Pollen is certainly very important in the nutrition of honeybees, and some people make great claims for the nutritional value of pollen as being one of the most complete foods in nature. It certainly has all the right ingredients, containing around 30 percent protein and including all the amino acids essential for human diets, a full spectrum of vitamins and minerals, trace elements, hormone precursors, carbohydrates and fatty acids. It is possible that pollen provides valuable trace elements to supplement deficient diets. ‘Believers’ in pollen say that it gives them energy, fights exhaustion and depression, and ensures resistance against colds and flu. For use in apitherapy, practitioners prefer to have pollen that is as fresh as possible: pollen that has been dried and stored for some time is thought to have a lower therapeutic value.
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