Are there health benefits?
According to Local Harvest, bee pollen contains eight flavonoids, at least 11 carotenoids, vitamins C, E, all the Bs, amino acids, minerals, more than 100 (!) enzymes and several growth regulators. In other words, any healthy buzzword (ha) you can think of, bee pollen has got it in spades. It also has all eight of the essential amino acids in highly concentrated form (meaning it’s protein-rich), according to an article put out by the Huntington College of Health and Sciences.
To get a better sense of what nutritional benefits bee pollen actually has, we asked registered dieticians Stephanie Clarke and Willow Jarosh of C&J Nutrition to weigh in. They said that while bee pollen does contain a good bit of protein (in fact, it is compositionally 40% protein), it is less digestible than many other protein sources. Also, because the serving size of bee pollen is quite small (it usually ranges from a teaspoon to a tablespoon), the amount of protein you’re getting by eating it is pretty negligible. How much are we talking? One heaping teaspoon of bee pollen purportedly contains one gram of protein. In other words, not enough to merit consuming bee pollen just for the protein.
[Photo via @srunsforcake]