The claimEvidence D · marketing folklore
Bird's nest and e-jiao nourish blood and beauty
The evidence
Bird's nest is mostly glycoprotein, e-jiao is basically collagen/gelatin; claimed benefits come mostly from lab and animal work, with little quality human evidence.
The mechanism, in brief
The two most widespread pregnancy food beliefs fall apart once you check them against the absorption gate.
Sources (3)
- Hsu, D., Lee, C., Tsai, W., & Chien, Y. (2017). Essential and toxic metals in animal bone broths. Food & Nutrition Research, 61(1), 1347478. Ca and Mg per serving did not exceed low tens of mg (<5% of daily recommended); Pb/Cd intake risk judged minimal.
- Chen, J., & Tsim, K. W. K. (2020). A review of edible jujube, the Ziziphus jujuba fruit: a health food supplement for anemia prevalence. Frontiers in Pharmacology, 11, 593655.
- Hurrell, R., & Egli, I. (2010). Iron bioavailability and dietary reference values. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 91(5), 1461S-1467S. Abstract only (the AJCN supplement full text could not be retrieved): iron bioavailability is estimated at 14-18% for mixed diets and 5-12% for vegetarian diets in subjects with no iron stores, the values used to set dietary reference values. Phytate, polyphenols, calcium, ascorbic acid and muscle tissue shift absorption strongly in single-meal isotope studies but only modestly in multimeal studies with a varied diet; the nature of the meat factor is unresolved; iron status generally has a greater effect than diet composition. The abstract gives no separate heme vs non-heme absorption percentages (abstract, PMID 20200263).