Fudgy Fat Bombs for Fat Tuesday

"Fat Tuesday" is the traditional name for the day before Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent in the Western Christian churches.  It is more commonly known as Mardi Gras, which is simply the French word for "Fat Tuesday."  Ash Wednesday is the day that the Lentent fast begins.  Historically, this means that Christians were required to refrain from eating all food that came from animals such as milk, cheese, butter, eggs, and animal fats.  All of these fatty foods needed to be used up before the fast began, hence, the name "Fat Tuesday."

We thought what better way to celebrate "Fat Tuesday" than by sharing our favorite fat bomb recipe with you.  Fat bombs have become popular recently with healthy fats such as coconut oil, nuts and seeds becoming all the rage.  Trending low-carb diets such as Paleo and Keto, say they are perfect for munching on when you are feeling low on energy and will help you stay feeling full in between meals. Just remember, a little goes a long way!

Ingredients

1 cup Aunt Patty's Unrefined Virgin Coconut Oil
1 cup Aunt Patty's Organic Almond Butter
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup sliced natural almonds
1/4 cup coconut flakes
1/4 teaspoon powder stevia

Directions

1.  Over medium heat in a small pot, melt and combine almond butter and coconut oil.

2.  In the same pot, add cocoa powder, sliced almonds, coconut flakes and stevia.  Stir until well combined.

3.  Pour mixture into silicone mold of your choice and allow to solidify in the the freezer for about 2 hours.

4.  Once solidified, pop out of molds and enjoy!

Store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Beekeepers are Transforming Detroit

We were inspired when we read this article about a Detroit couple who transformed their community with beekeeping. Keeping Bees is a great use of vacant space and it has the capability of adding supplemental income. Becoming an urban beekeeper is an easy way to connect communities to nature while strengthening local bee populations.

Black Beekeepers are transforming Detroit’s vacant lots into bee farms

A pair of Detroit natives have decided to combat neighborhood blight in a pretty sweet way — by transforming abandoned vacant lots in their city into honeybee farms. 

Detroit Hives, a nonprofit organization founded by Timothy Paule and Nicole Lindsey in 2017, purchases vacant properties and remodels them into fully functioning bee farms. 

“These properties are left abandoned and serve as a dumping ground in most cases,” Paule told HuffPost. “The area can be a breeding ground for environmental hazards, which creates a stigma around the city.” 

To become certified beekeepers, Paule and Lindsey took two courses at Green Toe Gardens and Keep Growing Detroit. The duo bought their first vacant space on Detroit’s East Side for $340 with the help of the Detroit Land Bank Authority, an agency that works to redevelop abandoned properties.

Besides raising honeybees, the nonprofit aims to spread awareness about bees by hosting public tours of the farm ― they encourage community members to schedule an appointment ― and by traveling to schools in the Detroit area to speak with students.

“The neighbors love it. They say they wish we were there 10, 20 years ago,” Lindsey said. “That area has always been a place where people dump trash, so when we came there, we gave that area a sense of purpose. The neighbors keep an eye on the area to make sure that people aren’t dumping anymore.”

To read this Huffington Post article in its entirety, go to “Black Beekeepers are transforming Detroit’s vacant lots into bee farms”

Also be sure to follow Detroit Hives on instagram.

Buzz Kill: bees are dying and why it matters to you (SCIENCE DAILY)

Interesting roundup from Science Over Everything:

As long as they have existed, bees have been an important and integral part of the Earth’s ecosystem; they help flowering plants reproduce and make it possible for you to enjoy a tasty bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios in the morning. However, scientists have recently observed entire colonies of bees dying off without a clear explanation. Though a world without bees would let you enjoy a picnic free from the fear of being stung, it could have devastating consequences for nearly every land community in the world.

What is happening?

Over the last 10 years or so, scientists in North America and Europe have noticed entire colonies of bees dying off, leaving behind plenty of food, a healthy queen, and a few nurse bees to care for the remaining larvae. Called Colony Collapse Disorder, (CCD), this phenomena has led to the loss of billions of bees. The National Agriculture Statistics Service reported that there were 2.44 million honey-producing colonies in the United States as of February 2008, down from 4.5 million in 1980, and 5.9 million in 1947. The number of hives surviving the winter, a helpful indicator for CCD, showed that 23.1% of hives across the United States did not make it from fall 2014 to spring 2015. While this is down from nearly 30% losses in the 2006-2007, it still represents staggering drop in bee populations, with some areas experienced up 90% of hives dying off over winter.

