Subject: What is bee pollen?

From: [email-masked] (Douglas LaPointe)
Date: Fri, 12 Aug 1994 04:18:28 GMT

First I will apologize for asking such a newbee question, but I 
could not find my answer in the FAQ.

I saw bee pollen for sale in a health food store.  Is this pollen 
that has been harvested by honey bees?  It was touted as being 
extremely nutritious, "you can live off of this stuff". Is this true?  

TIA

Douglas

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From: [email-masked] (M.C. Rendina )
Date: 20 Aug 1994 05:10:06 GMT

>extremely nutritious, "you can live off of this stuff". Is this true?  

As I understand it, its pretty much straight protein.  It's the bees main
(only?) source.  Depending on exactly where it came from it may also have 
a lot of trace elements that you could be deficient in.  

I wouldn't try to live off it, but I do alternate mornings with my vitamin.

Mark

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From: [email-masked] (R S Rodgers)
Date: Sun, 21 Aug 1994 13:19:13 -0500

>extremely nutritious, "you can live off of this stuff". Is this true?

The current snake oil from health nuts.  Right up there with "royal
jelly," "shark cartilege" and other absurdities.  In promoting it, the
advertisements generally pander to the same kind of "natural or
mysterious" == "good" notion carried about by so many people.  The
typical ad for bee pollen will claim that it's a "high protein
supplement .. fed to the larvae and responsible for the incredible
life force that makes up the hive."  Almost always it will contain
some reference to un-named (because there aren't any) "trace elements"
which you may be terribly deficient in (this is the general plug,
though, for almost all wacko supplements).

Yeah, it's protein all right.  You could do just as well with protein
from any other source, given how miniscule a dose it contains.  You
have to give them credit for the sales pitches, though.  People are
always looking for _something_ magical.

My particular favorites, though, continue to come from the cosmetics
industry, not the supplements hawkers.  They're improving, though --
the claims about Chromium and "amino acid pills" are particularly
amusing.

--
Previous .sig deleted because some people couldn't parse "from email
_received_ re: a post on comp.sys.powerpc."

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From: [email-masked] (Dave Fisher)
Date: 25 Aug 1994 00:19:41 GMT

R S Rodgers ([email-masked]) wrote:
: [email-masked] (Douglas LaPointe) writes:
: >First I will apologize for asking such a newbee question, but I
: >could not find my answer in the FAQ.
: >I saw bee pollen for sale in a health food store.  Is this pollen
: >that has been harvested by honey bees?  It was touted as being
: >extremely nutritious, "you can live off of this stuff". Is this true?

: The current snake oil from health nuts.  Right up there with "royal
: jelly," "shark cartilege" and other absurdities.  In promoting it, the

It may or may not have virtues, but I had an alarming experience with this
substance once.

I ate some "raw" bee pollen about 8 years ago, and instantly lost my
voice.  It returned after about 30 minutes.  Pretty scary, although not
too serious.  

Dave