Summary
Royal jelly is a nutritious jelly produced by worker bees. It is fed to larvae worker bees and drones for the first three days of their lives to stimulate growth. Larvae that are fed royal jelly for a prolonged period of time grow up to be queen bees. In fact, the queen eats exclusively royal jelly throughout her life.
Royal jelly is a food product. It contains calories due to its protein, carbohydrate, and fatty acid content.
Supplementing royal jelly is claimed to promote longevity. This claim is not fully supported. It does, however, protect the heart by lowering triglyceride and lipoprotein levels.
Supplementing royal jelly can enhance testicular testosterone production. Animal research suggests it is able to increase estrogen in post-menopausal animals. Royal jelly may also reduce the effects of estrogen in youth. These hormonal effects are unreliable and difficult to predict.
Dosage information
More research is needed to determine an optimal dosage for royal jelly. Researchers have observed benefits when using 50-300mg doses. A 6g daily dose has also been shown to provide benefits.
