Taking in more protein than is strictly necessary to meet your minimum biological needs has several potential advantages. But there's a problem.
Insect protein is popping up in everything from energy bars to muffin mix to pet food.
Nutrition Diva is hosted by Monica Reinagel. A transcript is available at Simplecast.
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Hello and welcome to the Nutrition Diva podcast. I’m your host, Monica Reinagel and today we’re talking about a rapidly growing sector of the food industry: Insects as a source of protein for humans (and, more recently, pets).
We’ve been talking a lot about protein in recent years. Taking in more protein than is strictly necessary to meet your minimum biological needs has several potential advantages. It can help you manage your appetite and your weight. It can also help you hang on to your hard-won muscle mass and bone density and otherwise slow the aging process—especially the higher quality protein that we get from animal sources.
But there’s a problem. A couple of problems, actually.
First, the global population is growing faster than the food supply. Which means that we may soon be struggling to produce enough food (and protein) to supply even the world’s basic needs—much less higher-protein diets.
And secondly, a lot of people are growing increasingly uncomfortable with the environmental and ethical aspects of raising animals for meat.
Although the percentage of people who identify as strict vegetarians or vegans hasn’t budged in several decades, those who continue to eat meat are eating less of it. We’re eating about 10% less meat per capita than we were ten years ago and a third less than we were in the 1970s.
Let’s be clear: It’s not hard to meet your minimum protein needs on a plant-based diet. But, if you’re aiming a bit higher than just the minimum protein needs, it gets a bit more challenging. Plant-based protein sources tend to be less complete in terms of their amino acid makeup. So it takes more grams of plant protein to achieve the same effects as you’d get from animal protein.
How much more, you may be wondering? It would depend on exactly which plant proteins you’re eating but a ballpark estimate is that you’d need about 20% more plant protein. So: 60 grams of plant protein might be the functional equivalent of 50 grams of animal protein.
If you’re consuming plant proteins from whole foods (as opposed to protein powders), you’re also going to have to consume a lot more calories to get the same amount of protein as you’d get from animal sources. This is because the primary plant sources of protein, like legumes or nuts, also contain a fair amount of carbohydrates or fat along with that protein.
Thirty grams of protein from chicken breast will entail about 175 calories. Getting 30 grams of protein from black beans will require you to eat 450 calories. And getting 30 grams of protein from peanut butter will take about 750 calories. (This is the concept of protein density that I talked about in episode #483.)
I have worked with a fair number of people who found themselves torn between conflicting values: They were watching calories to avoid weight gain in midlife. They also wanted to optimize their protein intake, in order to hang on to lean muscle tissue. AND they wanted to avoid consuming animal products—due to ethical or environmental concerns.
It’s challenging to come up with a diet that is optimal in all of these domains (and virtually impossible without highly processed foods—which is another value that people are often guarding.)
And here’s where bugs could potentially come into the picture.
Back in 2013, I wrote that “In the not too distant future, nutrition-conscious consumers might be paying extra for flour fortified with protein-rich mealworms.”
My prediction has come true! You can now buy crackers, energy bars, granola, and other foods pumped up with cricket or mealworm protein. You can even buy high-protein insect flour to make your own!
If you can get past the gross-out factor, it makes a lot of sense: Insects are quite nutritious, are humanely raised and harvested, and require very little water, fuel, land, or other resources to produce. And our aversion is largely cultural. Various types of insects are an important food source—as well as a delicacy—for close to a third of the world’s citizens. (And if you enjoy shrimp or crawfish, well, you’re basically eating sea-insects.)
Insect farmers tout the quality of life that their “micro-livestock” enjoy. Insects are typically raised in climate-controlled conditions that mimic their natural habitat, enjoying a diet of grains, fruits, and vegetables. When harvest time comes, the ambient temperature is gradually lowered, putting the bugs to sleep before they are killed by freezing temperatures. For those concerned about sustainability, environmental impact, and animal welfare, insects may be the ultimate solution!
