When you are pregnant, everything needs your attention. You cannot afford to be careless or you may end up hampering the growth and development of your baby. The most important thing to know is what to eat and what to avoid during pregnancy. While you need to avoid certain foods during pregnancy, you also need to know about myths and misconceptions. Many women think you should not eat honey when pregnant. Is it true? Why do people say you should avoid an otherwise healthy thing in pregnancy? Keep reading to learn more.

Is It Safe to Eat Honey During Pregnancy?

The truth is that you can enjoy honey in pregnancy so long as it is pasteurized. You should avoid unpasteurized food because pasteurization ensures the food you eat contain no disease-causing bacteria. Your immune system is weak during pregnancy and food that may have never caused trouble may make you sick during pregnancy because your immune system cannot fight those bacteria. What it means is that you can enjoy commercially available honey during pregnancy because they are usually pasteurized, but avoid raw honey as well as triple-check labels when buying from a farm stand or farmers market. If you are not sure about how the honey is processed, do not eat it.

Benefits of Honey for Pregnant Women

As mentioned, you can enjoy honey if it is pasteurized. In fact, it even proves beneficial for your health and works in several ways. For instance:

1.        Get Rid of Cough

It is quite natural to feel worried about the wellbeing of your baby when you have cough during pregnancy. The problem is that you just cannot take any cough syrup or anther medicine when you are pregnant. Honey will help you in this case.

To relieve cough, take some garlic cloves and mix them in honey. Pound it well and put in a small jar. Leave it for at least 24 hours until the mixture blends well. A tablespoon of this mixture will help relieve cough.

2.        Treat Morning Sickness

Morning sickness is common among pregnant women and usually happens during the first trimester. This may lead to vomiting and nausea. Honey during pregnancy will help prevent the issues associated with morning sickness.

To treat morning sickness, all you have to do is add a teaspoon of honey to lemon juice and drink it to avoid feeling nauseous. You can also mix honey and apple cider vinegar to find relief from morning sickness.

3.        Treat Heartburn

Hormonal changes during pregnancy often lead to heartburn. You experience the discomfort when stomach acids start moving up into the esophagus. The condition can affect your appetite, so you have to treat it soon. Try honey to correct this ailment.

Take a glass of milk and add a tablespoon of honey to it. Drink it whenever you have heartburn. The remedy will also provide you with calcium and other nutrients found in milk.

4.        Fix Stuffy Nose

Any swelling of the mucus membranes may result in stuffy nose, which can be extremely frustrating and annoying during pregnancy. You can correct this condition by eating honey during pregnancy.

Take a glass of warm water and add a tablespoon of honey with a few drops of lime juice to it. Stir it well and drink to treat your stuffy nose.

5.        Treat Sore Throat

While there are medicines available to treat your sore throat, you cannot trust them during pregnancy. The safest option is to use honey to treat your sore throat.

Take a glass of warm water and add some honey and lemon to it. Use the mixture to gargle and relieve pain caused by sore throat.

Tips for Choosing Honey

You may have gathered the idea that there is nothing wrong in enjoying honey during pregnancy. However, you need to keep a few important things in mind when choosing honey. Honey itself is not bad during pregnancy, but the quality of honey matters a lot. Here are a few tips to help you select pure honey:

• Take a paper and put some honey on it. If it is pervasive, it is not pure honey because water content in it is high.
• Add a few drops of honey in the water. It is pure if it travels down to the bottom. It is fake if it gets muddy in the water.

To avoid dealing with any issue, it is important that you always buy honey from trusted brands. Only top brands process honey keeping quality standards in mind. Also, do your best to get honey that is organic in nature because it offers more benefits.