Everywhere you look, there’s a new superfood — kale, collagen-rich bone broth, cockroach milk. Wait, what was that last one?
Yes, you might have read about cockroach milk. But what exactly is it? And should you be paying attention to every superfood trend that crawls across your newsfeed? Short answer: No, but if you do, it’s important to listen to the cautions from experts.
It all started back in 2016, when scientists published research about the “cockroach equivalent of human breast milk,” Men’s Health reports. Since the female Pacific beetle gives birth and provides milk for her children, researchers dissected baby roaches. They found nutrient-filled crystallized milk particles inside.
The protein crystals “are like a complete food — they have proteins, lipids and sugars. If you look into the protein sequences, they have all the essential amino acids,” according to Sanchari Banerjee, a main author of the paper published in the Journal of the International Union of Crystallography. The catch? It would take a lot of insects to make a glass of milk (just think about how big a cow is compared to a cockroach), and cockroaches die when fluid is extracted.
Men’s Health notes cockroach milk isn’t yet available for sale, but numerous articles have been referencing South Africa-based Gourmet Grubb and its product EntoMilk in conjunction with cockroach milk, though the company notes the two are not the same.
EntoMilk is made of insects and meant as “a milk alternative that can be consumed in the same way as traditional milk,” unlike the protein crystals found in cockroach milk, Jean Louwrens, one of the co-founders and head of operations at Gourmet Grubb, explained in an email. Louwrens says cockroach milk “can currently only be extracted manually in very small quantities in a lab environment, making it less likely to be scalable in the near future.”
The company used EntoMilk to make a lactose-free ice cream, using black soldier fly larvae. Louwrens says it can’t be emphasized enough, “[the] product does not contain cockroaches and should not be equated to any kind of insect secretion.”
Dr. Reid Blackwelder, a Tennessee-based family physician, says there’s no indication that cockroach milk is safe for humans or that there are any benefits to consuming it. In lieu of any significant evidence to the contrary, this is a fad, he says.
That said, he’s glad people are interested in getting healthier. “I’m glad that it seems people recognize that what you eat can be a really important component of good health,” Blackwelder says.
He also recommends other types of lifestyle changes to improve health: decreasing toxins, eating less processed foods, making healthier food choices, not smoking and dealing with stress. For almost all of his patients, a supernutrient won’t be the biggest bang for their buck in terms of overall health.
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What’s the Deal With Cockroach Milk? originally appeared on usnews.com
