Category: Life gt; gt; Food/Cooking
Analysis:
Bird's nest is an edible material formed from the colloidal saliva secreted by swiftlets unique to Southeast Asia. bird's nest.
Natural bird's nests are cup-shaped, and male and female swiftlets take turns hanging on the side of the nest to rest while entering the nest to hatch young swiftlets. Environmentally friendly bird's nests are picked after small swiftlets can fly. Various varieties are formed during the picking process. The specific classification is as follows:
1. According to the picking location, they are divided into house swiftlets and cave swiftlets.
Cave swallows are harvested in caves, but are gradually being replaced by house swallows due to scarcity of output and rising environmental concerns. The house swallows are picked in the swiftlet house, while the swiftlets are still wild. They go out for food in the early morning and return in the evening.
2. According to the edible degree of bird's nest, it is divided into swiftlet, grass nest and feather nest.
Swiftlets are edible bird's nests after cleaning. Grass swallows and feather swallows are nests built by swiftlets of the family Swiftidae that are not swiftlets. The content of the nests is very small and cannot be eaten. The feathered bird's nest is a bird's nest that has not yet been cleaned and can be eaten after cleaning.
3. According to the shape of bird's nest, it is divided into bird's nests, bird's nest strips, bird's nest pieces, bird's nest cakes, bird's nest horns and bird's nest nets. The first three types can be divided into grades according to the degree of damage after picking and transportation. The bird cakes are made from processed feather bird's nest and cave bird's nest. Yanjiao is the glued part at the base of the wall when swiftlets build their nests. It has a fragrant taste. The white swallow net is a fine mesh in the middle of the bird's nest that supports the eggs and chicks. It has a delicate and smooth texture.
4. In addition, according to color, it is divided into white swallow, blood swallow and yellow swallow. As for Guan Yan, Gong Yan, etc., they all refer to the perfect first-born bird's nest. Nest Factory's Indonesian bird's nests have 15 varieties (including special-grade, first- and second-grade white bird's nests) except cave bird's nest and feathered bird's nest, which are more time-consuming to pick and clean, and bird cakes are made from processed feather bird's nest and cave bird's nest. Belongs to Guanyan.
What are the benefits of bird’s nest?
1. "Beauty Gene" - Epidermal Growth Factor
About a hundred years ago, German chemist Emil Fischer had proven that the amino acids of proteins combine with each other to form polypeptides Chain, such as two glycines removing a molecule of water to form glycine. The growing bonds are called peptide bonds. If the reaction proceeds, a polypeptide containing many amino acid residues can be produced. There are many low molecular polypeptides in animals, plants and bacteria, which have very important physiological effects. Peptide hormones are one of the most important ones.
Some scholars have found that bird's nest contains a very important peptide substance - epidermic growth factor (EGF). This substance exists in most body fluids of the human body, and its content is particularly high in breast milk, breast milk, etc. In the human body, it is mainly synthesized by the submandibular gland and duodenal gland, and has many important physiological functions, such as inhibiting the secretion of gastric acid and protecting the duodenum.
EGF also has a very important function and is therefore known as the "beauty gene". It can inhibit the division and proliferation of various cells, promote cell differentiation, quickly repair damaged skin, and promote the healing of surgical wounds and wounds; it can affect the delicacy and aging of human skin, activate the cells of aging skin, and make Skin becomes smooth and elastic.
The above findings are not only good news for female friends around the world. In fact, for many years, many popular film and television stars in Hong Kong and Taiwan, especially female stars, have been doting on bird's nests. Under the heavy work pressure of rehearsals or concerts, bird's nests have become their favorite skin care and beauty aid to maintain youth forever. companion. These exaggerations through various media have long become an open secret. Now it seems that the magical effect of bird's nest in beauty and skin care is not only proved by a large amount of practical experience, but also has its scientific basis.
Mitogens that can improve immune function
Scholars also extracted a mitogen from bird's nest that is known to promote the division of T cells or B cells. We know that lymphocytes are important immune cells in the human body, which mainly include T lymphocytes and B lymphocytes.
