Honey is a syrupy liquid that honeybees make from plant nectar. Loved worldwide for its sweetness and depth of flavor, it’s used in many foods and recipes.

The smell, color, and taste of honey vary based on the type of flowers it’s made from, so there are countless varieties available.

Honey has a number of potential health benefits and plays a role in many home remedies and alternative medicine treatments.

Here are 7 unique health benefits of honey.

1. Contains a variety of nutrients

One of Ayurveda's most treasured foods, ghee has incredible healing properties. From our dal, khichdi to halwas and chapatti; ghee is one kitchen staple we are never getting enough of. In fact, swapping ghee with fattening refined oils has perhaps been one of the biggest blunders of the modern cooking, according to Macrobiotic Nutritionist and Health Practitioner Shilpa Arora. According to her, "Ghee consists of fat soluble vitamins, which aid weight loss. Ghee also plays a key role in balancing hormones and maintaining healthy cholesterol. Ghee also has a high heat point, which prevents it from producing free radicals that damage cell function." Ghee is clarified butter made from the milk of a buffalo or cow. Pure desi ghee, is ghee made of cow's milk. It contains plenty of omega-3 fatty acids along with Vitamin A. Beyond our kitchens, ghee finds a coveted space in beauty and hair care rituals too.

1. Helps You Keep Warm From Within

Ghee is an integral part of Indian winters. According to Ayurveda, ingesting ghee helps you keep warm from within; which is perhaps why it is extensively used in many winter preparations likegajar ka halwa, moong dal halwa, pinni and panjeeri.

2. For Clogged Nose

There is nothing pleasant about cold and clogged nose. You have difficulty in breathing; your taste sense is hampered, and let's not forget the headache and exhaustion that follows. Ayurveda has an interesting nasal drop remedy that may help soothe clogged nose. Ayurvedic experts call it the Nyasa treatment for cold and it involves pouring a few drops of warm pure cow ghee into the nostrils, first thing in the morning. Doing so may provide quick relief as the ghee travels all the way down to the throat and soothes the infection. Make sure, the ghee is pure and warmed to lukewarm temperature.

3. Good Source Of Energy

According to the book, 'Healing Foods' by DK Publishing House, ghee is a good source of energy. It contains medium and short-chain fatty acids, "of which, lauric acid is a potent antimicrobial and antifungal substance." Nursing mothers are often given ladoos loaded with ghee, since they are loaded with energy.Pinni is another Punjabi treat, which is relished across North India, not just for its taste but for its energy boosting properties too.

4. Source Of Good Fat

Are you on a weight loss spree? You may have heard a lot of people coming up with a pro-tip or two. And one of the most common weight loss tips we have all heard is- avoid fats. In a bid to lose weight, you may have even considered eliminating all fats sources from your diet. But doing so may do you more harm than good. Fats, carbs and proteins are three macronutrients that are essential for sustaining a healthy life. Removing any food group from your diet is never a sustainable way to lose weight. What you do need to do however is - choose better. Avoid all bad fats in fries, burgers and processed junk, and choose better alternatives in the form of ghee, avocados etc. According to Shilpa Arora, ghee is one of the most preferred vehicles for oleation: a process of ingesting oil over a period of time. This actually helps pull fat soluble toxins out of the cells and triggers fat metabolism, a process where the body kick-starts to burn its own fat for fuel.

5. Good For Intestinal Health:

Shilpa also shares with us, that ghee happens to be one of the highest quality food sources of butyric acid, which makes it an ideal pick to support the health of the intestinal walls. The cells of the colon use butyric acid as their preferred source of energy.

People have hailed the health benefits of green tea for centuries. Studies suggest that consuming green tea may positively affect skin health, help with weight loss, and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Green coffee is increasingly common in the health and wellness community.

As such, you may have heard about its rich supply of health-promoting plant compounds.

This article takes an in-depth look at green coffee, including its potential benefits and risks

What is green coffee?

Green coffee beans are simply regular coffee beans that haven’t been roasted and remain completely raw.

Their extract is popular as a dietary supplement, but green coffee can also be purchased in whole-bean form and used to make a hot beverage, much like roasted coffee.

Bear in mind that a mug of this light green drink will not taste like the roasted coffee you’re used to, as it has a much milder flavor. It’s said to taste more like herbal tea than coffee.

What’s more, its chemical profile is quite different than that of roasted coffee, though their origins are similar.

It boasts an abundant supply of chlorogenic acids — compounds with potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects that may provide many health benefits (1Trusted Source).

Roasted coffee products also contain small amounts of chlorogenic acid, but most of it is lost during the roasting process (2Trusted Source).

Does it work as a weight loss supplement?

In 2012, green coffee extract was promoted as a miracle weight loss supplement by American celebrity physician and talk-show host Dr. Oz.

Many health experts have since refuted the notion that it has any significant impact on weight.

Even so, green coffee extract remains one of the most popular weight loss supplements on the market.

Several small studies have treated mice with the extract and found that it reduced total body weight and fat accumulation significantly. However, studies in humans have been far less conclusive (3Trusted Source, 4Trusted Source).

