Bee pollen is a unique mixture of flower pollen, nectar, enzymes, honey, wax and bee secretions. It’s a wonderful superfood for your granola bowl with an impressive nutritional profile.
Bees forage our plant flora and collect pollen for their hives to feed their colony. It is a totally different product to royal jelly, honeycomb and honey itself.
Always buy your bee pollen from honey producers that specify their honey as “wild raw honey”. Wild honey is gathered from Australia’s vast native forests by bee keepers that carefully keep their hives a fixed distance away from any crops or orchards where insecticides may be used.
Evolution has hardly changed honey bees who date back more than 30 million years. This is because of the potent antibiotic properties from the pollen. Bees have the strongest antibacterial and immune properties found in nature.
Bee Pollen Nutritional Profile
Bee pollen is fully loaded with nutrients, amino acids, vitamins, lipids and over 250 biologically active ingredients. The Ministry of Health in Germany has actually recognised bee pollen as a medicine for health purposes.
The exact nutritional content depends on the plant variety and the time of year collected. Springtime brings a different amino acid composition, for example. However, bee pollen granules are generally made up of the following ratios: –
40% Carbohydrates
35% Proteins
5% Fats
5–15% Vitamins, minerals, antibiotics and antioxidants
5–10% Water
High Antioxidants in Bee Pollen
Bee pollen is fully loaded with a wide variety of antioxidants, including flavonoids, carotenoids, quercetin, kaempferol and glutathione.
Antioxidants protect our bodies from potentially harmful molecules called free radicals. Damage by free radical molecules is linked to chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes and cancer.
Test-tube, studies on animals have already shown that bee pollen antioxidants can reduce inflammation. Also, it can reduce bacteria, and combat infections and the spread of tumors in the body. It is believed that bee pollen extracts may lower “bad” LDL cholesterol and reduce lipid oxidation.
Animal studies show that bee pollen antioxidants safeguard the liver from some toxic substances. Also bee pollen promotes liver healing. Animal and test-tube studies show that bee pollen antioxidants may have powerful anti-inflammatory properties. It may assist you avoid illness by boosting immunity and killing off bacteria.
People with pollen or bee sting allergies, pregnant or lactating women and people taking blood thinners should avoid it. However, bee pollen is safe for most people and easy to add to your meals. Bee pollen comes in granule format easy to store.
How to Eat Bee Pollen
The granules are perfect to sprinkle on to your favorite foods such as breakfast granola bowl, acai bowl, meals, salads or in healthy smoothies. Here is an example of bee pollen sprinkled on to a delicious healthy smoothie breakfast with yogurt & fruit. Bee pollen is a convenient superfood to keep in your pantry.
Buy it from health stores or from a suitable beekeeper.