Yes Mark. I think we can produce a substitute...not just a supplement. We've done it in humans and saved untold thousands of lives. I read once about a civil war soldier who was gut shot and an MD studied him. This might have been the beginning of hyperalimentation. 

Along can a doc named Stan Dudrick, very early in my time. He pioneered 'Total Parenteral Nutrition' (TPN) by feeding beagle puppies intravenously until he developed a protocol whereby they grew and developed normally. 

There was a scandal late in his career involving a high fat diet and pancreatitus. Many of us were saddened by it. But, lives are still being saved every day thanks to his work.

Hyperalimentation refers both to enteral and parenteral modes of feeding. In many ways using the natural alimentary pathway (mouth, gut, pooper) is simpler, safer, cheaper and easier. It includes perhaps more options.

In a training class, I recall a speaker stating that 5% of all hospital deaths are nutrition related. Hormones and antibodies are protein based. Burn patients and head injuries can run through ten thousand calories a day and 25 grams of nitrogen. They will succumb to infections of pneumonia or septicemia. They die from the heart catabolising it's self.

So is it any wonder that our bees also respond to diet. Too much. Too little. The wrong stuff. The right nutrients in incorrect form and amount.

The only paper I've seen so far mentions Amino Acid components in pollen. That those mentioned compare to human supplements seems suspicious to me. Totally omitted were other components: fats and their forms Long chain, short chain, linoilnic, linoleic and oleic etc. minerals, trace elements, stable and unstable precursors. Not mentioned were nonessential but most common AA's such as glutamine.

I'm not surprised that we've spent more in human health. That we know more.

It might be that we will find complete substitution too expensive to produce and use. Could you imagine micro pelletised synthetic pollen electrolytically charged and sprayed onto bees as they enter the hive. Sounds like money to me. I would settle for a patty that was complete in profile and palatable.

Then of course Peters caution...'Now that you have it, how do you use it.'

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