Posted on by Lauryn Evarts

Queen Bees Love Their ROYAL JELLY (& You Should Too)

royal jelly benefits | by the skinny confidential

I’m gonna letcha in on a little ( BIG!! ) secret…

An obsession that’s been helping me heal from surgery: ROYAL JELLY.

Wait, wait, wait we’ve talked about bee pollen ( which is kick ass in smoothies ); isn’t that the same? NO!

Ok, so what the hell is the difference?

For starters, bee pollen & royal jelly “are two different things. Royal jelly is what bees eat and feed to their queen. It is a very high nutrient-rich food. Bee pollen is produced by flowers and is attached to the feet of bees when they extract nectar from flowers/plants. Essentially, bees do not ‘produce’ pollen— flowers and plants do. But bees use pollen & other substances to create royal jelly for their food. Royal jelly is full of ‘bee’ vitamins.”

OMG I WANT WHAT BEES FEED TO THEIR QUEEN.

But really, bees feed the queen the cream of the crop…soooooo gimme. ( Also, ‘bee’ vitamins? I can’t with that ).

Basically the queen bee bitch gets hooked up…

“When bee larvae are first born, they’re fed royal jelly directly from the workers in order to get a healthy, nutritious boost so they survive their first few days of life. However, after 3-4 days, larvae no longer consume royal jelly. However, for potential queen bees, royal jelly is far more important. In fact, queen larvae are put into these special queen cells and are surrounded by royal jelly. This is what helps them to develop their “queen morphology.”

< I’m jealous. >

“There’s a single protein, royalactin, that causes the phenotypic change in the queen larvae. It causes them to develop ovaries and grow to a far larger size than normal bees. Furthermore, royal jelly has been known to extend the life span of a queen more than 20 times longer than that of a normal bee (via).”

I’ll take it!

Also, the stuff is REALLY GOOD for skin guys. It essentially heals you from the inside out. My favorite wellness tip ever: healing the system through clean eating to produce outward healing.

Other royal jelly benefits include: “ability to prevent certain types of cancer, lower blood pressure, relieve sexual infertility, lower cholesterol levels, protects the liver, reduces inflammation, heals digestive disorders, prevents premature aging, help in weight loss efforts, and increase circulation. Royal jelly contains a rich variety of nutrients including minerals like calcium, copper, iron, phosphorous, silicon, sulfur, and potassium, as well as a wealth of B-family vitamins, biotin, inositol, folate, nucleic acids, gamma globulin, and 17 different amino acids, including the 8 essential amino acids that the human body cannot produce, and must therefore get from their diet (via).”

Royal jelly is anti-aging, healing, vitamin filled goodness..YES.

SO how do you eat it? Easy. Just take a teaspoon under the tongue. The recommended usage is simple: one or two teaspoons twice a day, preferably between meals on an empty stomach with a small amount of water.

Ultimately the main reason I’ve been royal jelly-ing it up after surgery is because one of the main benefits: it’s a total anti-inflammatory which I REALLY NEED because I literally look like Quasimodo slept with Sloth from The Goonies. It’s not pretty.

This brand is my favorite because it’s no bullshit. Just 100% royal jelly. Plus Y.S. Beekeepers are known for how serious they are about true, honest, healthy bee products. LOVE it. If you want a quick fix, royal jelly is available in capsule form as well.

What’s your feeling on royal jelly? ALSO, IF YOU HAVE AN ANTI-INFLAMMATORY TIPS, please, please, puhlease share. I WILL TRY ANYTHING AT THIS POINT.

Chat soon, lauryn/Quasimodo

+ as always check with a doctor first, some people are highly allergic to bees. x

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60 replies to “Queen Bees Love Their ROYAL JELLY (& You Should Too)”

    1. Soooo obsessed Leonie! How do you eat it? Pleasssee send tips / recipes/ fav ways to eat it?? Thanks for reading! xx <3

  2. Really interesting post. About inflammation – get a high dose of fish oil, in particular omega-3, because actually right now I’m looking into this as a nutritional cure for inflammatory skin conditions. However it also reduces inflammation in all of the body’s systems (I work in a biomedical company so I’m currently researching this in the lab). Sorry if this gets too sciency now but, basically the body needs omega-3 PUFAs (poly-unsaturated fatty acids) to form eicosanoids which are signalling molecules that regulate inflammatory pathways. Also it’s worth mentioning that yes eicosanoids from omega-3 PUFAs have inflammatory properties BUT eicosanoids derived from an omega-6 PUFA (particularly, the one called Arachidonic acid) actually aggravates inflammation.

