Soaking of pollen

by Kathryn Borrie
(Macclesfield. Sth Australia)

Hi there, great site, thanks for the info. We are Apiarists in South Australia.Currently we are on a steep learning curve as we have collected & are drying & freezing our first batch of pollen, very exciting! Just a query, do you recommend soaking the pollen? Another site said this greatly enhances the assimilation of it? Also, my 3 year old daughter got hives quite severely on the first night after she took it, but having read your starting out guidlines I have cut back her dosage. She loves it but is on limited amounts.
Thank you & regards
Kathryn Borrie.

Angela's Response:

When the topic of how to take bee pollen comes up, I often get asked about pre-soaking. Dr. Cherbuliez is the Vice President of the American Apitherapy Society and his view about soaking bee pollen for optimum digestion is widely published throughout the internet. Dr. Cherbuliez is actually a psychiatrist who became interested in bee keeping and apitherapy and some sites claim that he has done research on bee pollen absorbtion. I have yet to be able to find or read the actual research and have no idea how or when he was able to measure the absorbtion rates of bee pollen.

Because of this and a complete lack of other research supporting Dr. Cherbuliez's claims, I am not totally convinced that soaking pollen for 12 hours is necessary for everyone. I do find that it helps those who have impaired digestion of some kind (those who suffer from Irritable Bowel, Crohns, Colitis, Gas & Bloating etc). It certainly won't hurt the bee pollen or you. On the other hand, it is well known that pre-soaking certain nuts and seeds helps those who have a hard time digesting them. So even though pollen is not a nut, it is food for thought. I personally believe that if you chew your raw pollen, the human digestive tract is quite capable of breaking down the outer shell of the pollen granule and releasing the valuable nutrients into your G.I. tract.