Are expensive health products worth it?

With the improvement of Chinese people's economic conditions and their pursuit of health, buying health care products for their families has become a trend. Not to mention that there are a lot of mixed health care products on the market and it is difficult to distinguish the real from the fake, it is still worth talking about whether these real health care products bought at a high price are worth it.

Spending a "sky-high price" to buy bird's nest is too low in cost-effectiveness. Bird's nest is the nest of the seabird swiftlet. The swiftlet builds its nest by holding something in its mouth. During the nest-building process, its mouth secretes a kind of gelatinous saliva, which is dried by the sea breeze and becomes a translucent and slightly yellow substance, which is the bird's nest.

The essence of bird's nest is the saliva of swallows. The protein content is indeed high when it is dry (before it is soaked), but most of these proteins are incomplete proteins, lacking the essential amino acids needed by the human body, and are not easily digested and absorbed by the human body. They have nothing to do with beauty and skin care. Therefore, if you want to get high-quality protein from it, it is better to choose eggs and milk that can provide high-quality protein.

The sialic acid in bird's nests does have certain health benefits. However, eating bird's nests to supplement sialic acid is too cost-effective from a nutritional point of view and has little effect. Sialic acid is not "exclusive" to bird's nests. Milk, eggs, and lean meat all contain sialic acid. There is no need to spend "sky-high prices" to buy bird's nests.

In addition, the safety of bird's nest is a concern. The nitrite, mercury and microorganisms in it are easily exceeded. In order to cater to the popularity, dyeing and fraud are also common. In addition, bird's nest cannot directly replenish blood, not to mention the risk of dyeing, so it needs to be purchased with caution. Studies have also found that eating bird's nest can increase the risk of allergies in children.

Sea cucumbers, an overrated nutritional supplement. When it comes to sea cucumbers, many people associate them with nutritional highlights such as "high protein" and "low cholesterol". In fact, when it comes to protein content, sea cucumbers have no advantage over other aquatic products. In addition, although sea cucumbers have a very low fat content, aquatic products in general have relatively low fat. Sea cucumbers are rich in calcium and iron, but they are not unique. Therefore, judging from the content of major nutrients, the nutritional value of sea cucumbers is not as high as people think.

In addition, the sources of cholesterol in the human body are very wide, and the cholesterol reduced by eating sea cucumbers is very limited. Many foods, such as okra, seaweed, kelp, yam... also have saponins and mucopolysaccharides, which can also lower cholesterol. Why must we spend a lot of money to get them from sea cucumbers?

Sea cucumber is considered a marine medicine, mainly because it contains sea cucumber saponins and sea cucumber polysaccharides. Pharmacological experiments have shown that these two substances have physiological activities such as anti-tumor, anti-fungal, anti-radiation, anti-coagulation, and anti-thrombosis.

In addition, sea cucumbers also have some active peptides and glycoproteins that are beneficial to the body. Sea cucumbers sound really magical, but the fact that some active substances have certain physiological functions does not mean that sea cucumbers have such effects. Here, the dosage plays a decisive role. It is unrealistic to expect that eating sea cucumbers a few times can improve health.

The biological value of fish maw is not high. Fish maw is fish maw, or more precisely, the maw of a large fish, the white bubbles in the fish maw. The protein content of fish maw is as high as 76%, while the content of vitamins and minerals is relatively small, so it is not a wise choice for nutritional supplementation.

The protein in fish maw is mostly hydrophilic protein, which easily absorbs water and becomes sticky after cooking, and has no direct relationship with nourishing the skin. Although fish maw is rich in protein, the balance of essential amino acids is not very good. The content of tryptophan and threonine is relatively high, and the content of isoleucine and sulfur-containing amino acids is very low, so the biological value of fish maw is not high.

It is not necessary for healthy people to eat protein powder. Protein is an important component for maintaining human survival and metabolism. The human body needs to supplement at least 30 grams of protein every day. What does this mean? In fact, it is only equivalent to 150 grams of lean meat (a palm-sized piece), and protein comes from a wide range of sources. Milk, eggs, meat, soybeans, rice, wheat, etc. all contain protein. Therefore, if healthy people have a balanced diet, they do not need to supplement protein.

In addition, blindly taking excessive amounts of protein powder can easily lead to calcium loss and may also put extra burden on the kidneys.

In life, the following people can supplement with protein powder in moderation: those who cannot eat high-quality protein foods; pregnant women, breastfeeding women, anemic women, acute hepatitis patients, etc. who have frequent nausea and vomiting due to pregnancy reactions; long-term vegetarians and elderly people with unbalanced nutritional intake; people recovering from surgery or injury; athletes who need to gain muscle.