A lot of people know about honey, but only a few know about its superfood counterpart, the bee pollen. This wonder substance contains the highest concentration of protein amongst all the food substances in the world.
Where does bee pollen come from?
Worker honey bees create bee pollen as food for their young. The flower and the bee have developed a symbiotic relationship over millions of years of evolution. Flowers need bees so they can reproduce and spread their pollen. The bees, on the other hand, need these flowers to feed their hive.
Worker bees create each piece of bee pollen by forming it into circular pellets before taking it into their hive. Every small round shaped balls of bee pollen is a concentrated mixture of 28 minerals, 11 enzymes, and 14 essential fatty acids.
Most bee pollen nowadays is available in either pellet form, powdered, or inside capsule supplements.
Bee Pollen Nutrition Facts
Bee pollen helps you lose weight and build some muscle. It also boosts mood and increases your energy. When you look at various countries’ Olympic teams, you will see that the consumption of bee pollen is quite famous for increasing metabolism and muscle building.
Athletes use bee pollen to increase energy and build endurance, two traits that are a must for anybody engaged in strenuous physical activity daily.
And because bee pollen has the highest protein concentration weight by weight as compared with any food on the planet, it is the best food supplement if your body is under constant stress. Bee pollen helps your muscles to build faster new cells.
What’s impressive about bee pollen is how it helps people who are overweight to shed excess pounds. And yet people who are underweight who consume the same bee pollen will gain weight. That’s because bee pollen is as a regulator; it suppresses appetite in some cases and increases appetite for others. Truly amazing superfood, isn’t it?
Bee Pollen for Weight Loss and Weight Gain
Bee pollen’s weight loss and weight gain effect was due to one of its ingredients, lecithin. This substance flushes out excess fat from the cells. Bee pollen also has alanine and phenylalanine, two elements that work with our body’s hunger center.
Bee Pollen for Menopause
Women who are going through menopause can take bee pollen to stabilize their mood and symptoms. Bee pollen relieves hot flushes, anxiety, vaginal dryness, weight gain, and dry skin. Even women who are still on productive years can benefit from bee pollen’s hormone stabilizing power.
Bee Pollen for Fertility and Sexual Function
Bee pollen is also used by women who want to conceive faster. This superfood repairs the ovarian function of women and boosts the production of eggs. On the other hand, bee pollen also works wonders for male sexual issues like erectile dysfunction. Because it promotes muscle growth, libido, and endurance, bee pollen helps men to achieve their desired sexual performance naturally.
Consuming bee pollen is a good practice for people who are not used to eating raw fruits and vegetables. That’s because bee pollen contains the essential minerals that are also found in fruits, albeit in different concentrations and quantities.
Bee Pollen Recipes: How to Consume Bee Pollen
The best way to consume bee pollen is to eat it straight with a teaspoon. Start with small doses like a few granules. Do this so you can check if you are sensitive to bee pollen before taking in larger doses. Once you have already built up enough tolerance, you can maintain your dose from a teaspoon to two teaspoonfuls a day. Bee pollen tastes tangy and delicious, you can eat it as it, or you can mix it into your drinks, salads, or desserts.
You can also add your bee pollen into your fruits or vegetable smoothies. Experiment with different ingredients so you can find the mixture that works best for you.
Another way to eat your bee pollen is to add it to your overnight oats recipe. Prepare your oats the usual way and then add a teaspoon or two of bee pollen. Stir the ingredients together, put in a sealed mason jar, and then store overnight on the fridge. Take your overnight oats with bee pollen mixture out of the fridge whenever you need a low-fat power meal throughout the day.