Eating crickets could
bring a multitude of health benefits.
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| Eating your greens? |
At the end of July
2012, I reported (here) on the advancement of food technologies where insect
burgers were a reality for a more environmentally secure source of
protein. (maybe not so great for the lives taken of the poor little
critters, but apparently nature gains overall). Now, researchers have
identified crickets as having specific health benefits.
Researchers at
Colorado State University have conducted a study of
20 healthy 18 – 65 year olds consumed commercially available
cricket powder (Entomo farms).
The study showed
consumption over 2 weeks showed improvement in good gut bacteria and
a reduction of harmful cell signaling protein -TNFα . This has been
implicated in a lot of different diseases including Alzheimer's
Disease, cancer, major depression, psoriasis and inflammatory bowel
disease (IBD).
According to the
University of Wisconsin-Madison News: one of the corresponding
authors, Tiffany Weir, a professor of food science and human
nutrition at Colorado State University said, “With what we now know
about the gut microbiota and its relationship to human health, it’s
important to establish how a novel food might affect gut microbial
populations. We found that cricket consumption may actually offer
benefits beyond nutrition.”
The reduction of TNFα would, in this authors view be one of the more important
benefits of a diet of crickets.
Raising insects for
protein not only helps protect the environment, but also offers a
more healthful option than meat in many wealthy countries with
high-meat diets, says another co-author, Jonathan Patz, director of
the UW–Madison Global Health Institute.
For those people a little squeamish about consuming crickets, the powder can easily be
included into wheat based products such as muffins or bread. The
powder is also easily added to smoothies or shakes with relatively no
adverse taste.
References:
1. University of Wisconsin-Madison News "Eating crickets can be good for your gut, according to new clinical trial",Kelly April Tyrrell.
Stull, Valerie J.;,Finer, Elijah; Bergmans, Rachel S.;Febvre, Hallie P.;Longhurst, Colin;
Manter, Daniel K.;Patz, Jonathan A.;Weir, Tiffany L.
3. Tumor necrosis factor alpha, Wikipaedia.
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