Can a Bee Pollen Supplement Can Harm You?

It can if you're not careful.

Obviously, I'm a big fan of using bee pollen supplements for health and longevity. And with more and more awareness being created about bee products, more and more people are jumping on the 'bee band wagon' so to speak.

And while it is exciting that more and more people are being exposed to these natural health promoting products, it also scares me.

Why you ask?

Because when there is lots of money to be made, lots of 'ethically challenged' companies come to the forefront to get their piece of the pie!

What I mean by this when it comes to bee pollen is that there are many pollens available from around the world that are produced without health in mind. Rather, they're produced with profits in mind!

Bee Pollen Supplement: The Source

It is very important to know the source of your bee pollen.

Pollen is an air cleanness indicator because it can absorb air pollution and environmental chemicals.

What does this mean? It means that you want the source of your bee pollen supplement to be away from major industrial centers as pollen can absorb industrial pollutants.

Northern British Columbia in Canada is another very clean source of bee pollen and one we use regularly.

Another source of quality bee pollen supplements is New Zealand. Both the New Zealand government and the New Zealand people are very environmentally conscious, as evident by their strict environmental laws.

As a result, New Zealand remains one of the most unpolluted areas in the world. This makes for a great source of bee pollen! Furthermore, they are very strict on their use of toxic insecticides and pesticides.

The south of New Zealand is well known for its high quality bee pollen producers. The remote areas of the south are largely uninhabited by man. And because pollen can absorb toxins in the air, this is very important. Less toxins in the air equals less toxins in the pollen!

Personally, I would avoid any bee product sourced from China. As an industrial power house, the likelihood is high that their bee pollen products are high in heavy metals and pesticides.

(And lets just say that my dad the beekeeper has had many issues with cheap, offshore bee pollen)

Remember, bees fly many miles to collect the pollens that make up your supplement. Even if a hive is in an unpolluted area, bees can and will literally fly into a polluted area to collect pollen.

So it is very important that your bee pollen supplement source is many, many miles away from any type of industry or non-organic farms.

Bee Pollen Supplements: Processing and Packaging

For example, you want your bee pollen to ideally be collected every one to three days. All of the top producers do this.

You also want your pollen collected using stainless steel pollen traps.

Since pollen contains a lot of moisture in its natural state, you'll want it refrigerated and frozen quickly.

For example, our Enriching Bee Factors Bee Pollen is frozen immediately and air-dried in a special cleaning and drying plant, the largest in Canada.

It is then packaged in opaque bottles to keep out light, kept in a cool environment and dated for optimum freshness.

This is what one New Zealand producer told me:

"Our bee pollen is collected from the remote areas in the South island of New Zealand. The bee pollen is harvested every 3 days, air dried, and frozen to -20 degrees to preserve its freshness. We limit the handling to the absolute necessity and maintain a strict level of hygiene."

You won't find quality like that in China!

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