Drinking honey with warm water is a miraculous drink. Be it losing weight, giving you smooth and shiny skin, or boosting your immune system, it comes with a host of benefits that are good for your health in the long run. In this article, we understand how drinking honey with warm water is beneficial to us and its possible side effects.

1. Watch Your Weight Melt Away
Yes, drinking water and honey can help you lose weight. Get the plaguing thoughts about the sugar aspect of honey out of your head, as that is one of its benefits. I know, I know, it sounds crazy and too good to be true, but it isn’t. The sugar in honey is a natural sugar, which provides a healthy source of calories. Not only that, it can help to ward off any sugary sweet beverage cravings you may have. It may not be an overnight success story, but it is better for you all around in the long run.

2. Stay Regular
OK, I know talking about being ‘regular’ can sometimes be taboo. Drinking a warm glass of water with honey first thing in the morning helps to improve your digestive system. The antiseptic benefits of honey help relieve the acidity in your stomach while increasing the production of intestinal mucus. It also helps to hydrate the colon and infuse water into your, excuse me for this, stool. All of this combines you passing much more easily and regularly. Which brings us back to watching your weight melt away.

3. Gives Your Immune System A Helping Hand
Have I stressed just how good honey is for you yet? Honey has amazing bacteria-killing properties. If you go for raw, organic honey  it is full of enzymes, vitamins and minerals that lead the front line against protecting against bacteria. Honey is also an antioxidant, which helps fight those bad free radicals that wreak havoc in our body and on our skin.

4. Reduce Your Allergies
By using raw, local honey you help to acclimate your body to the pollens of your area. In turn, this helps to reduce your susceptibility to environmental allergies. If you really think about what bees do in the grand scheme of things, this makes perfect sense. Now I know the warm water isn’t necessarily crucial to helping with allergies, but being hydrated is never a bad thing.

5. Hello Energy, My Old Friend
Move over coffee, honey and warm water are the new dream team for boosting energy.  The benefit to your energy levels by staying hydrated has all but been shouted from a rooftop. Think of your body as a houseplant. You know how droopy and sad it gets when you’ve forgotten to water it? Your body essentially does the same thing. Studies have shown that even mild dehydration can leave you feeling lethargic, drowsy and sluggish. So let’s add honey into this equation. Now you have a natural source of simple sugars and carbohydrates (energy-givers) to an already proven energy booster.

6. Soothe That Sore Throat And Cut That Cough
According to the Mayo Clinic, hot water with honey can help reduce the soreness and irritation of a sore throat. Honey helps to coat the throat while the warm water soothes. This soothing and coating action also helps to reduce your cough, as coughing is sometimes caused by irritation from a sore throat.

7. Detox, Detox, Detox!
Honey and warm water helps to flush out the toxins from your body. By helping you to get regular, it helps you to regularly rid your body of toxins that can build up and cause disease. Adding lemon to the mix increases the benefits, as lemons help to increase urination, dispelling toxins more frequently and keeping your urinary tract healthy. Lemon contains citric acid, which helps to maximize enzyme function and in turn stimulate the liver and help with detoxification.

8. Gassy? It Helps With That
Feeling a little uncomfortable and gassy? Drinking a glass of warm water and honey will help! Honey helps to neutralize gas.

9. Increase Your Health
Not only will drinking warm water and honey increase your hydration (plus everything else I’ve listed), it also helps to increase the levels of “good” cholesterol in your body and reduce cardiovascular strain. I call that a win, win.

10.Healing Properties
Honey exhibits powerful healing properties when applied topically and can speed up the healing of wounds and burns on the skin. These activities are mainly due to the antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties of honey. It can be used to treat diabetic foot ulcers. Foot Ulcer are open sores that are one of the common complications that surface with diabetes, and honey can help in their healing.

The topical application of honey can also help with acne.

Are There Any Side Effects Of Taking Honey With Warm Water?
Honey is a natural ingredient that is completely safe to be ingested most of the time. But though it is a better alternative to processed sugar, you need to consume honey in moderation if you have diabetes or acne-prone skin

Can Honey And Warm Water Be Taken At Night Before Sleeping?
You can take honey with warm water at any time of the day. You can take this concoction at night for a sound sleep. This is especially if you or your kids have a nocturnal cold or flu .

While it is relatively safe to feed honey to your child, you need to consider their age to avoid complications.

Can Honey Be Given To Children?
Yes, honey can be given to children. This is because the consumption of honey was found to help reduce the severity of symptoms in children with upper respiratory infections and cough.

However, do not give honey to children below one year as it can increase their risk of contracting botulism. Botulism is a rare type of poisoning triggered by a kind of bacteria called Clostridium botulinum (C. botulinum).

This leads us to another common question – do you have to take honey only with warm water, or can you use cold water?

Is It Good To Take Honey With Cold Water?
While it is usually recommended to take honey with warm water to aid digestion, it is completely fine to take it with cold water as well. Fruit juice or plain water mixed with honey is a much healthier alternative to other artificially sweetened beverages.

However, honey shouldn’t be boiled or taken with piping hot water. Consuming heated honey can have deleterious effects on one’s health due to the formation of toxic compounds during the heating process.

Here’s how you can consume it. Mix a teaspoon or two of honey with a glass of warm water and have it in the morning to kick start your digestion. You can also refrigerate a glass of water mixed with honey and drink it after a tiring day at work.

Drinking honey with warm water benefits your body in many ways. Honey is packed with beneficial bioactive compounds, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals that promote good health. It is a natural antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory agent. Having honey with warm water may help aid in sleep, digestion, and relieving cough. It is particularly helpful to reduce the severe symptoms of respiratory disorders in children. Make sure the temperature of the water is appropriate to achieve maximum benefits.