Much to your surprise, or possibly delight, the next environmentally friendly, sustainable superfood might be crawling around in your back garden. A study published in the journal Food Science of Animal Products led by researchers at the University of Dschang suggests that using grasshoppers as an alternative protein source in a diet leads to significant improvements in several health markers such as better sleep, sustained weight management, healthier hair, and a boosted libido.
Alternate protein sources
Scientists around the globe are looking for unconventional sources of protein, and in this search, they are looking at insects, specifically grasshoppers, due to their nutritional value and low environmental impact as a promising alternative. This study reveals that rats fed a diet of Ruspolia nitidula (a common edible grasshopper in Cameroon) experienced significant improvements in various health markers compared to those on other diets (a herring fishmeal diet and a third diet without any animal protein).
Surprising benefits
216 animals were fed the grasshopper diet over 12 weeks while being monitored for a range of health indicators like sleep patterns, hair quality, sexual behavior, and body weight. Rats on the grasshopper diet displayed improvement across several measures, such as getting 12 extra hours of sleep compared to those on the protein-deficient diet, and increased sexual behaviors compared to the other two groups.
95.4% of the rat hair samples from the grasshopper diet group were also found to have remarkable hair condition, with it lying flat and flexible to touch in comparison to only 5.55% of the hair from the fishmeal group and 0.27% from the protein-deficient group displaying similar hair quality.
In addition to the hair improvements, rats in the grasshopper diet group also experienced body weight improvements. The grasshopper diet group maintained a healthy average weight of 180.10 grams, compared to 172.76 grams in the fishmeal group and 146.15 grams in the protein-deficient group.
Grasshoppers meet nutritional needs
“Our findings highlight the significant potential of edible insects like Ruspolia nitidula as alternative protein sources,” said lead researcher Dr. Ngnaniyyi Abdoul. “The grasshopper meal not only meets nutritional needs but also offers substantial health benefits, including improved libido, better sleep, and enhanced hair quality, with far-reaching implications for both animal and human diets.”
Antioxidant activity
Vegetarian creepy crawlies like grasshoppers have been shown to contain higher antioxidant activity than their carnivore insect counterparts such as spiders and scorpions. For all you open-minded freaks, it may come as good news that some of these vegetarian insects such as silkworms and grasshoppers have an antioxidant capacity that is very similar to that of fresh orange juice.
While taste and image are key when it comes to food for most people, for those who are more open-minded, health is also an incentive that overrides our sense of ick. What’s more is that this potent antioxidant anti-aging activity has that free-radical scavenging ability which typically designates a ‘superfood’. So, will we embrace the ick and will grasshoppers become a superfood, only time will tell.
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References/Sources/Materials provided by:
https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.26599/FSAP.2024.9240068