This mitogen in bird's nest can improve the body's immune function through the mitosis of lymphocytes. This may be the material basis for the nourishing and strengthening function of bird's nest.
2. Therapeutic effect on respiratory diseases
The therapeutic effect on respiratory diseases can be said to be the classic therapeutic effect of bird's nest.
From ancient times to the present, various medical books have emphasized the therapeutic effect of bird's nest on respiratory system (called lung system in ancient times) diseases, such as tuberculosis, cough, hemoptysis, phlegm and asthma, etc., which is what we call it today. Talking about tuberculosis, tracheitis, bronchitis and other diseases. This has been covered in previous chapters. In addition, for people with bad habits of smoking, bird's nest is not a rare "lung cleansing" product.
Scholars in China have reported that compound bird's nest soup made from bird's nest as the main drug has treated more than 500 patients with chronic bronchitis and achieved very significant clinical effects. It also further verified the description of the efficacy of bird's nest in ancient books.
3. Prevent tumors and reduce adverse reactions of radiotherapy and chemotherapy
At present, malignant tumors still seriously threaten human health. Medical workers all over the world are making unremitting efforts to finally defeat the cancer. It is now certain that the "three early" measures (early prevention, early diagnosis, and early treatment) are effective measures to reduce the incidence and mortality of cancer and improve the survival rate of cancer patients.
Among them, early prevention is the most active and effective method. It takes a long time for normal cells to transform into cancer cells under the influence of carcinogens. Even in today's society with increasingly serious environmental pollution, 60-80% of cancers can still be prevented. There is a famous saying in Chinese medicine: "Good qi exists within the body, and evil cannot be eliminated." In other words, when the human body is in good health and has strong resistance, it is difficult for various pathogenic factors to invade the human body and cause disease. Wild bird's nests collected from pure natural environment can completely improve human immunity and achieve the purpose of preventing cancer.
For untreated cancer patients, it is inappropriate to choose bird's nest at this time. To put it more seriously, it is undoubtedly a waste of money to put out the fire. The treatments for cancer are nothing more than surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. After completing these treatments, patients are often weak and have low immunity. At this time, adding bird's nest with good nourishing effect is a timely help. For example, in the 1980s, Hong Kong scholars discovered that bird's nest can enhance the body's resistance to X-rays and other radiation damage, which provides a strong theoretical basis for the use of bird's nest in cancer radiotherapy patients.
4. Cardiotonic and antihypertensive effects
A Japanese scholar, Mutsuhiro Fujioka, conducted such an animal experiment in order to study the pharmacological effects of bird's nest:
After anesthetizing the puppy, connect it to the artificial ventilator, open the puppy's chest, and place various measuring instruments in the puppy's heart to record the puppy's cardiac contractility and blood pressure. Then apply the extract of bird's nest to the puppy, and observe the changes in the puppy's heart rate, cardiac contractility and blood pressure after application.
It was found that the extract of bird's nest had no effect on the heart rate of the puppy, but it could significantly enhance the contractility of the puppy's heart. Therefore, it can be considered that the extract of bird's nest has a cardiotonic effect. Moreover, starting from a certain dose, bird's nest extract shows a blood pressure lowering effect, and it specifically acts on diastolic blood pressure, which is commonly referred to as low blood pressure. Friends with high blood pressure know that it is relatively more difficult to reduce systolic blood pressure.
At present, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases have become the number one killer of human health. The cardiotonic and blood pressure lowering (especially diastolic blood pressure) effects of bird's nest will bring more hope to mankind.
5. Antioxidant and anti-aging
The latest medical research proves that bird's nest is an antioxidant food with detoxification effect. Long-term consumption can achieve the purpose of delaying aging.
Aging is a series of degradation processes of morphological structure and physiological functions that occur gradually as the human body ages. It is a natural law of life activities. However, if we can correctly grasp the objective laws of aging and select and create favorable conditions, we can delay aging and prolong life.
The aging process is accompanied by the decline of a series of biological functions. The immune function of the elderly decreases significantly, which is mainly manifested by the decrease of immune surveillance function, decrease of cellular immune function, decrease of lymphocyte division and proliferation ability, resulting in low immune regulation function and accelerated aging.
