(NaturalNews) For more than 400 years, bird's nest soup has long been one of the most expensive foods in the world, and even today a single bowl of it costs between $30 and $100. You can't just make it out of any bird's nest. Only the edible nest of the
cave swiftlet will do, a nest made entirely out of the bird's saliva. These nests are high in calcium, iron, magnesium and potassium. They are hard when harvested, but partially dissolve into a more jelly-like consistency when boiled into soup.
Cave swiftlets nest high up on sheer rock walls inside pitch dark caves, where they build sticky nests out of their own saliva. Traditionally, these nests can be harvested only by climbing on ladders up into the heights of these caves, a difficult and fairly dangerous undertaking. Today the swiftlets are encouraged to build their nests in artificially constructed concrete nesting houses. Even so, the harvested nests still sell for as much as $10,000 per kilogram.
Perhaps due to the high mineral content of the nests, eating them is believed to enhance lung health, prevents coughs, improve constitution and even promote longevity. The nests are nearly 50 percent protein and 30 percent carbohydrates, with a relatively small amount of inorganic salts and fiber.
Sources:http://www.neatorama.com/2008/11/27/10-weird-gourmet-foods/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_nest_soup
Source: 25 Amazing Facts About Food, authored by Mike Adams and David Guiterrez. This report reveals surprising things about where your food comes from and what's really in it!
Download the full report (FREE) by clicking here. Inside, you'll learn 24 more amazing but true facts about foods, beverages and food ingredients. Instant download of the complete PDF. All 25 facts are documented and true.
About the author: Mike Adams is a consumer health advocate and award-winning journalist with a passion for sharing empowering information to help improve personal and planetary health He has authored and published thousands of articles, interviews, consumers guides, and books on topics like health and the environment, and he is well known as the creator of popular downloadable preparedness programs on financial collapse, emergency food storage, wilderness survival and home defense skills. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes. In 2010, Adams launched TV.NaturalNews.com, a natural health video site featuring videos on holistic health and green living. He also launched an online retailer of environmentally-friendly products (BetterLifeGoods.com) and uses a portion of its profits to help fund non-profit endeavors. He's also the founder and CEO of a well known email mail merge software developer whose software, 'Email Marketing Director,' currently runs the NaturalNews email subscriptions. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and practices nature photography, Capoeira, martial arts and organic gardening. He's also author a large number of health books offered by Truth Publishing and is the creator of numerous reference website including NaturalPedia.com and the free downloadable Honest Food Guide. His websites also include the free reference sites HerbReference.com and HealingFoodReference.com. Adams believes in free speech, free access to nutritional supplements and the innate healing ability of the human body. Known on the 'net as 'the Health Ranger,' Adams shares his ethics, mission statements and personal health statistics at www.HealthRanger.org
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