Do we have an idea why these bees are dying?

No one is really sure why this is happening, but researchers have a few hypotheses. One of the leading explanations is that hives have been stressed due to exposure to pesticides. These poisons, which are meant to kill pests that destroy crops, do not discriminate which insects are affected. Another cause could be that the deforestation across the developed world has drastically reduced available habitats, and there is no longer an adequate amount of food or shelter for bees. This would be cruelly ironic, since by clearing land for farming, crops that are planted will not be pollinated.

There also may be a variety of natural causes as well. The varroa mite, an invasive parasite of honey bees, sucks the blood from adult drones and larvae, weakening the bees and shortening their lives. Introduced to Europe in the 1970’s and the United States in the late 1980’s, the nonnative mite has caused massive bee deaths, as local bees have no natural defenses. Diseases such as Israeli acute paralysis virus and the gut parasite Nosema could have also contributed to hive die offs. However, an increasingly likely explanation is that a combination of multiple human related factors have caused immune-suppressing stress on bees across the world, making them more susceptible to natural aliments.

That’s a bummer for bees, but why are they so important?

Bees and flowering plants have been working together for the last 100 million years. The bees are attracted to a flower by its nectar, a sugar rich food source which the bees bring back to their colony to create honey. When a bee lands on a flower to extract the nectar, it gets covered in pollen. Those pollen grains contain the sex cells of the plant. As the bees move from flower to flower, they distribute the pollen, fertilizing the plants, allowing them to reproduce. Over millions of years, bees and flowering plants have changed together so that their adaptations are mutually beneficial. Scientists call this coevolution. It’s been a lucrative partnership and has allowed flowering plants to become the dominant flora on Earth.

But there’s more to the story. Plants are the foundation of almost every single food web. Through photosynthesis they capture the sun’s light energy, combining it with water and carbon dioxide to use as food. When an animal eats a plant, they absorb that food for themselves to use as energy. When another animal eats that animal, the energy moves up the chain again. Without plants, there would be no way to get energy into the ecosystem. If you remove plants, there is no way for the entire ecosystem to get energy, and it collapses.

Click here to read the rest of the article at Science Over Everything

How to Become a B Corp

We are proud to be a B Corp. Like other B Corps, we’re using our business as a means to create positive change in the world. To do this, we’re committed to follow best practices guidelines and we check our progress every two years against a global benchmark. We started the process of becoming a B Corp in 2015, taking the Quick Impact Assessment (QIA) and we worked through the process with B Corp. One of the many benefits of becoming a B Corp—fulfilling the assessment requires a high level of planning which really helps you set sustainability goals that impact your employees, your community and the environment.

Steps to becoming a certified B Corporation:

  1. Take the Quick B Impact Assessment:

It’s free, and takes about 20 minutes. The questions are straightforward and any business that claims to be sustainable should be able to complete it. A friendly B Lab staff member follows up, and can help you decide if you’d like to go further. For more info, go to: How to Become a B Corp

  1. The full B Impact Assessment:

Becoming a B Corp--and staying a B Corp—means taking a 200 question assessment and achieving a score of over 80 points. Some find the assessment daunting, but it’s a way to take big steps down the sustainability pathway. A B Corp business runs on:

  • Metrics
  • Employee retention
  • Payroll
  • Sales
  • Income
  • Bonus payments
  • Greenhouse gas emissions improvements!

All these numbers are housed somewhere. Spend some time going through the assessment and set up a spreadsheet of the metrics you’ll need to answer the questions. GloryBee’s full time sustainability manager, Shandy Carroll, worked on the assessment for over a month before passing it over to the executive committee for review.

  1. Resist the desire to ‘quickly’ improve something!

It’s so tempting to quickly want to improve something, write a policy you’ve been meaning to get to, or wait a few months until some new benefit kicks in. Resist it! It’s so much better to roll out those projects fully, taking the care needed. Those extra points will be there for the next re-certification in two years. Do things right.

  1. Desk Audit – the three hour conversation

The final step is to speak with B Lab and complete a desk audit. Ours took 3 hours! They help you answer any questions that may have been missed, and ask for proof of different numbers. A few lucky companies get an onsite audit. This increases the transparency and reliability of the assessment.

Sustainability is a journey, not a destination. Five years ago having a breakroom composting program was cutting edge. In 2018 an onsite recycling and food waste management program is a minimal expectation for a sustainable business.

