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Hi again everyone and Happy Holidays!
As we head toward Christmas, I was looking for a seasonal topic, but I've already written about weight control, diet, how to avoid the flu naturally, why reindeer fly better on intraMAX, etc. :-) So...I've decided to write about something NON-seasonal...Bee Pollen!
Why? Because it's good, healthy stuff!
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I first want to answer a question that comes up quite often when people ask if intraMAX if vegan. If so, why is there bee pollen in it. Isn't that considered an animal product?
Well, the answer to that depends on what you consider vegan. For those who are only vegan for the dietary benefits as compared to the ethical quandaries, then pollen can most assuredly be considered vegan. Therefore, even though both intraMAX and intraKID contain bee pollen, they are still completely vegan.
Now, let's talk briefly about this "super-food" and why we include it in our products.
Bee pollen is often referred to as nature's most complete food. We read about bee products such as honey or bee pollen in the Bible, as well as ancient Chinese and Egyptian texts. Bee Pollen has been recommended by many health care practitioners including the fathers of Western medicine: Hippocrates, Pliny the Elder, and Pythagoras, for its healing properties. Bee pollen has been shown to rejuvenate the body, enhance vitality, stimulate systemic organs and the endocrine system and extend life quality. Bee pollen has also been used by many world class athletes or even those interested in sustaining and enhancing quality performance by increasing energy levels. So if bee pollen isn't animal, what is it? It's quite simple: pollen is the male seed of flowers and is required for the fertilization of plants. As many of you already know, every variety of flower on planet Earth produces pollen. Bee pollen is the food of the young bee and it is approximately 40% protein. It is considered one of nature's most completely nourishing foods. It contains nearly all nutrients required by humans. About half of its protein is in the form of free amino acids that are ready to be used directly by the body. |
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The actual process of gathering pollen is quite cool!
When a honeybee arrives at a flower, she settles in and expertly scrapes off the powdery loose pollen from the stamen with her jaws and front legs, moistening it with a dab of the honey she brought with her from the hive. The enlarged and broadened tarsal segments of her legs have a thick trimming of bristles, called pollen combs. The bee uses these combs to brush the gold powder from her coat and legs in mid-flight. With a skillful pressing movement of her auricle, which is used as a hammer, she pushes the gathered gold into her baskets. Her pollen baskets, surrounded by a fringe of long hairs, are concave areas located on the outside of her tibias (legs). When the bee's baskets are fully loaded, the microscopic golden dust has been tamped down into a single golden grain, or granule and viola! Bee Pollen!
The bee pollen is collected from the bees humanely using "pollen traps". These traps remove the pollen granules from the leg of the bee and allow it to fall down into a tray for removal by the bee keeper. The honeybee crawls up through a series of 1/4" wiring to enter the hive and in the process of doing so, the pollen is scrapped harmlessly from the honeybee's leg and it drops down into the tray.
It's worthy to note that bee pollen cannot be synthesized in a laboratory. Many thousands of chemical analyses of bee pollen have been made with the very latest diagnostic equipment, but there are still some elements present in bee pollen that science cannot identify. The bees add some mysterious "extra" of their own. These unidentifiable elements may very well be the reason bee pollen works so spectacularly against so many diverse conditions of ill health.
Honeybees have vital functions; not only do they gather pollen and carry it back to the hive as food for the colony, they are also responsible for the pollination of more than 80 percent of green growing plants. Without them, the environment couldn't survive (see "Bee Movie" with Jerry Seinfeld)!
So, you can see the importance of bees and their pollen for the planet and your health.
Merry Christmas everyone and thank you again for reading!
Until next month, may you all remain in good health!
Sincerely,
Dr. Mike drmichaelroth@juno.com 214-707-3878 www.SomaHealth.Net |
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