Modern medical research has confirmed that human aging is closely related to free radicals in the body. The balance of free radical metabolism and its scavenging system is imbalanced, the function of repairing genetic material damage is reduced, the activity of superoxide dismutase responsible for scavenging free radicals is reduced, and the superoxide generated during the biological metabolism process can destroy ion free radicals, hydroxyl free radicals, etc. If it is effectively removed, it may oxidize the unsaturated fatty acids of the biomembrane and affect the structure, attack the protein and cause it to cross-link and change the function of anhydride, thereby damaging the DNA, causing mutations and accelerating aging.
Bird's nest and its extracts, on the one hand, can enhance immune function, on the other hand, they have antioxidant effects and are highly antagonistic in preventing aging, so they also have very miraculous effects. The people who have the most experience with this are probably those female stars who have been famous in the film, television and music circles for a long time.
6. Anti-fatigue effect
Fatigue is a common feeling shared by many people in today’s society. The pace of life is accelerating day by day, and the work pressure is breathtaking. How can it be called "tired"? Ordinary people are already very tired, let alone those celebrities.
The anti-fatigue effect of bird's nest has been well confirmed by the so-called celebrities. In entertainment news, you can easily see reports that a certain star eats bird's nest to maintain energy after a concert or while filming. In the catalog of health food stores approved by the Chinese Ministry of Health in 1999, there is American Ginseng and Bird's Nest Oral Liquid, and its approved function is to fight fatigue!
The benign regulatory effect of the bird's nest growth environment on the human body
Environmental and sustainable development issues have become the most troubled issues for humans on the earth today. The negative impact on human health caused by environmental pollution is shocking. The earth refuses pollution, and humans call for green competition. And the bird's nest "raised in the boudoir" is very consistent with human beings' "green" concept.
Bird's nests are mostly grown in seaside caves far away from human settlements. They have constant humidity, low noise, fresh air, and contain more negative ions; and we know that human beings are increasingly polluting the environment from the bottom up. , in inaccessible caves, the content of harmful microorganisms and radioactive elements is far lower than that in the atmospheric environment on the ground. The bird's nests produced in this excellent environment can undoubtedly provide patients with some diseases with excellent methods to improve their physical and psychological conditions and cure their diseases. condition.
7. Excellent health care product during pregnancy and childbirth
According to reports, more than half of pregnant women in Singapore eat various bird's nest products to ensure that their future babies are healthier and to avoid damaging themselves. The baby loses at the starting point. Facts have proven that pregnant women eating bird's nest two or three months before giving birth can not only make the mother strong, but also make the future newborn baby stronger, fairer, more beautiful, and less susceptible to illness.
Postpartum women want to relieve the fatigue of raising children and restore their slim figure before giving birth. Bird's nest is the best natural nourishing food. Its nature and flavor are sweet and mild, and it is tonic but not greasy for pregnant women and postpartum women without any adverse reactions.
8. Other effects
Other effects of bird’s nest reported by the media include:
Anti-aging, improving blood circulation, improving physical strength and mental vitality of middle-aged and elderly people. , memory and physiological function decline has obvious effects.
Skin care and nourishing the skin, making the skin smooth and white, reducing facial wrinkles and clearing acne.
It nourishes and activates blood, removes blood stasis and regenerates blood, and has good curative effect on women's menstrual discomfort, dysmenorrhea and menorrhagia. Taking it after delivery can promote the recovery of the uterus and body shape.
Lowers cholesterol and has a good preventive and therapeutic effect on angina pectoris, chest tightness and shortness of breath due to hypertension and cerebral vascular occlusion.
Strengthens the waist and kidneys, and is effective in treating pain in the waist and limb joints, rheumatoid arthritis, paralysis of the hands and feet, dizziness and floaters.
Eliminate fatigue caused by academic or work pressure and enhance memory.
Enhance the body's resistance, prevent colds, and treat physical weakness, phlegm, asthma and cough.
It has certain curative effect on hepatitis B and liver cirrhosis.