B Corp is helping GloryBee navigate this sustainable journey and keeps us moving forward. In the next few weeks we’ll talk more about the importance of using business as a force for good, making decisions based on our business values, and creating positive change from the ground up!

Royal Jelly: Crown Jewel of the Beehive

Did you know that a queen bee can lay up to 1,500 eggs per day? This is more than her own body weight! Did you know that a queen bee can live for 3 or 4 years, whereas a normal worker bee only lives for 6 weeks? Have you ever wondered what gives the queen bee this miraculous ability to reproduce and to live longer? Well, if you have, we are here to tell you that it is royal jelly.

What is Royal Jelly?

Royal jelly is a creamy, pale-yellow substance that worker bees secrete from glands in their head. It is fed to larvae and adult queen bees within the hive. For the first three days of their lives, all larvae in the hive are fed royal jelly. It is what happens after the third day that will determine if a baby bee will turn into a queen or not. Worker bees within the colony decide that they need to make a new queen when the existing queen is weak or has died. When they decide this, they will select several small larvae and feed them with extensive amounts of royal jelly. This copious feeding is what sparks the biological change within the larvae to develop into a queen. In comparison to a worker bee, a queen bee has the capacity to reproduce rapidly whereas a worker bee is not able to reproduce at all. Also, queen bees are not only significantly larger than worker bees, they also can live up to 35 times longer! So what does royal jelly contain that gives it this extraordinary ability?

Average Composition of Royal Jelly:

The composition of royal jelly will vary depending on geography and climate, but on average it contains the following:

  • 60-70% Water
  • 12-15% Protein
  • 10-16% Sugar
  • 3-6% Fatty Acids
  • 2-3% Vitamins, minerals, salts, and amino acids (including 10-HDA)

The proteins in royal jelly are called "major royal jelly proteins" or MRJPs for short. These are a family of proteins secreted by honey bees. The family consists of nine proteins, of which MRJP1, also known as royalactin, is the most abundant. It is believed that it is this royalactin that is responsible for changing a worker bee into a queen.

Should You Use Royal Jelly?

Royal jelly has been harvested for centuries and used as an ancient medicine and some believe that royal jelly can potentially help with a wide variety of different ailments. Today, royal jelly is known as an apitherapy nutritional supplement. As a nutritional supplement, it is commonly used as an alternative general health tonic that people take to help with aging (remember, queen bees live longer) and increase energy and stamina (queen bees reproduce rapidly). Although, it has not been scientifically proven as a medicine to treat disease or improve health, people take royal jelly for everything from fertility to helping create radiant skin.

How to Use Royal Jelly

We always recommend talking with your doctor before taking any new supplement. Royal jelly comes in a variety of forms including fresh, powdered and capsules. The most popular form is fresh royal jelly. The suggested daily dosage of fresh royal jelly is 1 to 2 teaspoons per day. If you are just starting with royal jelly, we recommend to start with a 1/4 of a teaspoon per day and work up to the 1 to 2 teaspoons. Royal jelly is also very potent and bitter. If its not a taste that you can swallow, we recommend mixing it with a little bit of honey to cut the bitterness.

The information provided above has not been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and is not approved to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease. The information is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for advice from your physician or other healthcare professional. You should not use this information for diagnosis or treatment of any health problem or for prescription of any medication or other treatment. You should consult with a healthcare professional before starting any diet, exercise or supplementation program, before taking any medication, or if you have or suspect you might have a health problem.

Honey Garlic Citrus Shrimp

Honey Citrus Garlic Shrimp – garlicky, sweet, sticky skillet shrimp with fresh lime and pure honey. This recipe is so good and easy, takes less than 15 minutes to make. Top off a salad or rice bowl with the shrimp, this comfort food dinner is sure to please.

Citrus Shrimp on ForkIngredients

3 tablespoons Glory Bee Ⓡ California Orange Blossom Honey
3 tablespoons lime juice
3 tablespoons orange juice
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1¼ pounds medium to large shrimp
2 tablespoons Aunt Patty’s Ⓡ Virgin Coconut Oil
Chopped cilantro
Chopped green onion

 

Directions

1. In a medium bowl mix together honey, lime juice, orange juice, garlic, and salt until honey is dissolved. Toss shrimp in mixture to coat. If desired, cover and refrigerate up to 24 hours.
2. In a large skillet heat coconut oil over medium-high. When oil is hot, add shrimp and cook, stirring occasionally, until shrimp are cooked through, about 2 minutes.
3. To serve, top with cilantro and green onion.

