Portuguese Apitherapist to Live on Diet of Bee Products

Beginning in January, Portuguese apitherapist Antonio Couto will seek to live exclusively on a diet of bee hive products. Apitherapy News asked Mr. Couto about his experiment. He will track the progress of his dietary experiment online.

Q: Could you tell us a little about yourself?
A: My name is Antonio Couto, I am 46-years-old, Portuguese, live in Lisbon, where I have an apitherapy office.

Q: Why did you choose to undertake this experiment?
A: First of all because I know that way is possible to keep our body in balance (nutritionally and physically) and also because I want to know in my case how far I can go.

Q: What bee products will you consume and in what form?
A: I will take the most types of bee products possible, like honey, fresh frozen pollen, bee bread, fresh royal jelly, raw propolis, wax comb with honey, bee larvae, drone larvae and dead bees mix with honey (this way I will take some bee venom too).

Q: What about water?
A: Of course I will take water if my body asks for it. Honey already has a lot of water.

Q: What are the risks involved, if any?
A: I think that if the person is healthy there are no risk.

Q: How long will the experiment last?
A: I will start in the beginning of January 2009 and it will last for an undetermined time.

Q: Will you be under a doctor's supervision?
A: Yes, my family doctor will supervise me all the time with blood and other tests.

Q: Will scientific data be collected throughout the experiment?
A: I really hope so. All this data will be available on my web site later.

Q: What do you hope to accomplish with this experiment?
A: I hope this experiment can help others to understand and be more confident about taking bee products. Some of my patients, when I tell them to take bee products, ask me if will be not too much or if it's safe to take so many bee products at the same time.

Q: When will you start and how may readers monitor your progress?
A: I will start on January and I will try to put as much recent data as I can on my web site (www.beefine.com)

Note: Bee product producers who wish to add their products to Mr. Couto’s diet may send them to him at:

Antonio Couto
Calcada Ribeiro Santos, 37 - 1
1200-789 Lisbon
Portugal

E-Mail: beefine@netcabo.pt