Some controversy exists regarding whether vegetarians should eat bee pollen, the pollen that sticks to a bee's legs as it collects nectar from flowers. Bee pollen provides a nutritional source to the bees. Vegetarians fall into several different categories, and not all follow the same diet restrictions. Some types of vegetarians may consume bee pollen. Vegans, the strictest type of vegetarian, generally do not eat bee pollen.
Vegetarian Types
Different types of vegetarians follow different dietary guidelines. Vegans, the most strict form of vegetarian, not only avoid animal products in food but also do not use them in any other products, including silk, wool or leather in clothes. Total vegetarians will eat only plant foods but don't eschew animal products in other areas of their lives. Lacto-ovo-vegetarians eat diary and eggs, while lacto-vegetarians eat dairy but not eggs. Since only vegans completely avoid using animal products, they're generally the only vegetarians that avoid all bee products, including bee pollen. Around 1 percent of Americans practice veganism, according to the Vegan Research Panel.
Rationale
Even though bees don't make bee pollen but merely collect it on their legs, they do use it for food. Because the bees use the pollen they collect, vegans will not take it from them. Veganism, a term coined by Donald Watson in 1944, goes beyond merely not eating animals and includes avoiding animal cruelty as well as reverence for all life in their philosophies. Vegans express concern for bees as living creatures and worry about the effects that taking pollen and honey from them has on their survival.
Other Bee Products
Vegans avoid other bee products besides bee pollen. Vegans will not use bee venom, which comes from bee stingers, because bees die after they sting you. Vegans also avoid royal jelly, the foods bees feed to their queen, as well as beeswax, which bees use to build their hives. They also will not use propolis, the plant resin "glue" used to hold the hive together. Bee brood, undeveloped bees, also are off limits for vegans, according to vegan Noah Lewis on his website, Vegetus.
Considerations
Vegetarians who don't hold as strict a view of vegetarianism as vegans also might avoid bee pollen, feeling that it deprives the bees of the pollen they worked to collect and need to survive. Most vegetarians give serious thought to what they will and will not eat and let their consciences be their guides. Some vegans who do eat bee pollen call themselves "beegans," according to Bee Pollen Health Benefits.com.
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