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Bug Science

Is Cockroach Milk the Ultimate Superfood? (globalnews.ca) 254

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Global News: It may not be everyone's cup of milk, but for years now, some researchers believe insect milk, like cockroach milk, could be the next big dairy alternative. A report in 2016 found Pacific Beetle cockroaches specifically created nutrient-filled milk crystals that could also benefit humans, the Hindustan Times reports. Others report producing cockroach milk isn't easy, either -- it takes 1,000 cockroaches to make 100 grams of milk, Inverse reports, and other options could include a cockroach milk pill. And although it has been two years since the study, some people are still hopeful. Insect milk, or entomilk, is already being used and consumed by Cape Town-based company Gourmet Grubb, IOL reports.

Jarrod Goldin, [president of Entomo Farms which launched in 2014], got interested in the insect market after the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation in 2013 announced people around the world were consuming more than 1,900 insects. As his brothers were already farming insects for fishing and reptile use, Goldin thought it would be a smart business opportunity to focus on food. Goldin adds studies have shown cricket powder can be a high source of protein and B12. The PC version his company produces has 13 grams of protein per every 2 1/2 tbsps. Toronto-based registered dietitian Andy De Santis says for protein alternatives, insects are definitely in the playing field.
According to ScienceAlert, Diploptera punctate is the only known cockroach to give birth to live young and has been shown to pump out a type of "milk" containing protein crystals to feed its babies. "The fact that an insect produces milk is pretty fascinating -- but what fascinated researchers is the fact that a single one of these protein crystals contains more than three times the amount of energy found in an equivalent amount of buffalo milk (which is also higher in calories than regular cow's milk)."

Researchers are now working to replicate the crystals in the lab. They are working with yeast to produce the crystal in much larger quantities -- "making it slightly more efficient than extracting crystals from cockroach's guts," reports ScienceAlert.
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Is Cockroach Milk the Ultimate Superfood?

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  • Also, this has a massive freaking stigma to overcome.

    • by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Friday May 25, 2018 @12:50AM (#56671140)

      Also, this has a massive freaking stigma to overcome.

      Perhaps in America, but in many other countries insects are commonly eaten. Eating a grub is no different than eating a shrimp.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Or crab or lobster. They are just insects of the sea.

      • "Many other countries" being, like, 5.

      • Also, this has a massive freaking stigma to overcome.

        Perhaps in America, but in many other countries insects are commonly eaten. Eating a grub is no different than eating a shrimp.

        So does the grub have the consistency of the lobster or shrimp? I've accidentally stepped on a few, and the results look like Elmer's glue. Except for the one's who's goo looks green.

        The innards of a shrimp or lobster are muscle and look like white meat and eat like meat. The nice part is we can trim out the fecal matter. I know, some cultures eat fecal matter.(Bedouins) I'll avoid cultural appropriation in this instance.

    • Also, this has a massive freaking stigma to overcome.

      Insects are starvation food. Show someone a hundred pound box of cockroaches, a box of corn and wheat and bread, and a box of steaks, and see how many say "Yummie! Gimme that box of tasty cockroach goodness!"

      As well, in a world where it is fashionable to claim gluten allergies we all need to talk about Chitin allergies.

      Exactly why there is a push to get people to eat starvation food is a mystery

      • Exactly why there is a push to get people to eat starvation food is a mystery

        I think it's primarily driven by landlords. You don't have a cockroach problem. It's a gastronomic opportunity.

  • by RyanFenton ( 230700 ) on Thursday May 24, 2018 @10:57PM (#56670782)

    According to every metastudy I've ever seen on the subject, while nutrition is important - as long as you're getting a minimum of basic staple foods, and not too much of some things - then you're generally at optimal diet.

    Bodies cope with what they get, as long as they start off healthy. Get some organ damage, and yeah - low sodium diet becomes important. The body just gets stupid when it gets too much and runs out of place for something, like fat soluble vitamins or metals, and for some folks, sugars.

    "Super foods" are a nice concept - but they almost never have a payoff worth the cost. The closest to a decent return are the simpler ones - oats, veggies, fruits, berries (take your pick) - but the fashionable over-specific ones tend to be single-study hype train events. Other effects end up largely negligible when looked into - for instance diet-based anti-oxidents don't tend to translate to preventing cell damage to a very large extent, other than taking the place of other foods.

