Presidential Pollen

A President cannot live on jelly beans alone. Less well known than his eye for candy is Ronald Reagan's taste for bee pollen, a powdery substance that many health-food devotees consider a wonder food. Though unsupported by scientifc evidence, advocates tout it as a preventive for everything from impotence to aging. When Reagan wants a bee-pollen snack, he can now reach for something named in his honor, a candy bar called the President's Lunch.

The snack's creator, 67-year-old Bruce Brown of Scottsdale, Ariz., introduced the President's Lunch last November in a patriotic-looking red-silver-and-blue wrapper. Besides bee pollen, the ingredients include rolled oats, peanut butter, kelp, sunflower seeds and raisins. Brown predicts health-food fans will be abuzz about the bar this summer, when the 1.3-oz. snack becomes widely available in supermarkets for about 75-c-.

Brown's company, C.C. Pollen, is the largest seller of the substance in the U.S. Brown sneers at conventional candy bars, describing them as "semipoison," and points to Reagan's vigor at 73 as evidence of bee pollen's healthful effects. "Just look at him," says Brown of the President. "This is one of the few bars you can eat that will improve your health."