Scientists say that the solution to world hunger could be cockroach milk!
These small insects have been terrorizing households since the dawn of time, but today you will learn to love them. When once humanity though cockroaches to be disgusting, science found out that cockroaches are in fact as disgusted by humans. And when we believe them to be infestations in our cupboards, they might actually be reinforcing them, in a way or another.
A group of international scientists have found that one specific type of cockroaches which births’ live offspring creates actual milk to feed their young. The milk comes in the form of protein crystals, each containing four times as much nutrients as in the same amount of milk produced by cows.
The thing keeping researchers intrigued, is the fact that these milk crystals are complete foods, meaning they contain proteins, fats and sugars, as well as essential amino acids.
Over 790 million people undernourished around the world today, a discovery like this could achieve groundbreaking results in the fight against famine. But what also makes cockroach milk so astonishing is that it isn’t just a complete food, but also a time release food. This means that the crystal releases protein at a balanced rate, contrary to quick-release foods which cause a rapid rise in blood sugar, and increase risks for weight gain and type 2 diabetes.
Now collecting cockroach milk through milking is obviously not very efficient. However, the scientists working on the project are looking into using a yeast system to mass produce the milk crystals.
With a rapidly growing world population and one in every nine people not having enough to eat every day, farmed cockroach milk does not seem like a bad idea when it comes to saving humanity.