A call to action: What can we do to create a more inclusive economy?

As a new year begins, we here at GloryBee have two questions at the top of our minds:

  • What can we do as individuals to create a better world?
  • How can we work together to manifest the future we’re dreaming of?

Being a B Corp means we believe that businesses and communities can work together to create a global culture shift that benefits everyone.

In late 2016, B Corp issued a call to action to their members: Set three metric measured goals by the end of 2016, and show improvement upon those goals by year’s end.

The purpose of this call to action is to create change for the better, changing ideas into action, fear into hope and creating prosperity for all who live in our community.

The goal of the B Corp inclusion challenge is to create a world where people live with dignity, to support themselves and their families and to make a contribution to society.

That sounds great, but what does diversity really mean? And what about inclusion? We felt the need to clearly define these terms for ourselves to help us accomplish what we believe is the right thing to do.

Diversity means

A collective mixture of differences and similarities that includes beliefs, values, characteristics, experiences, backgrounds, preferences and behaviors.  

What inclusion means to us at GloryBee:

We support and empower our workforce, cultivating strong values and encouraging them to make a difference in the lives of others. At GloryBee inclusion means:

Healthy food is for everyone

Professional development is encouraged

  • Last year we grew employee participation in professional development and training from 30% to over 50%

Giving back to our community is at the core of our business

  • We encourage every team member to participate in acts of stewardship (paid community service). GloryBee employees have helped teach gardening in schools, made sandwiches for the unhoused, cleaned river banks, and supported honey bees.

Working together we create a shared and durable prosperity.

Propolis: Nature’s Warrior

Most likely you are familiar with products from the hive such as honey, bee pollen, and royal jelly.  Another amazing product from the hive that you may not know much about is propolis.  We like to think of propolis as nature's warrior protecting honeybees from harmful predators (bacteria, fungus, parasites, etc.).

What is Propolis

Holding a bowl of propolisAlso known as "bee glue", propolis is a resinous substance made by honeybees.  It plays a very important role in the hive as it is used as a sealant to close up small holes and cracks.  This natural "glue" is also known to reinforce the structural stability of the hive, make the hive more defensible by sealing alternative entrances and prevent diseases and parasites from entering the hive by inhibiting bacterial and fungal growth.  Before it is used in the hive, honeybees collect sap from trees and combine it with nectar found in their own secretions.  Eventually, it becomes a sticky mixture consisting of balsams, wax, essential oils and bee pollen.  For this reason, just chewing on a wad of tree resin won't produce the same therapeutic benefits as propolis.  Honeybees must transform the resin into propolis and only they know how.

The composition and color of propolis will vary from hive to hive, location to location, and season to season.  Most typically, it will be dark brown in color and consists on average of 50% balsam and resin, 30% wax, 10% essential oil and 5% pollen.  Scientists have researched the typical chemical composition further and have found that it contains more than 300 natural compounds including amino acids, bioflavonoids, and polyphenols.  Except for vitamin K, it contains all the known vitamins.  Of the fourteen minerals required by the human body, it contains them all with the exception of sulfur.  Like royal jelly and bee pollen, propolis also contains a number of unidentified compounds which work synergistically together to create a perfectly balanced, nutritive substance.

Why should you use Propolis?

Using propolis  is not some new fad.  It has been used in traditional medicine dating all the way back to 350 B.C.  Greeks used it to treat abscesses, Assyrians used it to help heal wounds,, and the Egyptians used it for mummification.  Today, propolis is known to have effective antimicrobial, antioxidant, and antibiotic properties when used internally and externally in humans.  Propolis has been and continues to be studied in the scientific community to treat many different types of ailments.

How should you use Propolis?

We always recommend talking with your doctor before taking any new supplement. As a topical treatment for burns, cuts, cold sores, and fractured teeth as well as for sore throats, we recommend using propolis tincture which is a liquid propolis containing food grade alcohol.  The tincture will act as sort of a "band-aid" sealing and coating the area affected.  Just a few drops will go a long way.  For longer-term prevention to ward off colds and other types of ailments, we recommend using propolis capsules.  It is suggested to take one 500 mg capsule per day.  One word of caution before using propolis, although it doesn't contain any of the 8 major allergens, bee products may cause allergic reactions in some people.  Also, if you have asthma, some experts advice avoiding propolis as it is believed that some substances it contains may make asthma worse. Again, always recommend checking with your healthcare provider before starting any new supplement program.