Most human research on green coffee has been inconclusive. While some participants lost weight, the studies were poorly designed with small sample sizes and short durations (5Trusted Source).

Thus, no definitive evidence demonstrates that green coffee is effective for weight loss. Larger, well-designed human studies are needed.

May reduce your risk of some chronic diseases

Green coffee may have health benefits other than weight loss.

In fact, its chlorogenic acids may help reduce your risk for chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease (6Trusted Source).

In an 8-week study, 50 people with metabolic syndrome — a cluster of risk factors, including high blood pressure and blood sugar, that increase your risk for diabetes and heart disease — took 400 mg of decaffeinated green coffee bean extract twice daily (7Trusted Source).

Those who took the extract experienced significant improvements in fasting blood sugar, blood pressure, and waist circumference, compared with a control group.

Although these results are promising, larger studies are needed.

Coconut oil is an increasingly popular cooking oil.

Many people praise it for its health benefits, including antimicrobial and antioxidant properties, improved skin and oral health, and weight loss potential.

Here are 10 evidence-based health benefits of coconut oil, plus some special considerations to keep in mind if you want to include it in your diet.

1. May encourage fat burning

Coconut oil is a rich source of medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs), a type of saturated fat.

In general, saturated fats are divided into three subgroups, each of which has different effects in your body. These subgroups are (1Trusted Source):

• long-chain
• medium-chain
• short-chain

Scientists are studying medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs), including those found in coconut oil, for their potential health benefits.

For instance, some evidence shows that consuming MCTs may increase the number of calories your body burns. In doing so, it may help promote weight loss (2Trusted Source, 3Trusted Source).

Since the fats in coconut oil are 65% MCT, it may have fat-burning properties that are similar to pure MCT oil (1Trusted Source).

However, there’s currently no good evidence to say that eating coconut oil itself will increase the number of calories you burn.

In fact, studies on MCT’s weight loss potential even call for caution when interpreting results because larger and higher-quality studies are still needed (2Trusted Source, 3Trusted Source).

While MCTs may increase how many calories you burn, keep in mind that coconut oil is very high in calories and can easily lead to weight gain if you consume it in large amounts.

2. May work as a quick source of energy

The MCTs in coconut oil provide a quick supply of energy.

When you eat long-chain triglycerides (LCTs), the fat molecules are transported through your blood to tissues that need them, such as muscle or fat tissue (4Trusted Source).

On the other hand, MCTs go straight to your liver and become a rapid energy supply in much the same way as carbs — your body’s preferred source of energy (5Trusted Source).

In fact, MCTs have been long used in sports nutrition products for athletes who need a source of energy their body can absorb and use fast (1Trusted Source, 5Trusted Source).

3. May have antimicrobial effects

Coconut oil has antimicrobial and antifungal properties due to its MCT content — specifically, lauric acid (1Trusted Source).

Lauric acid is a fatty acid that makes up about 50% of the MCTs in coconut oil.

Research suggests it may have antimicrobial effects against disease-causing microorganisms, such as (1Trusted Source, 6Trusted Source):

• Staphylococcus aureus
• Streptococcus mutans
• Streptococcus pyogenes
• Escherichia coli
• Helicobacter pylori

Studies show that lauric acid may act as a bacteriostatic agent. This is a substance that prevents bacteria from multiplying without killing the bacteria.

It may also act as a bacteriocidal agent, which destroys some bacteria (1Trusted Source, 7Trusted Source).

In addition, it may also inhibit the growth of microorganisms that are harmful to plants (6Trusted Source).

4. May help reduce hunger

One interesting feature of MCTs is that they may help reduce food intake (8Trusted Source, 9Trusted Source).

This may be related to how the body breaks them down. A proportion of MCTs you eat are broken down in a process that produces molecules called ketones (1Trusted Source).

Ketones reduce appetite by either acting directly on the brain’s chemical messengers or altering the levels of hunger-inducing hormones, such as ghrelin (10Trusted Source).

You may be familiar with ketones in the context of ketogenic diets, which are quite popular these days. People who are on keto diets don’t eat many carbs, but they do often eat lots of fat. For this reason, their bodies tend to use ketones for fuel.

However, though coconut oil is one of the richest natural sources of MCTs, there’s no evidence that coconut oil itself reduces appetite more than other oils. In fact, one study reports that coconut oil is less filling than MCT oil (11Trusted Source).

5. May boost skin health

Coconut oil has many uses that have little to do with eating. Many people use it for cosmetic purposes to improve the health and appearance of their skin.

Studies show that coconut oil can boost the moisture content of dry skin. It may also improve the function of the skin, helping prevent excessive water loss and protecting you from external factors, such as infectious agents, chemicals, and allergens (16Trusted Source, 17Trusted Source, 18Trusted Source, 19Trusted Source).

In fact, a recent study determined that applying 6–8 drops of virgin coconut oil on your hands and leaving it overnight may be an effective way to prevent dry skin caused by frequent use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers (20Trusted Source).

It may also reduce the severity of mild to moderate symptoms of atopic dermatitis, a chronic skin disease characterized by skin inflammation and defects in skin barrier function (18Trusted Source, 21Trusted Source, 22Trusted Source).