There’s a saying that what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger. That adage will be put to the test by the newest “superfood” to be unveiled by scientists.
Superfood, should the term be unfamiliar, is any food with supposed health benefits stemming from its nutritional makeup. Noni juice and goji berries among recent foods accorded that status.
One impediment to some superfoods being consumed by the masses is “off” flavors or an unpleasant odor. This newest superfood will repulse many people before they’ve had a chance to taste or smell it. That’s because the food is cockroach milk.
According to Science Alert, cockroach milk is a sequence of protein crystals found in the midgut of cockroaches that is “more than four times as nutritious as cow’s 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,” said Sanchari Banerjee, one of the team, in an interview with the Times of India back in 2016.
Not only is the milk a dense source of calories and nutrients, it’s also time released.
As the protein in the milk is digested, the crystal releases more protein at an equivalent rate to continue the digestion.
It sounds like the perfect food for body builders, who are constantly in need of replenishing protein.
Which brings us to the $64 question: What does it taste like? For an answer to that question, you’re simply going to have to drink up.
(h/t Robert Specter)