 The information provided above has not been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and is not approved to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease.  The information is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for advice from your physician or other healthcare professional.  You should not use this information for diagnosis or treatment of any health problem or for prescription of any medication or other treatment.  You should consult with a healthcare professional before starting any diet, exercise or supplementation program, before taking any medication, or if you have or suspect you might have a health problem. 

Honey Bees are attracted to Agricultural Fungicides

Most people have heard that honey bee populations are struggling--and the affects that neonicotinoid pesticides are having on honey bee health are gradually becoming main-stream knowledge. Interestingly, what is coming to light as more research is done, fungicides may also have an adverse effect on honey bee health as well.

This excerpt from an article in Science Daily details the findings of honey bees and fungicides.

When given the choice, honey bee foragers prefer to collect sugar syrup laced with the fungicide chlorothalonil over sugar syrup alone, researchers report in the journal Scientific Reports.

The puzzling finding comes on the heels of other studies linking fungicides to declines in honey bee and wild bee populations. One recent study, for example, found parallels between the use of chlorothalonil and the presence of Nosema bombi, a fungal parasite, in bumble bees. Greater chlorothalonil use also was linked to range contractions in four declining bumble bee species.

To test whether foraging honey bees showed a preference for other chemicals they are likely to encounter in the wild, researchers set up two feeding stations in a large enclosure. Foraging honey bees could fly freely from one feeder to the other, choosing to collect either sugar syrup laced with a test chemical or sugar syrup mixed with a solvent as the control. Over the course of the study, they tested honey bee responses to nine naturally occurring chemicals, three fungicides and two herbicides at various concentrations.

The trials revealed that honey bees prefer the naturally occurring chemical quercetin over controls at all concentrations tested.

To the researchers' surprise, the bees also preferred sugar syrup laced with glyphosate -- the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup herbicide -- at 10 parts per billion, but not at higher concentrations.

"The bees are not only not avoiding this fungicide, they're consuming more of it at certain concentrations," Berenbaum, the team’s research leader, said.

Fungicides are among the most prevalent contaminants of honey bee hives, and it is likely the bees themselves are bringing these pesticides into the colony through their food-collecting activities. While perplexing, bees' preferences for some potentially toxic chemicals may be the result of their distinct evolutionary history, Berenbaum said.

The new findings are worrisome in light of research showing that exposure to fungicides interferes with honey bees' ability to metabolize medications used by beekeepers to kill the parasitic varroa mites that infest their hives.

To read this article in its entirety, please visit: Agricultural fungicide attracts honey bees.

Triple Berry Coconut Crumble

A little dessert never hurt anyone.... so go ahead, reward yourself with a Triple Berry Coconut Crumble. Portioned into mason jars, you can make these ahead of time and freeze, take one out and warm it in the microwave or oven for a small sweet treat. Enjoy!

Ingredients

Berry Crumble Angled

2 cups fresh or frozen blackberries
2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
Juice and zest of 1 lemon (about 3 tablespoons juice)
¼ cup Aunt Patty’sⓇ Coconut Sugar
¼ cup cornstarch
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
For topping:
¾ cup coconut flour
½ cup coconut flakes
½ cup Aunt Patty’sⓇ Coconut Sugar
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
½ cup Aunt Patty’sⓇ Virgin Coconut Oil, melted
¼ cup minced candied ginger
Vanilla ice cream for serving, optional (but recommended)

 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350℉. Have ready 8 wide-mouth ½-pint glass canning jars.
2. In a large bowl, toss together blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, lemon juice and zest, coconut sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Divide mixture between jars and place jars on a baking sheet. Bake fruit for 20 minutes or until starting to bubble.
3. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, stir together coconut flour, coconut flakes, coconut sugar, and salt. Stir in coconut oil until mixture is crumbly, then stir in ginger. After baking fruit, divide crumble mixture between jars.
4. Return crumbles to oven and bake until topping is golden, about 15 minutes more. Cool slightly, then serve with ice cream, if desired.

The one-two punch that could knock out the world’s bees.

We need bees. With 80% of food crops relying on honey bees for pollination, it has been found that one of every three bites of food we eat is pollinated by bees. Declines in honey bee populations have caused global concern for the world’s food supply and the uncertain future that would bring.

This article from the Daily Mail takes a look at two factors that have the potential to wipe out the remaining bee populations world-wide if they happen at the same time.

