Drinking bird spit is the anti-ageing remedy secretly loved for thousands of years

We're all for the weird and wonderful when it comes to beauty; whether it's salmon sperm, shapewear for your face, or snail mucin - but the current buzzword of the moment may just trump them all: Bird spit.

It's recently piqued the interest of TikTok users who have watched their favourite influencer, Becca Bloom, drink the thick, cloudy concoction in her videos - and yes, it's exactly as described - but it could have some pretty great anti-ageing benefits too.

"A cup of what now??", one person wrote in the comments.

"I need to know what it tastes like", another added.

"I’m gonna need us all to sit down and watch a bird spit documentary together because…I need to know the who what when where and why’s of this situation", a third wrote.

But does it genuinely have the ability to transform our lives, or is it just another wellness fad?

What is bird spit?

Bird saliva, sometimes known as bird's nest extract, has been consumed for centuries in traditional Chinese medicine, and is made from the saliva of swiftlets, a type of bird that uses it to build its nests.

Their saliva is harvested, and then transformed into soup or drink form for human consumption. It's not cheap to get your hands on though - expect to pay anything between $30-$100 for a bowl of soup.

When in drink form, it's usually mixed with fruit or sugar to give it a more appealing taste - with some saying it's akin to having an aloe vera drink.

The most prized saliva is from the red-nest swiftlet, which can fetch as much as $10,000 per kilogram.

Wikipedia/TikTok

What are the anti-ageing benefits of bird spit?

Despite not being the most tempting drink on the market, it's thought bird's spit is packed with amino acids, minerals and proteins which help to boost collagen production, promote anti-ageing, and give you a healthy glow.

Some researchers even suggest it can help with overall wellness, and aid digestion and immune system strength, as well as aid with wound healing - it's been popular in alternative medicine for hundreds of years for a reason.

However, when it comes to scientific backing, the evidence is currently limited.

Is drinking bird spit ethical?

This is still up for debate.

Some reports suggest that saliva is harvested from the nests before swiftlets have finished raising their babies, which can harm the birds, and the overall population of swiftlets.

Not only that, but as bird spit increases in popularity, harvesting has become a bigger-scale operation, which is not only dangerous to the birds, but the workers who tackle dangerous terrain to reach the nests, which can be found in limestone caves.

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