Why We Won’t Be Trying The Latest Superfood
Cockroach milk has been hailed as the latest superfood [Photo: Pexels]
We got on board with goji berries, cooked everything in coconut oil and drank kale juice til our pee turned green. Heck we were even prepared to chug down a cactus smoothie because health bods told us it would turn us into Elle Macpherson.
But the latest wonder fad might just be a superfood step too far. According to a group of scientists based in India, we should all be sloshing cockroach milk on our morning cereal. *gags*
Wait a minute, cockroaches produce milk? Well, most don’t, but there is one exception. The Pacific Beetle cockroach (Diploptera punctata) is the only cockroach in the world that gives birth to live young, just like mammals. And part of this includes lactating to provide them with ‘milk’ for nutrition.
The team of scientists, which was led by the Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine in India, has managed to unravel the structure of milk protein crystals produced in the guts of this certain cockroach species. *gags again*
The study, by inStem’s Ramaswamy group revealed that this milk is four times as nutritious as cow’s milk and contains a unique form of cockroachy type protein in it.
Just a single one of these protein crystals contains more than three times the amount of energy found in an equivalent amount of buffalo milk.
“The crystals are like a complete food – they have proteins, fats and sugars. If you look into the protein sequences, they have all the essential amino acids,” author of the study, Sanchari Banerjee, told Times of India.
Who knew cockroaches produced milk? [Photo: Rex Features]
Still not sold? There are other benefits to the milk too. According to the scientists, not only is it a great supply of nutrients and calories, the crystalline nature means it releases energy slowly.
“It’s time-released food,” explains Professor Subramanian Ramaswamy, who also took part in the research. “If you need food that is calorifically high, that is time released and food that is complete. This is it”.
Now, having determined the gene sequences for these milk proteins, the team has some pretty big plans to produce these crystals en masse.
But if your stomach is currently churning imagining some sort of giant cockroach milking farm (*mega gags*), don’t panic, as the scientists are hoping to reproduce the protein crystals using yeast. Which, lets face it, is slightly less gross than trying to extricate milk from cockroach guts.
Synthetic or not, that cactus smoothie is suddenly looking way more appealing.
Would you try cockroach milk? Let us know @YahooStyleUK.
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