    Reply

    1. Yasmina, this comment is not too sciency!! I am so interested! Thank you for the info. I appreciate it. I need all the info on reducing inflammation I can get. Seriously going to pop some fish oil pills now lol! Thanks for reading xx <3

    2. Yasmina,

      What about krill oil? I hear it is slightly better than fish oil but have not tried it yet, a friend said it makes their joints feel so much better? do you know?

      Thanks
      Heather

  3. This was a great information.

    I am a chemist and actually did a little research on royalactin years ago and was surprised a the number of benefits.

    I have Rheumatoid Arthritis so I am constantly researching information about anti-inflammatory options. As far as internal healing, I am not sure where your swelling is the most, but when I had surgery near my both awhile back, I would put slightly soaked, warm green tea bags in the back of my jaw area. It felt so good and helped tremendously with my swelling!

    Reply

  4. love royal jelly, hate the taste though, literally so hard for me to choke down! also I am sure you already know this but arnica pellets and cream will really help reduce your swelling and healing process

    Reply

    1. I’ve been taking arnica pellets but I need to UP them. I noticed I wasn’t taking them as frequently as I should. Thanks for the reminder, Kaitlin! xo

  5. I’m totally gunna get some of this. I’ve been eyeballing it for my skin, but i mean, i need it for everything at this point. I heard pineapple and turmeric are anti inflammatory. not together, just in general. but im sure in a smoothie might not be bad. get unpuffy soon! xo

    Reply

    1. Hi Melissa, YES to pineapple and turmeric! They are both great for reducing inflammation. Def go for the royal jelly. Let me know if you end up grabbing some and tell me what you think! Thanks for reading <3 xx

    1. It’s good! Not a ton of flavor, it’s definitely a unique taste. It has a jelly-like texture. It’s good though, I promise!!

  7. Great choice for healing! My grandma used to keep bees, and she always made my aunts and uncles eat it as children. They all look amazing, so maybe that had something to do with it?

    Bees are an endangered species, and everyone thinks they are bad and tends to kill them when they see them, so I think the more we love bee products, the better it is to promote the health of bees!!

    <3

    Reply

    1. I agree Jill, bees are amazing! Such an incredible creature. So cool your grandma used to keep bees! Did they ever sting you / her?? So intrigued! I would have been out there asking for jelly like, every day! LOL. Thanks for reading babe! xx <3

  9. It’s really funny that you have a post on royal jelly. I literally just watched the movie Mr. Holmes with Ian McKellan and the character mentioned royal jelly and its healing properties. And yes, I realize it’s a fictitious movie but it made me look into royal jelly and then lo and behold my go to blogger for all things healthy makes a post on it! I hope the swelling is on its way to being gone!
    x Nora

    Reply

    1. So funny Nora. I think the Universe is telling you to buy some royal jelly. How many more signs do you need?! LOL! I promise you won’t regret it I’m obsessed!! If you get it, let me know what you think and how you like to eat it! Thanks for reading <3 xx

  10. How interesting is this!! Lauryn, you always share THE COOLEST stuff with us. I’m curious – what does this taste like? I’m totally a taste/texture person so I’m thinking I may be better off with the capsule form for this one.

    Reply

    1. I personally think it tastes great! I love this kind of stuff though. It has a jelly-like texture so it’s not too bad. If you’re really worried about it, you can go for a capsule but try to get the 100% jelly, I like this brand: http://bit.ly/1KWOmQ0

      Let me know what you end up trying! And if you notice any benefits! xx <3

  11. OMG, this sounds like heaven, no wonder why Asian skincare uses this like crazy! But, do you know if the capsule form is just as effective as the jelly itself??

    Thanks~! <3

    Reply

    1. I personally like to go for the raw jelly, it is more fresh. Putting it in a capsule is a pretty intense process. But if you’re worried about texture the capsule is still great! I like this one: http://bit.ly/1KWOmQ0

      Let me know what you end up trying! Thanks for reading Danielle <3 xx

  12. Lauryn I hope you feel better soon! I don’t have my blog post up about this yet for my personal training clients, but tart cherry juice helps with inflammation and also with sleep. There’s some great science out there to back up those claims…and I’ve been summarizing that science for my people so this blog post has taken me foreverrr to finish haha. While I try to crank out this post, hopefully you can enjoy some relief from tart cherry juice! You can buy it at pretty much any grocery store, and some juice bars offer it as well. My favorite NYC juice spot offers shots of it mixed with turmeric…so healing!

