Also known as cubilose or edible bird’s nest (EBN), the bird’s nest is currently consumed by the people globally and produced by many countries. Long-time ago, a bird’s nest is known as a deluxe food supplement for Chinese to be made for a remedy soup as an alternative. People believe that a bird’s nest has its function in boosting our immunities. But, do you know what bird’s nest really is? Is it really good for the human body?
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Did You Know That Bird’s Nest Is Actually Bird’s Saliva?
Bird’s nest we eat daily is a type of bird’s nest we can consume. This edible bird’s nest is compounded by swiftlet’s salivary secretion. Commonly, the bird’s nest is divided into white and black nests which are produced by the species of Aerodramusfuciphagus and Aerodramus maximus, respectively. Based on production origins, the production of the bird’s nest can be divided into house and cave productions. House type will produce the white nest composed by pure salivary secretion, while cave type will produce the black nest composed by a mixture of salivary secretion, feathers, and plant fibers.
How Does The Saliva Build Up Into A Bird’s Nest?
No nest is built up by a single swiftlet. Each nest is built up by a pair of swiftlets. The nest is not only for nesting but also for a roosting site for the swiftlets. It will be built up in a high, dark, empty, and cave-like environment (for the house type). An investigation reported that house type swiftlets spent their overall time during the breeding period.
Bird’s Nest We Eat Is Not Raw
Did you know that the bird’s nest we consume is not a raw product but a processed one? The nest is not as raw as we thought before. It has been processed further to be a product we can consume. A time-consuming cleaning process of the bird’s nest is performed by cleaning it from the feathers and impurities traces. The processes are including cleaning with varying types of the cleaning process, like immerse the nest with water and/or oil, and drying the nest in the oven.
What’s So Good About Bird’s Nest?
Not only the taste of the bird’s nest is sweet, but also it is highly nutritious and beneficial in health effects. Bird’s nest produced by the swiftlets has its contribution in rejuvenating the skin, reducing the influenza virus’ exposure, suppress tumor progression, inflammation, cure erectile dysfunction, and enhance bone strength. Researchers also reported that the nest can dissipate phlegm and relieve cough. These contributions are worked in our bodies because of its compositions in the bird’s nest.
It is known that a bird’s nest is rich in glycoprotein. Beside it, there are also severalhigh valued compositions contained in the bird’s nest such as carbohydrates, calcium, sodium, and potassium. These compositions are good thingsas they have vital roles in functioning our bodies.
Sialic acid in glycoproteins has neurological and intellectual advantage effects in infants. A study has investigated that the composition of sialic acid, also known as N-acetylneuraminic acid (NANA), inside the bird’s nest has potential as a lightening agent for human skin. Also contributes as immune system moderator, this composition dissipates harmful microorganism including virus and bacteria.
Known as mineral salts or electrolytes, calcium, sodium, magnesium, and potassium are needed by our bodies. Our daily needs of mineral salts will be sufficient enough if we consume it daily in a proper amount. Also, those will help our bodies to keep hydrated and enhance body vigor. Another contribution of the bird’s nest for the human body is boosting the immunity system. Bird’s nest will boost the immunity by proliferating and activating the immunity cells in our bodies. A study indicated that consuming the nest for 30 days will reduce the inhibition of intestinal immunity due to chemotherapy. Hence, we can eat a bird’s nest every day because of its beneficial values to be consumed.
How Do We Eat Birds’ Nest?
As the ancient Chinese used the edible bird’s nest to make a delicacy soup, we also can serve the bird’s nest into something else. A bird’s nest congee can be cooked as the nest mixed with rice. Another instance is that you can cook several kinds of desserts like egg tarts, cookies, or even a pie.
Bird’s Nest’s Popularity in the Cosmetic Industry
As it was mentioned before, the bird’s nest is not only used as something we consume regularly but also used in the cosmetic industry. The ability of the bird’s nest in proliferating skin cells has been widely studied for cosmetic purposes. There are many kinds of cosmetic products that are mainly composed of bird’s nest such as cream, cleanser, serum, lotion, and masker. By all this information about the bird’s nest, we can conclude that the nest is a highly valuable thing that we can not only eat but also use it as a cosmetic product. Be sure to get the highest quality bird’s nest, which are usually sourced from Indonesia from HoneyCity.