CATCH THE BUZZ

CELEBRATE THE MANY USES OF HONEY DURING NATIONAL HONEY MONTH IN SEPTEMBER 2008

(Firestone, Colo., September 2008) September is National Honey Month, and this year the National Honey Board (NHB) urges consumers to explore the many diverse uses of honey.

Honey, of course, is often used as a sweetener in beverages and also as a sweet topping on a variety of foods from bread products to desserts.

Honey is used as a natural sweetener in many recipes and also may be used as a substitute for sugar.

Since honey is a natural humectant and also acts as an anti-irritant, attracting and retaining moisture, honey is popular for use in a wide variety of beauty products, both commercial and homemade. Products that can be made at home include facials and masks and bath and hair products.

Honey has been used as a home remedy for centuries to help alleviate some of the symptoms associated with a common cold. Now a recent NHB- funded study offers scientific evidence that honey is an effective cough treatment. The study, conducted by researchers from Penn State College of Medicine, compared honey to over-the-counter medicines for relief of upper respiratory infection symptoms, such as cough. The study found that honey out-performed the cough medicine in offering a better night's sleep and reducing cough severity.

Honey was used in a unique way at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China.

Some gymnasts were spotted with honey bears on the gym floor prior to their routines. The gymnasts were reportedly using the honey on their fingertips to provide a better grip in "hanging" events, such as the parallel bars and the rings.

To help consumers find honey, NHB maintains a web site called the Honey Locator, which provides a forum to quickly and easily search for honey varietals, as well as honey products and honey suppliers. To visit the site, go to www.honeylocator.com.

Based in Firestone, Colo., NHB provides consumers with honey information and recipes and serves U.S. honey producers, packers and importers through research, promotion and marketing.

For more information and recipes, visit www.honey.com.

This message brought to you by Bee Culture, The Magazine Of American Beekeeping   www.BeeCulture.com

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