    Reply

    1. Elizabeth, that sounds like a great post. Send it to me in the comments when it’s live! I love reading the science behind all of this stuff. It’s so important! Thanks for reading <3 xx

    1. Let me know what you think Jen! I am so interested to hear what you guys think about this. Keep note of any benefits you notice. Thanks for reading <3 xx

  14. LOVE Royal Jelly, but can we please talk about this: “Basically the queen bee bitch gets hooked up…” literally ??? this emoji right now. So hilarious!!

    I love that same brand – I use the pills with the Korean Ginseng every Morning, but then my FAVE is their super enriched honey (it has bee pollen, royal jelly, and propolis): I also take it every AM in hot water with squeezed lemon + ginger + cayenne. Hell, you can add some tumeric + ACV in it too to make it TSC style. Random, but if you ever find your self in Northern California: SF or Wine Country – look for Bee Kind. It is seriously the most amazing store of all things BEE products!! http://www.beekind.com/

    As far as anti-inflammatory – try Coconut Water with some algae in it! My gf and I love mixing coconut water with E3Live. I know it sounds weird, but I also know it will be up your alley! Another food to look for is Chaga Powder. It’s a magic (well… not like that) mushroom. Really good with cacao, almond milk, and something to sweeten with – dates, coco sugar, stevia. Hope it helps!!! Get well soon! <3 x

    Reply

    1. Hi Shannon! Mmmm enriched honey sounds unreal! So good. Bee Kind sounds AMAZING. I need to go there. So jealous. When I’m all healed def making a trip up to SF. So funny I totally made a smoothie today with E3 live, so good for you! It’s tastey too.

      Thank you so much for all of your recommendations! I seriously appreciate your support. Thanks babe <3

  15. Hey Lauryn! Reading your last lines about how desperately you are in need of cooling down the inflammation reallly touched my heart- it’s why I want to help people so desperately.
    I guess first things first, and that’s your mind/heart. You’ve got to have faith that this too shall pass, and believe in the incredible healing capabilities within your body. It’s not broken, it’s just struggling, and needs a good friend and leader to help it pull through and survive. Work with your body, not against it.
    Number two, how’s your gut? Immunity, inflammation, everything, connects right to your gut. Are you feeding your secret super heroes, the good bacteria? You know, fiber from vegetables and some fruit? Prebiotics/resistant starch- squash, potatoes/sweet, yams, plantains? Good prebiotics include garlic, onions, asparagus, and dandelion greens. Also, don’t forget about probiotic foods/drinks! Fermented veggies, kombucha, miso, pickles, kefir (preferably coconut water kefir), yogurt? That will help your immune system so much, especially in regards to inflammation.
    This also goes for nutrient-rich foods- leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables, a bit of starchy carbs here and there alongside fruit, fats (especially omega 3s and coconut/oil), and herbs (basil, oregano, cilantro, etc). Don’t forget fish or chicken and eggs, too! Bone broth can also really help (I’ve seen you blog about it, so you already know).
    The last thing would be supplements. The number one that comes to my mind in regards to inflammation is TURMERIC. Seriously. There are legitimate studies going on about this super root! It’s INSANE- just as effective as Advil in some trials! What’s even better is that turmeric is a holistic ingredient that works its way all across the spectrum of the entire body, so you’re not just receiving its anti-inflammatory properties. A great supplement to buy is Gaia’s Turmeric SUPREME; unline most supplements, Gaia’s comes paired with black pepper, which enhances the absorption of curcumin, the superpower substance derived from turmeric. It also is a mega potent extract of turmeric, and is free of any synthetic crap that will do more harm than good in the long run. I just want to note that I am NOT associated with Gaia, therefore I’m receiving NO benefit from applauding their products. They’re just really potent and amazing; I’m a fan.
    Ginger too is another great anti-inflammatory to pair with turmeric as well. You may have to take multiple servings depending on the severity of your inflammation, but trust me when I say that turmeric can help, just give it time.
    Best of luck, Lauryn! I pray you’ll make it out fine. 🙂

    Reply

    1. Sam, you have no idea how much I appreciate your comment. Literally, you just gave sooo much info and I’m loving it! Turmeric has been a staple in my diet lately, so healing! I’m def going to stock up on all the ingredients you’ve mentioned.

