Liquid gold: Try local honey for the best flavor and healthiest benefits.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—Does your honey bear get a lot of squeezes, or do you mostly forget to let honey sweeten up your day? There are a lot of great reasons for using honey instead of sugar when you can—and using it in recipes, too. Food scientists at the University of Illinois found that honey is rich in healthy antioxidants. In test-tube studies, the sticky stuff slowed the oxidation of LDL cholesterol in human blood. Oxidized LDL cholesterol is the foundation of plaque deposits in blood-vessel walls that can lead to stroke and heart attack. So the researchers assert that honey, the darker the better, may protect heart health. Dark-colored buckwheat honey has about three times as many health-boosting antioxidants as lighter-colored acacia honey. And raw, unpasteurized honey has been found to contain the widest variety of health-supportive substances.

It's a good time to consider using honey in your cooking. Supermarket shelves now stock plenty of different honey varieties, from light clover to dark buckwheat. And you can find lots of local honey types at farmer's markets—there are actually more than 300 honey varieties sold in the U.S. And eating locally produced honey may help ease your seasonal allergies: Since honey contains pollen, consuming it may help your body acclimate to the allergens. It’s also thought that honey straight from the hive contains enzymes that decrease inflammation and has antibiotic properties that benefit your immune system.