Forget almonds, munch on a handful of these as a snack. Photo: Shutterstock.
If you’re tired of the same old protein bar, there may be something else out there for you to try. As it turns out, crickets are wonderfully nutritious. The past several years, a variety of cricket products have hit the health market, and if you look hard enough, you can find everything from whole crickets, to cricket flour, to cricket bars. Although it may be a substantial psychological obstacle to overcome the whole eating bugs thing, there’s plenty of health benefits for chowing down on the crunchy little buggers.
Although the concept of eating crickets may seem unfamiliar (and possibly disgusting), the reality is that people have been eating them for centuries. Native American tribes historically hunted and ate the wingless Mormon cricket as a staple protein, and today Thai bars and restaurants serve deep fried crickets with beer. Additionally, over 80% of the world today incorporates insects into various cuisines. In Ghana you may be served roasted termites. In Mexico, it wouldn’t be unheard of for French-fried caterpillar to appear on the menu. In China, fried silkworm moth larvae or roasted bee larvae are offered as delicacies. It’s believed that the diets of North America and Europe lack insects only because of agrarian culture. Once agriculture began to take off in these areas, insects were seen as the enemy; dangerous pests that threatened a successful harvest.
However, this cultural pattern may be headed for a change. Today, crickets are making a splash in the US because of their dense nutrient content and their minimal environmental impact. The little bugs pack a serious amount of nutrition into a small frame. Crickets have more than twice the protein of beef (ounce for ounce), and that protein is top quality because it includes all nine essential amino acids. Not to mention that crickets have three times as much muscle building iron as beef and five times as much magnesium. This nutritional information alone makes crickets a power player in the present and future health market.
The real kicker is how eco-friendly it is to raise crickets. Cricket protein requires 20% fewer resources than beef protein because insects are more efficient than cattle in transforming biomass (grass or grain) into edible protein. Additionally, crickets are both cheap and easy to obtain, and the bug has such a rapid reproductive cycle, minimal time and effort are required for breeding. Raising crickets produces a fraction of green house gas emissions released by commercial cattle farming, and crickets use hardly any water. In short, it’s all good news.
Although you may be hesitant to try a whole cricket to snack on, consider giving cricket bars or cricket flour a try. These products minimize the issues you may have with the texture of the insect. If you try them out, or try any cricket based recipes, let us know how it goes!
Check out this video of a cricket bar taste test. The reaction isn’t as bad as you might think!
