One of the world's most expensive foods is made from bird saliva

Wednesday, December 07, 2011 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) Tags: birds nest soup, cave swiftlets, food

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(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...
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.