A lot of vegans get twisted up on the bee thing and ask me my personal take on bee products.
Well, my take on bee products is this: some things from bees are considered acceptable for vegans and some things are not. It all depends on the particular product and the individual.
There are basically four things produced by bees that are within the gamut of this controversy: honey, royal jelly, pollen, and propolis.
I will cover all four products separately.
HONEY
Most people don't know it, but honey is predigested bee food that is regurgitated by bees for harvest purposes. That's right!  Honey is pre-digested. This means bees have swallowed and eaten (digested) flower nectar and then spit it back up, the result or byproduct which we call honey.
Honey is made when bees digest flower nectar and the nectar mixes with bee enzymes.
Honey is basically bee vomit. It is a harvest food for bees. But humans don't care about this fact. Honey has been consumed for thousands of years dating back to ancient China.
Honey is used as an alternative sweetener by many people due to its natural sweetness. It is also rich in essential nutrients like amino acids, minerals, B-complex vitamins, so-called vitamins (C, D, and E) and carbohydrates.
Honey will vary in color (and taste) predicated upon what flower and nectar the bees consumed. Authentic honey will be named after a specific flower, i.e. Eucalyptus, Orange Blossom, Clover, etc.
Despite all of the above (i.e., nutritional content), I personally don't recommend honey for anyone or anything, including an alternative sweetener though I will admit it is far better than processed white table sugar (sucrose) for sweetening purposes.
Honey will also negatively affect blood sugar levels in the body just like regular processed white table sugar (sucrose).
Honey is technically not a vegan product since it is the byproduct of an insect, though an insect is not an animal. But nevertheless, it is processed by a living organism.
ROYAL JELLY
I used to experiment with this product back in the late 1990's when I first became health conscious. Royal Jelly is basically a combination of honey and pollen mixed together. It is thick and somewhat milky in nature. It is produced by bees, young nurse bees to be exact; who secrete this substance from their pharyngeal glands.
This jelly is highly nutritious and contains every single so-called B-vitamin; is rich in vitamins, minerals, enzymes, amino acids, and hormones.
It also contains potent antibiotic and antiviral properties.
Royal Jelly is produced by the young nurse and worker bees for the Queen bee. The Queen bee will outlive the nurse/worker bee by 26 times their life longevity due to the Royal Jelly the nurse/worker bees make for their queen.
Like honey, technically, Royal Jelly is not a vegan product.
POLLEN
I also used to consume a lot of Bee Pollen when I first became health conscious. I didn't consider Bee Pollen outside of the vegan diet and lifestyle because technically, it is not produced from the inside of the bee, but on the outside of the bee.
Bee Pollen is produced by the anthers of flowering plants and is collected by the bees. It is powder-like in nature and has a tan-like or light brown color.
Bee Pollen too, like all other bee products, is rich in nutrition and very therapeutic. It is high in natural protein, so-called B-vitamins, minerals, so-called vitamins, essential fatty acids, and enzymes. Bee Pollen is a complete food just like seaweed!
Vegans will have to make their own choice and assessment in regards to Bee Pollen. It is a byproduct of bees though not produced by the bees internally and thus predigested like honey and Royal Jelly.
I personally stopped using Bee Pollen in the early 2000's.
PROPOLIS
This is a very therapeutic substance! It is highly antiviral and antibacterial too! I helped a lot of people back in the early 2000's heal from herpes and other so-called viral infections with Bee Propolis.
Propolis is a resinous substance collected from specific plants by bees. Along with beeswax, bees use proplis to make bee hives. It is very effective in mucous membrane inflammations and thus helpful for all skin problems and disorders. Brother Amen-Ra in Washington, D.C., uses this substance in his wonderful and effective healing salve called Egyptian Magic.
I used to mix Bee Propolis with Bee Pollen. This was a powerful mix to combat disease in general, viral infections in particular.
Again, vegans will have to make their own personal determination and assessment in regards to Bee Propolis. It is in the category of Bee Pollen as it is produced by bees, but not from an internal process taking place within the bees' body like honey and Royal Jelly, which are predigested.
I stopped using Bee Propolis back in 2002.
As a strict vegan today, I don't directly use any bee products, though some vegan products I have consumed over the years and in the past have contained honey and propolis as ingredients. The ingredients were near the end of the ingredient list so I didn't trip.
As far as alternative sweeteners to honey are concerned, you have maple syrup and sugar, stevia herb, agave nectar, date sugar and syrup, fruit concentrate, and fructose to choose from.
Other than the vegan question, bee products are very nutritious and therapeutic.
Thank you for reading!
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