Serve Me Some Royal Jelly, Please!

I don't think I have told you that I often read Gwyneth Paltrow's blog called Goop. I like her style on food, health, beauty and over all attitude towards life. I didn't really care for her before but then I saw her tv show "Spain... On the road again". It showed a completely different side of usually so cool and bit reserved Gwyneth that I was used to seeing on the red carpets. On her show, she would drive around Spain with her friends. Some episodes she would be without any make up and just eat away all the goodies that Spain has to offer. She seemed so down to earth that I just had to check out her blog, and I found it very pleasant and interesting. So, now I read it often.

On her latest post, she wrote about bees. Yes, I said bees. A beautiful oscar-winning actress is interested in bees. Can you imagine that? After reading her post, I got interested about bees too.

If you didn't know, bees are really important to the world. According to Answers.com, over 80 per cent of all plants are pollinated by insects, and 87 per cent of those are pollinated by honey bees. If bees were to disappear many plants would fail to be pollinated and would die out. A lot of these plants are direct food crops for man, but even for those that are not, they are a food source for other creatures and it would severely affect the global food chain. It has been said that if the honey bee was to disappear man would have four years to live.

Gwyneth didn't write much about the importance of bees to the world but she did mention it. Her post concentrated more on the benefits of bee products to humans. She says that she got recommended to use bee pollen, raw honey and propolis to an old injury that was bothering her. According to Gwyneth, bee products worked for her.

That's where I got very interested about bees too. I'm willing to try anything to get rid of my back pain or at least to lessen it. Only problem is that I'm allergic to bee stings and pollen! But based on my quick research, you can slowly start using bee pollen and even venom, and eventually your body gets used to it. Basically, if bee products would work for me, it would be like killing two birds with one stone; I would get rid of my allergies and lessen my back pain. I think it is a worth a shot. And even if it doesn't work for allergies and back pain, at least I would get a lot of good vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants and amino acids from the bee products. Gwynet has a great glossary on her post. It made me realize how many different products there are. Check it out!


The Beehive Glossary:
Beyond producing honey, honey bees, or apis mellifera, in the course of building and maintaining a hive, produce a variety of products including propolis, bee pollen, bee venom and royal jelly.

-Raw Honey
It’s a vector for royal jelly, bee venom, propolis and pollen. Raw Honey specifically is obtained by beekeepers without heating the honey above 120°F.

-Manuka Honey
A honey produced in New Zealand that is monofloral and must be produced with manuka pollen in order to be considered a proper manuka honey.

-Propolis
Bees collect resin from trees and plants and combine it to seal and sterilize their hive. Propolis is rich in vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidant phytonutrients and flavonoids.

-Bee Pollen
Bees are selective about the pollen that they collect from flowers to take back to their hive. They collect pollen on their legs and take it back to the hive where it is mixed with honey and traces of propolis, and then fed to larvae for their growth and development. This substance contains amino acids, vitamins B, C, D, E and anti-oxidants.

-Royal Jelly
This is what only the queen bee eats. It’s produced by a gland on the worker bee and is packed full of Vitamins A, B and E and anti-oxidants.

-Bee Venom
This is the substance that is contained in a bee’s sting. Frederique Keller, an acupuncturist and owner of BeePharm, Apitherapy for Health & Beauty says, "It’s a complex substance with over sixty components, mainly proteins, enzymes and peptides."

-Bee-Sting Therapy
A little known therapy practiced by “apitherapists” that has been used for centuries uses real bee stings for ailments.

-Apipuncture
A form of acupuncture that combines bee venom with acupuncture. Bee venom is injected in select acupuncture points.

Isn't this interesting? I have always known that honey is really good for you, and that it has been used for ages in natural health care but I didn't know about all these other bee products. All the vitamins and anti-oxidants are so good for you!

I really want to try bee products, so I ordered these Royal Jelly, Bee Pollen, Propolis, Plus Korean Ginseng- capsules from IHerb.com. Gwyneth did have couple recommendations for online stores where you could buy these products too but her stores didn't offer shipping to Finland, so I went with IHerb. They ship to Finland and it is fairly cheap too.
Since there were many choices for bee products at IHerb I went with Y.S. Organic Bee Farm's capsules.  According to their website they have been in business since '95 and they are certified organic honey producers. Also, people had rated their products very well.

Now I just have to wait for my bee capsules to come in the mail. As soon as I get them, I will let you know how they are, and if I was able to take them due to my allergies. I always have antihistamines with me, plus we live by a major hospital, so I should be ok (*wink*). No, seriously. I read online that you can get an allergic reaction from bee products but it is not that common. I am not deadly allergic to them either. I just get a runny nose and my skin reacts to it but nothing serious.

Have a great Sunday!!