And how do they stack up nutritionally? Like other animal proteins, insect protein has a high biological value. The distribution of essential amino acids is similar to that of poultry, meat, and fish. They also provide a lot of protein for the calories. Crickets are comparable to chicken in their protein density, with the added benefit of being quite high in fiber. Mealworms, which are higher in fat, have a protein density comparable to whole eggs, but with substantially more omega-3 fatty acids.
But how do they taste? True confession: Although I have had things like granola or snack bars made with insect protein, I have not sampled whole bugs. However, I’m told that toasted crickets have a faint grassy taste and a texture like potato chips. Mealworms are said to be a bit moister and chewier, with a nutty, creamy flavor.
While some intrepid consumers have already embraced toasted crickets as an alternative to potato chips, I see insect-based flours and protein powders as the most likely route to widespread consumer acceptance. And if you’re interested in experimenting, you can find insect flours and products made with them at your local natural foods store or online.
We also have time for Listener Q&A. Anne Marie wrote in with two questions relating to organic foods.
“I have heard that eating organic oatmeal is better because of the chemicals that are sprayed on oatmeal. Is this true?”
It is true that conventionally-grown grains may be treated with pesticides that are not allowed in organically-grown grains. However, the FDA conducts widespread sampling of the food supply every year to test for pesticide residues. And these are not random samples. The FDA is purposely testing those foods that they think are most likely to be in violation.
You may be reassured to know that 80% of all grains tested had no detectable pesticide residues at all. And those that did were well within limits that have been demonstrated to be safe. And furthermore, wheat products were the most likely to contain pesticide residues and oat-based products were the least likely.
Anne Marie was also wondering about the so-called Dirty Dozen, twelve fruits and vegetables that have the highest level of pesticide residues.
“How important is it to buy organic for the Dirty Dozen?” she wants to know. “It's not always an option for me, but I try to do it when I can.”
Just because the residues on these crops are high relative to other crops, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are high in the absolute sense. In fact, the amount of pesticides that you’d be exposed to from eating nothing but the so-called “Dirty Dozen” fruits and vegetables would be vanishingly small—far below the threshold of safety.
So why pay extra for organic?
Buying organic oatmeal, produce, or any other organic products may help reduce the total amount of pesticides that are used in agriculture—with obvious downstream benefits for soil and water quality and wildlife. But, given the very low presence of pesticide residues on the finished product, I personally don’t think that eating non-organic oatmeal or vegetables poses a direct risk to your health. In fact, I would say that avoiding fruits and vegetables because of pesticide concerns would pose a greater risk to your health and nutrition than any chemical traces they may contain.
Some of you might be thinking, “How can any level of exposure to a toxic substance be safe/acceptable? Why use pesticides at all?” What would we lose if we didn’t use them?
As I mentioned earlier, we are soon going to be straining to grow enough food to feed the expanding population. Pesticides generally enable food producers to grow more food on their land, resulting in greater food availability at a lower cost. However, I’m also encouraged by new developments—such as Crispr gene editing techniques—that are not only allowing farmers to grow more food, but also reducing their reliance on chemical pesticides.
There’s been a lot of scare-mongering in the popular press about industrial agriculture—and, like any industry, there are certainly things that could be improved. But from my personal experience, visiting both conventional and organic growers large and small, I actually think that conventional and organic agriculture practices are, to some extent, beginning to converge. After all, farmers have no interest in poisoning the land or their own families and customers. As better options emerge, I believe they will be eager to adopt them.
Thanks to Anne Marie for her questions. If you have a nutrition question you’d like me to include in an upcoming episode, you can email me at nutrition@quickanddirtytips.com You can also leave me a message at 443-961-6206.
I’d also like to invite you to check out my other podcast. It’s called the Change Academy, where Brock Armstrong and I delve into what it takes to create sustainable, positive change in our mindset and habits. You can find it on all the major podcast platforms, so whatever app you’re using right now to listen to me, just head to the search bar and type in “Change Academy.”
Nutrition Diva is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast. It's audio-engineered by Nathan Semmes with script editing by Adam Cecil. Thanks also to Morgan Christianson, Holly Hutchings, Davina Tomlin, and Kamryn Lacy.