Royal Jelly: Benefits, Effects, Nutritional Value, and People Who Should Avoid It Explained
Royal jelly is also known as queen bee jelly, bee milk, and queen bee milk. It is a secretion from the pharyngeal glands of young worker bees that rear larvae in the honeycomb, and it is the food supplied to larvae that will become queen bees. Its nutrition is far higher than that of honey. So do you know the benefits and effects of royal jelly? And what about the nutritional value of royal jelly and the people who should avoid it? Let me introduce them to you.
I. Benefits and Effects of Royal Jelly
1. Royal jelly is sweet and sour in taste and neutral in nature. It enters the spleen and liver meridians; it has the effects of nourishing, strengthening, benefiting the liver, and invigorating the spleen; it is used for weakness after illness, malnutrition in children, physical decline in the elderly, infectious hepatitis, hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis, duodenal ulcers, and other conditions.
2. Royal jelly has a notable effect of moistening dryness and relieving constipation. For the vast majority of patients with habitual constipation, as long as they persist in taking a sufficient amount of bee milk orally over the long term, they can basically free themselves from the trouble of constipation.
3. Royal jelly can significantly enhance the human body's resistance to various pathogenic factors, promote the regeneration and repair of internal organ tissues, regulate the endocrine system and metabolism, and also effectively improve appetite, improve sleep, and promote growth and development. It has extremely strong health-care functions and medical effects on the human body.
4. Bee milk can strengthen the body's resistance and promote growth. Taken orally or by injection, it can increase the diameter of red blood cells and the hemoglobin of reticulocytes, significantly increase blood iron content, and increase the number of platelets.
5. Long-term use of royal jelly can promote appetite and strengthen the constitution. For thin people, long-term use can also increase body weight, making people full of energy, sleeping well, and feeling cheerful.
II. Nutritional Value of Royal Jelly
1. Royal jelly is high in protein. Protein accounts for about 50% of the dry matter of royal jelly, of which 2/3 is albumin and 1/3 is globulin. There are more than 12 kinds of proteins in royal jelly, and in addition there are many small peptides.
2. Royal jelly also contains fats, sugars, and substances similar to acetylcholine, as well as various amino acids and biological hormones needed by the human body.
3. Royal jelly contains 9 sterol compounds. Three have currently been identified: stigmasterol, cholesterol, and sitosterol. It also contains minerals such as iron, copper, magnesium, zinc, potassium, and sodium.
4. Royal jelly contains vitamin A and vitamin B, and is especially rich in B vitamins. It mainly also contains thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), pyridoxine (B6), vitamin B12, niacin, pantothenic acid, folic acid, biotin, inositol, vitamin C, vitamin D, and others, among which pantothenic acid is the highest in content.
III. People Who Should Avoid Royal Jelly
1. People with an allergic constitution. That is, people who usually easily develop allergies after eating seafood or who frequently have drug allergies. This is because royal jelly contains hormones, enzymes, and foreign proteins.
2. People who have long suffered from low blood pressure and low blood sugar. Royal jelly contains substances similar to acetylcholine, and acetylcholine has the effect of lowering blood pressure and blood sugar.
3. People with intestinal dysfunction and diarrhea. This is because royal jelly can cause strong contraction of the intestinal tract, induce intestinal dysfunction, and lead to diarrhea, constipation, and other conditions.
4. People in the early postoperative period and women during pregnancy. Postoperative patients have lost too much blood and are severely weak, and taking royal jelly at this time can easily cause bleeding from the facial features. Royal jelly can also stimulate uterine contractions and affect the normal development of the fetus.
5. Anyone with hyperactivity of liver yang and damp-heat obstruction, or with high fever, major hematemesis, or icteric liver disease, should not take royal jelly.
6. Children under 10 years old should not drink it. Children are in a peak period of development, and hormone secretion in the body is in a complex relatively balanced state and is supplied fairly sufficiently. Royal jelly contains a very small amount of hormones. If drunk, it may cause an imbalance in children's delicately balanced hormone secretion, thereby affecting children's normal development and possibly leading to gigantism. However, if a child's own development is incomplete, a small amount may be drunk to promote balanced development, and once balance is achieved, drinking can be stopped. Adults are in a state of hormone deficiency and have stopped developing, so drinking royal jelly serves to supplement what is lacking.