Real Food for Life

Around the world – the bees are dying.

If this trend continues 1/3 of our food crops will be in danger of disappearing,  including foods many of us love, like apples, blueberries, broccoli and almonds.

Scientists and the bee industry are scrambling to try to understand what is going on and to prevent it.  What they are finding for BEES sounds like the same conclusions you would find about your own health.

Although there has been some attention from the press about this problem – the loss of the honeybees has not received the attention it deserves. Many people categorize this trend in the same distant way that they think about the loss of for example, panda bears.

Bees may not be cute and cuddly like pandas but they are so much more vital for our own foods. One third of world’s agricultural production depends on the European honeybee to pollinate the crops at certain vital parts of the year. This pollination results in SEEDS like FRUITS and MORE PLANTS. There are not enough wild bees or bats to accomplish this. Crops like wheat, potatoes and rice do not rely on insect pollination but many fruits and vegetables could become so scarce that their price would skyrocket… IF you could get them at all. It would be a completely different world.

When the task force of scientists starting researching into this problem they found that sometimes bees were being killed by certain factors including, a). Synthetic poisoning from insecticides and other pesticides and  b). Infections from other organisms, like bacteria and viruses.  The trouble with this was that SOMETIMES these factors were present and bee colonies were still healthy.

There seems to be an overriding factor decreasing overall health of the bees; thus making them more susceptible to poisons and infections.  What the scientists suspected and are still proving is that the bee’s natural defenses are being undermined by POOR NUTRITION and other unnatural living conditions.

Nutrition for bees might sound rather odd since they eat only nectar and pollen.  What has happened though, is that honeybees don’t have the VARIETY of flowers available to them because man has destroyed much of their habitat. We humans like our environment orderly so we clear the ditches of wild flowers and kill all the dandelion and clover in our lawns but to bees these areas are now nutritional wastelands.  The bee industry is hopeful that restoring balance to the diet and habitat of bees can improve their well being and prevent total colony collapse. Here’s hoping.

Where have you heard the word VARIETY in our diet before?  Probably from every dietitian and nutritionist who ever lived.  If you participated in our Real Food For Life course, you heard it every week from Diana who was encouraging you to eat more vegetables and fruits.  This is a principle of health and regeneration – that no single wonder food can solve all your problems. Rather you need a balanced diet of whole live foods.  We have such variety available to us in our gardens, farmer’s markets and supermarkets. Let’s all take advantage of that while we can!

P.S.  We realize this is the second straight article about insects.  Don’t worry. We are NOT going BUGGY!  The next article will not be about insects of any kind.

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