm water

You might've already started Googling where to buy Manuka Honey. If so, you've noticed there is a grading scale that almost all pure Manuka Honey products have. This number, whether MGO or UMF, indicates the concentration and potency of the antiviral, antifungal, antibacterial, anti...well, you get it, properties that's in that jar of honey. The higher the MGO/UMF, the stronger the properties but the higher the cost. 

You can try Manuka Honey that's been rated a UMF 5+ or MGO 80 but in all honesty, you're better off going to your supermarket and spending $4 on a jar of honey, if you can pry it from Winnie the Pooh's paws.

If you're going to invest in Manuka Honey, pick something that's at least UMF 10+ or MGO 260. The UMF and MGO ratings are confusing but don't be so bogged down by it. There's a helpful calculator that lets you convert UMF to MGO or vice versa.

Because Manuka trees don't grow everywhere in the world, Manuka Honey is very expensive and not just relative to other honey, which can retail for less than $5 a jar. Depending on were you live, it can cost upwards of $20 to over $40.