Honey bees could be KILLED OFF by a deadly “one-two punch”: Pesticides and dwindling food supplies are set to wipe out the insects, scientists warn.

The honey bee could soon be killed off by a deadly 'one-two punch' unless humanity acts to save the species, new research reveals.

The insects die off at a rapid rate when exposed to a potent combination of pesticides and dwindling food supplies.

Honey bees in farmland areas around the world are threatened by both of these lethal factors, experts suggest.

When combined, pesticides and low nutrition significantly reduce the amount of sugar taken up by bees, meaning they struggle to fly and move around the hive

Declines in honey bee health have caused global concern due to the insects' critical role as a major pollinator.

The researchers, from the University of California at San Diego, studied two common 'neonicotinoid' pesticides, clothianidin and thiamethoxam, which are used worldwide to treat vegetable, fruit and grain crops.

After these pesticides are applied to crops they remain in the environment and can be found in nectar, pollen, water and soil.

The study found that when combined, the two amplified the number of bee deaths 50 per cent more than expected compared with the individual effects of either factor.

To read this article in its entirety, please visit: Honey bees could be KILLED OFF by a deadly “one-two punch”: Pesticides and dwindling food supplies are set to wipe out the insects, scientists warn.

Is Bee Pollen the Key to Good Health?

This is the time of year that a lot of us are making new year's resolutions to improve our health.  If you haven't made a resolution yet or are looking for another, one we highly suggest is adding bee pollen to your daily diet.    Bee pollen is one our most favorite superfoods.  Not only is it made by bees, but believe it or not, it also contains nearly all the essential nutrients required by humans!

What is Bee Pollen?

Bee pollen is made by honey bees as food to feed their young.   In the hive, this food is commonly known as “bee bread”.  As bees travel from flower to flower collecting nectar, not only do they pollinate, but they also collect a bit of pollen for themselves.  They collect flower pollen from plant anthers, mix it with a small amount of nectar and then pack it into baskets called corbiculae located on their hind legs.  When they return to the hive, they will pack it into the honeycomb and cover it with a thin layer of honey and wax.  This "bee bread" is the main source of protein for the hive.  Beekeepers gather pollen for human consumption by using large screens that collect the granules from the bees’ legs as they enter their hives.   This collection doesn’t harm the bees and only a negligible amount of pollen is taken to ensure the bees have plenty of food to feed their young.  Bee pollen will vary in color, taste, and texture depending on where it is collected from.

Should I eat Bee Pollen?

Always talk with your doctor before taking bee pollen. Bee pollen is packed with nutrition.  It is known as an apitherapeutic product because it is made by bees and has a unique natural chemical composition that is commonly used for medicinal purposes.  There is no other food on the planet quite like bee pollen and it has never been replicated in a lab.  This unique composition includes over 200 different substances including proteins, amino acids, carbohydrates, lipids and fatty acids, phenolic compounds, enzymes, vitamins, and minerals.

Average Composition of Bee Pollen

  • 30% digestible carbohydrates
  • 26% sugars (fructose and glucose)
  • 23% protein (including 10% essential amino acids)
  • 5% lipids (including essential fatty acids)
  • 2% phenolic compounds (including flavonoids)
  • 1.6% minerals (including calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, potassium,  iron, copper, zinc, manganese, silicon, and selenium)
  • 0.6% water-soluble vitamins and acids (including vitamins B1, B2, B6, and C)
  • 0.1% fat-soluble vitamins (including vitamins A, E, and D)

How should I use it?

Bee pollen is most commonly eaten as granules or powder mixed with food.  When consuming bee pollen, always start with small amounts and gradually increase the dosage to make sure you don't have any adverse side effects.  For adults, we suggest taking 1 to 2 teaspoons per day.  For children, we suggest a 1/2 teaspoon per day.  With a slightly sweet, grassy flavor and crunchy texture, it is delicious sprinkled on hot cereal, yogurt, and fresh fruit.  It is also an amazing ingredient to add to smoothies.

*The information above has not been evaluated by the United States Food and Drug Administration and is not approved to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease.  The information provided is for informational purposes only is not intended as a substitute for advice from your physician or other healthcare professional.  You should not use this information for diagnosis or treatment of any health problem or for prescription of any medication or treatment.  You should consult with a healthcare professional before starting any diet, exercise or supplementation program, before taking any medication, or if you have or suspect you might have a health problem.