Knowledge Point: We all know that bird's nest is a nourishing food, but not all bird's nests are edible. The truly nutritious bird's nests are those of several species of swallows in the swiftlet family and the swiftlet genus. According to modern nutritional analysis, the main components of bird's nest are protein, carbohydrates, fiber, calcium, phosphorus, iron, sodium, potassium and other trace elements and several amino acids, which can be synthesized by the human body or obtained from other foods, so the nutritional value of bird's nest is not particularly high.

In the fourth season of Love Apartment, there was a Wenchuan psychiatrist, and this psychiatrist told a story that one of his patients always thought that he was a swallow, and sent him bird's nests every year, and at first he thought that this patient was thanking him, and then he realized that he was spitting on him. Although this is a joke, it also reflects that there are still many people who take bird's nests as gifts to others, especially the legendary "Blood Swallow", which is repeatedly sold at sky-high prices. So is bird's nest really worth it?

Bird's nests are the nests of swallows, but the swallows are not our common nesting swallows under the eaves of the house, the swallows are called house swallows, belonging to the bird family Barnacle, and the swallows that make edible bird's nests are called "Golden Swallows", which belongs to the family Barnacles, and the Golden Swallows, which is the collective name of several species of swallows, which are mainly found in India, Southeast Asia, Malaysia, and the United Arab Emirates. Mainly distributed in India, Southeast Asia, Malay Archipelago and other regions, every year in March and April, the swiftlet will find a place to settle down and prepare for laying eggs, breeding the next generation, before laying eggs, they will use the viscous saliva mixed with some other things to build a nest, these nests are picked and then processed, that is, we eat the bird's nest.

As an imported product, bird's nest was offered to the emperor as tribute at a very early stage, so it is also said to be a nutritious, nourishing and tonic product. However, according to modern nutritional analysis, bird's nest is mainly composed of proteins, carbohydrates, cellulose, trace elements such as calcium, phosphorus, iron, sodium, potassium and a few kinds of amino acids, among which only lysine is an essential amino acid. amino acids, in addition there are three conditional amino acids, that is, individual people need amino acids, most of the other non-essential amino acids that the body can synthesize itself. Carbohydrates are found in most foods, in addition to fiber, trace elements it is not particularly prominent, from the nutritional value, it is just a low-level food, after all, it is just a nest made by the swiftlet with saliva and feathers, etc., just for the sake of reproduction of the offspring of the settled with, the nutrients are not rich to where.

Besides the common bird's nest, there is another kind of bird's nest that is often exposed on the news in the past two years -- blood bird's nest. Blood bird's nest, because of its red color, has been rumored to be made by swallows that are overworked and vomit blood, and the Chinese often say, "Eat what you eat to make up for what you've eaten". Chinese people always say "what you eat makes up for what you have", so Bird's Nest is rumored to have the effect of replenishing blood. In fact, if you think about it, how big is a swiftlet, if it has to vomit blood to make a nest, it will be dead long time ago. In southern China and Southeast Asia, there are two places for people to collect bird's nests, one is under the eaves of the houses, where the bird's nests are often white, and the other is in the caves, where swallows build their nests on the rocks, and because of the long period of time attached to the rock wall, the minerals penetrate into the bird's nests, making the bird's nests red in color, which is often referred to as "blood bird's nests". Apart from the fact that there are more minerals than ordinary bird's nests, the nutritional value of blood bird's nest is not much higher than that of ordinary bird's nests. Moreover, because of the low production of blood swallow, many people want more, driven by profit, many unscrupulous businessmen will be white bird's nest coloring to become a blood swallow high price sale, was not high-level nutrients were so tossed, may be turned into a harmful drug.

Now you should understand the value of bird's nest. The reason why bird's nest has been rumored to be a god, this is actually a result of the businessmen's great hype and publicity, and its purpose is to serve the commercial interests. Therefore, if you have extra free money, you might as well go to the food market and buy a few more blocks of tofu and a few handfuls of bok choy, so that the nutrition comes more real.

Author:Shan Shaojie ? (Image from the web)

This work is the original work of "Popular Science China - Science Principles a little bit of Tong" Reprinted please indicate the source

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