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Food shortages could hit the earth in the future due to factors such as climate change. Within that dystopia, we will have to look for alternatives, resources and foods to help us alleviate it, and one of them could be cockroach milk, according to experts.
The milk in question could come from the species diploptera punctata, better known as the cockroach beetle, which is the only one that can produce milk. As it does not lay eggs, it generates a liquid in the form of protein crystals that it uses to feed its young in its belly. In fact, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations has come to recognise this liquid as a superfood thanks to its high content of proteins, fats, sugars and amino acids.
Research published in the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) detailed that cockroach milk is four times more nutritious than cow’s milk. ‘The crystals are like a complete food: they have proteins, fats and sugars,’ said Dr Sanchari Banerjee, lead author of the study, in an interview with the Times of India. They also contain essential amino acids and release nutrients as they are digested. ‘It’s a time-release food,’ said Professor Subramanian Ramaswamy, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Iowa and lead author of the paper.
