It’s interesting how despite all differences, a great variety of cultures all share the same remedy for cough and/or sore throat: honey.
Whether they make you drink it in tea, or give it to you straight with a spoon.
The best thing: it works. But how does it work? And how did so many different peoples come to the same conclusion?
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People have mentioned protease, which is awesome! Not only that! But it’s also an antibiotic! So if somethings trying to grow, it’ll mostly kill it off.
It basically sucks the water out of bacteria unlucky enough to be trapped in the honey, and then through some chemical reactions, becomes super toxic and really kills the bacteria if the dehydration didn’t! Honey is amazing.
(Not so ELI5: The reason for this is because it’s an amazingly “dry” liquid. It’s super saturated with sugar so when a bacteria cell is introduce in honey, it dehydrates the cell, causing another chemical reaction that forms hydrogen peroxide (it’s a small amount), further destroying the bacteria cell membrane.)
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