      Seriously, I really appreciate all the tips! Thanks so much for the support, and thank you for reading <3

      xx

    2. Wow… I just don’t know what else to say? You just made my morning. I want to cry, because wonderful, beautiful people like yourself give me HOPE. Hope for a better future, hope that we can all heal and connect.
      You’ll get better, I know it! Your bravery in addressing your struggles and sharing them with readers shows that you have what it takes to accomplish anything. 🙂

  17. love all these tips! keep ’em coming! also, you’re already so gorgeous that i’m sure the quasimodo-ness only takes you from like, a 10 to an 8, so basically, you’re just like the rest of us 😉

    Reply

    1. LOL! Shelby you’re so sweet, and too kind. Seriously I feel like an alien 🙁 I really appreciate your support though babe, THANK YOU! <3

    1. I do, I do. It’s not pretty. I told Michael to only sit on my left side because that side is less swollen. Hahah. It’s been a slow recovery. I need to rest more!! And reading your turmeric article now! x

    1. Hi Kara! Let me know if you try the jelly! I’m so intrigued to hear what you guys think!

      Thanks for reading babe! <3 xx

  21. Biggest secret of Asian women in SE Asia is Royal Jelly! Every Thai lady tells me that I should be popping these pills like skittles! Thanks for sharing the benefits and break down of them! xo C

    Reply

    1. Yep, it’s totally a thing. Asian women age so well. I want to learn all their tricks! Looks like it’s (jelly) skittles for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! lol!!

  22. Oh man. I want to WANT to try this because of the benefits, but it just freaks me out. Thinking about eating something that is a secretion from a bee makes me want to pass out from the bug anxiety. ????????????

    Reply

  23. Best thing I’ve found for anti-inflammatory is drinking a teaspoon of white vinegar (major yuck) but it’s always helped me!! Hope it helps and feel better soon. I love your posts!!

    Reply

    1. Hi Thyren, oh man you are brave! That sounds intense but I am totally going to try it. How often should I drink it?? Once a day? More or less? LMK! Thanks for reading, xx <3

    1. Hi Jacqueline! Interesting! Will you let me know the difference if you try royal jelly? I’m so intrigued! Thanks for reading <3 xx

  25. When I was having problems getting pregnant with my second child.. I would take bee pollen and royal jelly. I totally forgot about how great it made me feel, I need to buy some again! (and it tastes SO yum!)

    Reply

    1. Hi Lauren! Did it help with the getting pregnant process? Did a doctor recommend taking it or were you just taking it on your own? Do tell! Thanks for reading babe <3 xx

  26. Try essential oils mixed with coconut oil! you can use it inside and outside of your mouth!! Here are a few of my favs to blend for swelling; frankincense, lavender, eucalyptus, peppermint, sandalwood, theives (super antibacterial), chamomile and ginger!! ALSO! Soak a wash cloth in warm water and Epsom salt (add essential oils here too) and place it over your face where you are swollen!! always helps a TON!! Mornings I do an ice facial by rubbing an ice cube all over my face, creates good blood flow and circulation and gets rid of swelling!!! hope this helps! xx

    Reply

    1. Hi Olivia, I’m sooo digging essential oils lately. Like, I’m using them EVERY DAY. Completely obsessed. Where do you buy yours? Online or in a store? Thank you for the tips, I appreciate your support <3

  27. Thank you for the recommendations Monika! I appreciate it. Love the recipe, sounds so good! Cute blog and thanks for reading!! <3 xx

    Reply

  29. Definitely try Arnica gel & pill capsules for inflammation! It’s a homeopathic remedy but it works wonders. I tend to sprain my ankle a lot and I always turn to arnica to help with the bruising, swelling and pain!

    xx

    Reply

  30. After reading this article I ordered it off Amazon right away. Couldn’t wait to try it as soon as it landed on my door step. It’s super sweet like honey so it’s hard for me to eat alone. Therefore, this morning I decided to try it mixed in with Organic yogurt, chia seeds, oats, acai powder and blueberries.

    Reply