Jin Siyan's saliva can stop the virus. Avian influenza was originally a viral infectious disease with birds as the host. In recent years, there have been several cases of interracial infection and even fatal cases. Therefore, once the relevant epidemic situation breaks out, people often turn pale because of the smell of birds. Swallow is a member of the big family of birds, and the nest is swallow's saliva (Jin Siyan). Many people can't help asking, "Can you get bird flu if you eat bird's nest?" "The answer is: on the contrary, eating bird's nest can prevent bird flu, even the general flu! 」
Not only that, bird's nest also has the function of inhibiting bird flu and influenza virus. Sialic acid rich in bird's nest has been proved to have important antiviral effect. In 2006, the journal of Anti-virus Research pointed out that the extract of bird's nest can inhibit the infection of influenza virus. The research on bird's nest in Taiwan Province Province also found that bird's nest can combine with avian influenza and influenza virus, thus blocking the virus and inhibiting the infection of virus.
In 2007, it was found that bird's nest is rich in chondroitin sulfate-free glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), which is the main component of joint fluid. It can provide nutrition for joint tissues, slow down osteoarthritis (OA) and help repair damaged cartilage tissues. When it comes to glycosaminoglycan, most people may feel a little strange, but when it comes to glucosamine, you should be familiar with it, right? In fact, glucosamine is the precursor of glycosaminoglycan, which means that the glucosamine we take will synthesize glycosaminoglycan, the main component of joint fluid, in the body, thus helping cartilage tissue regeneration and maintaining cartilage health.
However, the effect of bird's nest seems to be not limited to "articular cartilage". 20 1 1 The Japanese did an experiment and divided ovariectomized mice into two groups. One group was fed with bird's nest. It was found that the group fed with bird's nest had higher bone density and calcium content and higher skin thickness. It can be seen that bird's nest seems to help postmenopausal women improve their bone strength and delay skin aging.
How to make good use of the natural health care function of bird's nest is strange to westerners, but in the eyes of Chinese medicine, bird's nest is a sacred product of health care. Therefore, even if it is expensive, there are still many people flocking to it, which has also caused many misunderstandings in consumption and market chaos. If you want to make good use of the natural health care function of bird's nest, you must first have a correct understanding of bird's nest.
Eating bird's nest is inhuman? 2 major misunderstandings first, I know that many people think that eating bird's nest is a very inhuman behavior, because it is said that when picking bird's nest, the staff must climb to a very high place and be suspected of accidental fall. I even heard that in order to get the bird's nest, pickers will directly throw the swallows in the nest from a height, resulting in many swallows being killed; If humans really kill so many lives to satisfy their appetite, then bird's nest is really a very bad food.
In fact, in the environment of modern bird's nest production, the situation just described will not happen. First of all, no one would want to take such a high risk and climb to such a high place to pick bird's nest. At present, in Southeast Asia, people will first build a building to provide nesting for swallows, which is not so high; If you meet Xiaoyan at harvest time, let them stay in the replacement nest first, and then join the ranks of producing bird's nest when they grow up. After all, swallows are tools to make money, and no one wants to ruin their lives.
In addition to the rumors of bird's nest collection, the rumors of blood swallow are also a must. I heard about the origin of blood bird's nest in the early days, because humans kept picking bird's nest, which caused swallows to vomit blood in order to catch up with their work. Because it is hard to get, the price of blood bird's nest is much higher than that of ordinary bird's nest. Later, after special research, it was discovered that the original low-lying bird's nest would be fumigated by the excrement of other swallows, just like when we entered the pigeon cage, we would see the excrement of pigeons all over the ground; In such an acidic and humid environment, the bird's nest fumigated by excrement will produce nitrate reaction and turn red, forming the so-called blood swallow. In other words, red bird's nest is actually a polluted product, which may cause cancer if eaten.
Before buying bird's nest, you should pay attention to three illusions. There are many classifications of bird's nest, including "cave swallow" nesting in holes and "house swallow" nesting in houses; According to the color of bird's nest, it can be divided into yellow swallow, Bai Yan and blood swallow; According to the output, it can be divided into Jin Siyan, Cao Yan (subdivided into Dongcaoyan and Wucaoyan) and Mao Yan; According to the shape, it can be divided into Yan Deng, Yan Strip, Yan Si, Yan Jiao, Yan Cake and Yan Pian.
Generally speaking, good quality bird's nest is originally in the shape of a half bowl, so just pluck and dry it and trim it a little, and the finished product is a swallow lamp; However, in the process of removal, handling and pruning, the residual broken parts are not complete, but the nutritional value is still there. Therefore, in the market, it can be divided into strips, silk, corners, cakes and slices according to their shapes, and the more broken the product, the cheaper it is.
Swallow cups are usually large in size, perfect in shape, clean, with few impurities and good in color. The width of the surface specification is 4 to 5cm, and each bird weighs 1 1 2g, which can be regarded as a special bird's nest, while the width of the surface specification is 3 to 4cm, and each bird weighs about 1 1 g.. In addition, the nest built for the first time in Yan Guan (that is, the white belly of Jin Siyan in Java or Jin Siyan) is very white and bright, shaped like a half bowl, with a thickness of about 0.3 to 0.5 cm and a light weight (about 1.2 g). It smells faint fragrance, and it will expand to 8 times after soaking in water, belonging to a relatively high-grade bird's nest.
Due to the troublesome collection of bird's nest, complicated technology and high price, the retail price is tens of thousands of Taiwan dollars per kilogram, which also attracts many unscrupulous businessmen to make fake profits. Common fraud methods are as follows:
① The most common fake bird's nest is made of pigskin and fish float. Others, such as fish and shrimp, conch, insects, eggs, seaweed, tremella, calla glue, gelatin, soybeans, milk, starch, minerals, bleach and dyes, were found mixed with the bird's nest.
(2) The fake anchovies are expensive, and the price of the broken tail is less than one third of that of the anchovies, so some people will spread the broken tail on the mold, brush the glue layer by layer, and finally cover the mold to shape it, and it will become the shape of the anchovies after air drying; In addition to the shape, the top grade is white, so some unscrupulous businessmen will bleach their products and make fake top grade swallow lanterns.
(3) Fake blood swallows Blood swallows are very expensive, so someone dyed the bird's nest red. This process can be replicated in the laboratory, without the waste of swallows, as long as it is soaked in nitrate. But even true blood swallows contain carcinogen nitrate, so don't buy them, no matter whether they are true or false.
We all know that if we can choose the real bird's nest when we buy it, we can naturally save a lot of trouble. However, some tests cannot be carried out by consumers themselves and must be determined by professional tests. Therefore, when buying bird's nest, it is recommended to look at the packaging carefully to determine whether it has been tested. Usually, high-quality bird's nest products should pass the tests listed in the left table. Although these tests seem complicated, they are definitely worth it, because the unit price of bird's nest is too high, so be careful!
In addition, if you really want to eat safely, here are some simple tests that consumers can do by themselves. These methods are as follows:
① Dilute hydrochloric acid test: Dilute hydrochloric acid was dripped into real bird's nest, and the solution was brownish black. If it is a fake bird's nest, the solution will be colorless and the sample will turn yellow-brown. ② Iodine test: True bird's nest will be dyed yellow by iodine solution, but it can be washed off with water. If it is a fake bird's nest containing starch, it will be brownish purple after dyeing with iodine solution and cannot be cleaned. ③ UV light source test: Because the bird's nest itself has natural blue-green fluorescence, if there is no fluorescence reaction when the bird's nest is irradiated with ultraviolet light, it should be false.