Top 5 Major Health Benefits of Edible Bird Nest Soup.

A Comprehensive guide for the health benefits of Bird Nest Soup consumption.

1. Improvement of Skin Health (Texture)

This is the most well known health benefits for Bird Nest Soup consumption. It is supposed to be a health/supplement food to beautify skin – primarily to retain youthfulness and obtain a clean and clear facial complexion.

2. Easy Digestibility and Health Rejuvenation

This is important if one has poor or slow digestion, especially seen among those who are convalescing (recovering from illness) and in children with poor appetites. Good nutrition is needed but with poor digestion, nutrients cannot be absorbed. Bird Nest Soup can be easily digested by our digestive system, thus delivering good nutrients and thereby bringing back health to those who are weak.

Top 5 Major Health Benefits of Edible Bird Nest Soup.

The consumption of good quality Bird Nest Soups is also known to have restored lung functions. It has also been known to help chronic cases of cough and asthma. People who have dry cough with periodic sputum stains (as seen in heavy smokers) may find the consumption of good quality Bird Nest Soups beneficial. Extensive experience has indicated that regular consumption of Bird Nest Soups can reduce the general need for medical attentions.

3. Supplement for Parental and Postnatal Health

Pregnant mothers who consume Bird Nest Soups have been known to recover faster after delivery, experience lesser loss of hair, and deliver healthier and fair skinned babies. For post-natal health, consumption of Bird Nest Soup give the mother more energy, better sleep, and the feeling of vitality.

4. Anti-Aging Health/Supplement Food

In Southeast Asia (especially with the Chinese), well-to-do individuals consume Bird Nest Soup on a long term and regular basis, primarily for the benefits of anti-aging. This group of people consistently reports less sickness, better immunity, more energy, better sleep, good complexion, and good virility.

5. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Perspective

The early records of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) are contained in the book, “shen non ben cao jing” (神农本草经) from the year 1695. In this book, Bird Nest Soups were reported as mild, homogenous, and non-toxic food. The book also reports on the use of Bird Nest Soups to treat internal organs like the lungs, heart, and stomach. In addition, Bird Nest Soup is also used as food can reduce coughs, tiredness, etc. It also recommended that the nests could be consumed during the early stages of any disease.

Bird Nest Soup coffee from Malaysia?

Prized in China for is alleged health benefits for hundreds of years, nests made from swiftlets' saliva are being mixed into coffee and cereal as the Southeast Asian producers of the delicacy seek to broaden its appeal, and their profit margins.

The nests are among the world's most expensive foods, selling for up to US$2,500 (S$3,400) a kg and the swiftlets that weave them are indigenous to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

China consumes almost 90 per cent of all Bird Nest Soups, traditionally eaten in soup, creating an industry that last year recorded US$5 billion in sales and which executives expect to double by 2020.

Companies such as Malaysia's Swiftlet Eco Park, one of the country's largest developers of swiftlet houses, want bigger gains by expanding their product line and market beyond China, where importers can often dictate the price.

"Ask anybody in the industry where is your market and they'll say China and Hong Kong. Everybody is going there," said Group Managing Director Loke Yeu Loong. "We are looking at new markets, but if I sell raw Bird Nest Soup to Europe or India, they don't even know how to cook it."

Swiftlet Eco makes coffee, skin care, puddings and candies with Bird Nest Soup. Loke declined to give specific sales figures but said the profit margin on some of these products was 10 times more than the raw nests.

The company is also spending big on marketing Bird Nest Soup as a health food in the Middle East, Europe and the United States and plans to raise about $30 million through an initial public offering and New York listing in the third quarter of this year.

Southeast Asian swiftlets' nests are particularly popular in the Lunar New Year festivities, which began in China last week, and are believed to be rich in nutrients that can help digestion, raise libido and improve the immune system.

Malaysia is the world's largest producer of raw nests after Indonesia.

Lee Kong Heng, president of the Malaysian Federation of Bird Nest Soup Traders Association, says marketing Bird Nest Soup as a supplement would attract younger, wealthier and more health-conscious consumers worldwide.

Vietnam's largest birds' nest producer Yen Viet Joint Stock Co. is also keen to play up the benefits of the delicacy. The company makes cereals and porridge and is investing into scientific research in a bid to increase global sales, said Chief Executive Dang Pham Minh Loan.

Malaysian Bird Nest Soup producers are well placed to market to the majority Muslim Middle East because the nests are halal, or a food permissible under Islam, Swiftlet Eco Park's Loke said.

With more research, he hopes Bird Nest Soup will become a global phenomenon. "We can conduct research and prove the benefit of consuming Bird Nest Soup scientifically," he said.