    Seeking general happiness and quality of life are "healthier" than trying to pick the perfect food.

    But, I suppose if eating cockroach extract makes you happy - then cool for you. Just... mention what it is to folks BEFORE you offer it to anyone. And don't don't be terribly offended if people roll their eyes or just walk away when you explain that it is "cruelty free cockroach milk."

    Ryan Fenton

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Indeed. I would go so far that the whole idea of a "superfood" is a marketing construct that does not make much sense and is actually pretty stupid.

    • I hate roaches. They might convince me if the roach milk isn't "cruelty free".

    • I don't think it's about nutrition, but about efficiency and sustainability. If we can get better nutrition into a package that is cheaper to produce or better for the environment, then there's a market for it.

      Not having to care for cows, removing greenhouse gasses caused by cows, ability to create this milk in more varied environments leading to shorter transport routes, being more nutrition dense allowing fewer transports all together... there's a lot of potential to be explored.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • It may not be everyone's cup of milk

    Is it ANYONE'S cup of milk?

    And how the heck do you milk a cockroach?

  • by sdinfoserv ( 1793266 ) on Thursday May 24, 2018 @11:08PM (#56670818)
    Someone, get the weed away from the Indian scientists...
    Dudes, I mean,,, it's a COCKROACH!!!
    They must be in serious need of some pork rinds for munchies.
  • by erice ( 13380 ) on Thursday May 24, 2018 @11:11PM (#56670836) Homepage

    So, we have a "food" produced by insects that humans have not consumed until now. Since humans have never eaten it before, it may or may not be fully suitable for human needs. It does, however, have a high concentration of some specific nutrients that humans need.

    But actually harvesting the food from insects is difficult so they want to engineer yeast to produce it.

    So, if you need to create an artificial "bio factory" to create the substance, why not skip the cockroach step and engineer the yeast to produce a substance that either we know is useful for humans because humans already eat it, or a substance designed to be useful to humans?

    Or is genetic engineering just not that sophisticated yet and the best we can do is cut and paste a DNA sequence from cockroaches and hope it does it the same thing in yeast?

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by thesupraman ( 179040 )

      Because such a direct route to an outcome doesnt extract the maximum amount of research funds?

      That is usually the reason behind such things.

    • Or is genetic engineering just not that sophisticated yet and the best we can do is cut and paste a DNA sequence from cockroaches and hope it does it the same thing in yeast?

      This. We're about as close to understanding the language of DNA as we are to communicating with penguins.

    • by shess ( 31691 )

      So, if you need to create an artificial "bio factory" to create the substance, why not skip the cockroach step and engineer the yeast to produce a substance that either we know is useful for humans because humans already eat it, or a substance designed to be useful to humans?

      Because a "superfood" is a variant of a normal food which has a few percent boost in some identifiable (marketable) nutrient, but which has zero proven efficacy. So if something costs about the same to produce as something else you eat, and can be labelled a "superfood", then it's worth creating a product because you can charge 100% more for it. But if it costs 100% more to produce, you have no product.

      While we have some products which use yeasts in their manufacture (mostly bread and alcohol), we have ve

  • by hyades1 ( 1149581 ) <hyades1@hotmail.com> on Thursday May 24, 2018 @11:24PM (#56670874)

    Can you imagine trying to get between their back legs to milk them? And for sure you'd keep losing the bucket.

  • by AlanObject ( 3603453 ) on Thursday May 24, 2018 @11:28PM (#56670894)

    Last few times I was in Asia I noted more and more street stalls selling bugs prepared various different ways. I am sure it is healthy but I am a long way from trying it.

    If I were introducing such a product for state-side consumption I wouldn't present the whole animal like they do. It would have to be processed some way so as to emulate either a protein shake or maybe a cracker sandwich.

    Given the economics I wouldn't be surprised to see such things here in the not too distant future.

  • by pslytely psycho ( 1699190 ) on Thursday May 24, 2018 @11:30PM (#56670904) Journal
    Heading to the patent office to get a jump on the itsy-bitsy teeny-weenie milking machines that will be required by the trillions on the industrial scale cockroach farms......
  • Superfood? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jetkust ( 596906 ) on Thursday May 24, 2018 @11:31PM (#56670914)
    The problem with superfoods is that you can get the same "effect" by eating OHTER foods that you may actually enjoy. And even then, it's likely still just in your head.
  • by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Thursday May 24, 2018 @11:45PM (#56670954) Journal

    Well, at least this article got me thinking about cockroach tiddies, which is a first.

