Optimizing Nature's Superfood
Bee Pollen Benefits!

Part 1: Getting to know the bees and the pollen
Part 2: How bee pollen benefits your health
Part 3: How to look for good quality bee pollen

While many have heard or experienced the many bee pollen benefits, there are still many others who are in the in the dark about it.

So what exactly is bee pollen and how does it benefit your health?

A simple googling on the Web will give you a ton of general bee pollen information; you’ll even find some sites exaggerating it as a ‘cure-all’ nutrient!

For a health supplement that has gained “SuperFood” status, it’s hard for it not to get jumbled up with some kind of advertising hype.

Also jumping on the bandwagon, infiltrating the market, are the many unscrupulous manufacturers or suppliers luring you with their cheap bee pollen.

These low grade products, albeit cheaper, have high levels of contaminants due to insecticides or general air pollution.

So to make sure you really know what to look for when choosing a high quality bee pollen supplement—so as to maximize all the bee pollen benefits—I have here, in these three pages, more than enough information to help you do just that.

But first, a brief biology class.

What Is Pollination

Most flowering plants contain both the male and female reproductive organs called stamen and pistil respectively; and pollen is formed from stamen.

The transfer of pollen from the stamen to the pistil is called pollination. Most, however, are quite choosy, preferring a close relative rather than someone outside its family.

On the surface of the pistil, the pollen germinates and fertilization takes place. The growth of a seed (the ‘offspring’) then ensues.

It is this seed, carrying the genes of the parents, that grows to a mature adult plant.

You bet it is!

Without this process, there wouldn't be any flowers, fruits, vegetables, trees, etc on earth!

Flowering plants are the basis of the food chain for most animals, and if they’re not pollinated then there will be no offspring to grow to adulthood; then all animals including humans that depend on them would starve.

Besides, about one-third of our food supply comes directly mostly from bee-pollinated plants.

The Flower and Bee Relationship

The relationship between the bees and flowering plants is indeed a symbiotic one. It's kind of like 'you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours' thing.

The plant secretes nectar, a sugary, energy-rich fluid that bees eat and also use for making honey. Besides nectar, bees are also attracted by the plant’s pollen.

This is how it’s done:

As the bee enters a flower looking for nectar or grazes on the pollen itself, the sticky pollen attaches to parts of its body.

When the bee visits the next flower in search of more nectar or pollen, the pollen grains will fall on the pistil. In this way, the bees inadvertently transfer pollen from flower to flower.

Ingenious!

Smart Little Creatures

For starters, they can differentiate between the super nutritious pollen and the pollen that causes hay fever.

With a dab of nectar or perhaps a bit of their saliva they moisten the dry pollen, pack them nicely and firmly on their hairy hind legs to form what is called ‘pollen baskets’ (see picture on left).

When the ‘baskets’ are full with collected pollen, they’ll transport it back to their hive.

While bees collect pollen from all sources in the environment, the pollen of each load is mostly derived from plants of one species, which accounts for the honey bee’s outstanding role as pollinator. Another ingenious bee strategy!

How Does Bee Pollen Benefit the Bees

Flying at an average speed of 23 km/hour, bees work 8 hours a day traveling a 5 km radius visiting thousands of flowers a day gathering nectar and pollen back to their hive.

At least 50 trips are needed to bring back just 1 gram of pollen. Where do you think they get this enormous amount of energy to complete the task?

The pollen.

It’s from the pollen that the bees get most their proteins, lipids, minerals and vitamins they need. A small quantity of nutrients is also available from the flower nectar.

However, the pollen, a miniature plant, has its ways of protecting itself too.

Cracking the Pollen Wall!

Raw pollen has two parts that make up the durable pollen wall. The inner layer, intine, consists mainly of cellulose—humans do not have the necessary enzymes to breakdown cellulose.

On top of the intine is the exine, the toughest layer, so tough it is highly resistant to disintegration; treatment of intense heat; strong acids; enzymatic degradation; and even immense pressure!

These shells protect the inside of the pollen grain until germination.

With these layers coming between the bee and the tasty genetic filling, how does it manage to digest pollen at all?

Click here to find out how the bees do it—turning raw pollen to (raw) bee pollen, and how this can benefit us as well.

Without first ‘cracking’ these walls, our body won’t be able to maximize all the bee pollen benefits. The same goes for the bees or other pollen-feeding insects.

Part 1: Getting to know the bees and the pollen
Part 2: How bee pollen benefits your health
Part 3: How to look for good quality bee pollen

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