  • If these milk crystals can be synthesized, then I could see them used in protein bars or something, otherwise it sounds like harvesting them would be too expensive. Also, anyone remember how ~15 years ago, the hype was that Ostrich meat was going to be the next big thing that everyone would eat breakfast, lunch, AND dinner? I tried an ostrich burger and it was ok, but then I never heard about/saw them since.

  • by Vegan Cyclist ( 1650427 ) on Friday May 25, 2018 @12:35AM (#56671104) Homepage

    ...but let's be reasonable: are there really very many people who would rather drink cockroach milk over milk made from soy, rice, almonds, cashews, etc..?

    Same with all these new insect 'energy bars' I'm finding. The idea is sustainability. Which I'm all for. But again: are there really a lot of people who'd rather eat insects than plants? Is this just a gimmick/fad, or is there a burgeoning population dying to eat this stuff?

    • But again: are there really a lot of people who'd rather eat insects than plants?

      Yes. They are all over asia, and central/south america.

      If you wanted the answer [iflscience.com] you would have done some research. You just wanted to seem clever, right? You'll get 'em next time, tiger! Maybe you should consider changing your diet, I don't think it's working for your brain. Or maybe it's CO poisoning, from all that time exercising in traffic?

  • by Anonymous Coward

    ... cockmilk?

  • by MrKaos ( 858439 ) on Friday May 25, 2018 @01:46AM (#56671272) Journal

    List of objections:

    1. No
    2. Cockroaches don't have babies
    3. No
    4. Cows a kind of cute and make great jackets
    5. No
    6. Cockroaches are gross
    7. No No No NO

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Why do I see Luke Skywalker wiping green milk off his lips, when reading this posts title?
  • Reminds me strongly of the butter bugs from Vorkosigan saga. The ick factor was also quite high until they genetically redesigned the insects to look less like cockroaches. Truth in fiction ?

  • Now we just need a way to breed or engineer cockroaches into a practical size for milking. Maybe a healthy dose of radiation will do:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

    Just make sure not to overdo the radiation part...

    • by Whibla ( 210729 )

      Now we just need a way to breed or engineer cockroaches into a practical size for milking. Maybe a healthy dose of radiation will do:

      Just make sure not to overdo the radiation part...

      Indeed.

      Or brush up on your knowledge of Proust [wikipedia.org].

      That's The Trouble with Cockroaches...

  • What's the point of this shit? Obesity is a larger problem than starvation these days. Africa has come a long way since those perpetually viral pictures of starving kids were taken, 30 to 40 years ago.

  • by stealth_finger ( 1809752 ) on Friday May 25, 2018 @05:18AM (#56671760)
    Dog's milk, full of goodness, full of vitamins, full of marrowbone jelly. Plus the advantage is it taste exactly the same when it goes off as when its fresh and it lasts longer than any other kind of milk (because no bugger'll drink it)
  • It may not be everyone's cup of milk, but for years now, some researchers believe insect milk, like cockroach milk

    Any substance that did not come from the mammary gland of a mammal is by definition not milk [wikipedia.org]. If it is derived from plants or nuts it is JUICE. This includes soy "milk", almond "milk" and all the other forms of juice that asshat marketing people keep trying to claim are milk instead of juice. If it comes from insects I have no idea what that is but it is NOT milk.

  • if you want to eat bugs, fine, go ahead, just don't try to force that upon everybody (really, these insect eating people are getting worse then those vegans).
    protiens can also be had from other things, which are not bugs!
    i rather eat no meat at all then to replace it with insectburgers.
    tried it once, it's not for me, never again.

  • Human Blood the Ultimate Superfood? Also, I will never eat or drink anything from Cape Town.
  • At least it's not bugs.

  • For hundreds of thousands of years, homo sapiens drank only mother's milk and water.

    Suddenly we need alternatives?

    We don't need milk alternatives to breast milk for babies or water for adults.

    If you want to go around eating or milking cockroaches because you enjoy it, knock yourself out, but don't act like it solves some problem that just drinking water and eating food don't.

  • Let's wait for monsanto and the like to change a few genes ; when the cockroaches reach the size of a cow, it will look way more appetizing.

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