Why we need to eat crickets

[Music]

our food choices are really poor

in fact they’re terrible they’re fueling

climate change

and they’re also making us unhealthy now

that’s the bad news

the good news is we can actually do

something about it

so in the uk actually 60 of adults are

now classified as being

obese or overweight in fact the nhs

recorded a 23

increase in hospital admissions where

the key

factor was people being overweight or

obese

that’s bad news that contrasts with

other people in the

around the globe who are short of water

and short of food and two billion people

around the world live with water

scarcity

500 million people are undernourished

and to make these bad food choices we’ve

actually created a farming industry now

that’s starting to have a devastating

impact

on the environment on our planet

over three quarters of the world land

surface has now been impacted by human

activity

leaving little room for wildlife or even

ecosystem

services the farmland itself

is generating a quarter of the

greenhouse gases

that we produce as humans making it

very hard to hit our targets of net zero

emissions

half of that greenhouse gas emissions is

down to the animals that we

consume as humans and half of all the

crops grown

in this country are grown to feed those

animals

so listening to that you might think the

answer is for all of us to become vegans

well i don’t think it’s as simple as

that soil

is the second largest store of carbon

after oceans in the world

and it’s been degraded at an

ever-increasing rate

and that’s because we’re demanding more

from it so we’re increasing our yields

looking for more crops and getting rid

of the the wild areas

on our soil that actually leads to soil

degradation

and that releases carbon into the

atmosphere

plus it’s actually very difficult to get

all the nutrients that we’re going to

need as humans

from plants alone in fact if you want to

get a complete protein so that’s a

protein with

all the amino acids that we need and

can’t make ourselves

we need a number of different plant

sources to do that

and in fact there’s some trace vitamins

and minerals which we cannot get from

plants alone

so we need to think of other things on

top of that

the future is also looking quite

difficult by

2050 the un is predicting

that we will need 70 percent more

protein

than we’re currently producing so that’s

70 more protein than we’re currently

producing

so where is that going to come from if

we use traditional proteins

then we’re going to contribute continue

to contribute to

climate change and actually

diminish wildlife further that might

sound

insurmountable but actually i do

think there’s something that we can all

do

and that is to eat insects

and more specifically to eat crickets

now i think crickets are going to be

answer to

many of our problems so let me explain

why

insects are not a new food humans have

been eating them for thousands of years

look at their ancient greeks they ate

insects

the romans did as well and in fact if

you go on holiday to thailand even now

you’ll often come across insects being

sold in street food

two billion people around the world

actually consume insects as part of

their everyday diet

so for them it’s nothing new we have a

long history of consuming insects as

humans right now commercial farms are

being set up in europe and north america

to farm crickets for human consumption

this is quite different from catching

crickets in the field

because there’s a real emphasis on high

quality

and hygienic conditions and to suit

western tastes

these crickets are then processed into

cricut flour

or cricket powder something like this

and it can be added to almost any food

and people the reason why people do that

is because of its superfood qualities

now what makes them a superfood well the

oxford english dictionary

defines superfoods those foods that are

nutrient rich

and contribute to the health and

well-being

and that’s exactly what crickets do

they’re right up there with

gojo berries turmeric kale even

and there’s real so i thought i’d kind

of go through six key

nutritional points about crickets to

illustrate that

so the first one is protein they’re

really high in protein

so they have 65 to 70 protein content

which makes them much higher than beef

second they’re high in iron

now this there’s two types of iron hem

iron

and non-hemp iron the non-hem iron is

the stuff that you get from plants

the hem iron is the stuff you get from

animals and that’s the stuff you want

because it’s easily absorbable

and that means crickets have hem iron

that’s really good news because a

quarter of the global population

is anemic so well done

crickets the third point is

they’re very high in vitamin b12 vitamin

b12

you can only source that from animal

products

they actually have three times the

content of vitamin b12 than beef

so go crickets fourthly

they’re high in antioxidant activity

antioxidant activities prevent delay

and stop oxidization of different

compounds within our body

so it’s really important to help prevent

and increase

immunity against bugs

and they have five times as much

antioxidant activity

as orange juice number five

they’re high in prebiotic fibers now

that’s completely different from

probiotics

prebiotics are the food the good food

for the good

bugs in your gut and that’s really

important

because our modern lifestyle of

consuming takeaways

high sugar food high carb food high fat

food even

you know is food for the bad bugs in our

stomach and then can make our stomach go

out of balance and when that happens

it leads to discomfort kind of make us

very lethargic

and give us headaches actually it can

also cause mental health issues

so keeping our micro gut biome

imbalance is really important and

because crickets are packed with

prebiotic fibers they can help in that

department as well

and finally so the sixth time

they’re actually full of trace vitamins

and minerals

now that’s really important because that

helps us metabolize

the nutrients that we’re consuming so

they have

plenty of zinc copper manganese

magnesium to help with that whole

process

so when you listen to that you’re

probably thinking wow i understand

that’s great that’s a really good

superfood

but what about the environment well

they’re

actually have a really low carbon

footprint

so they’re good for the environment as

well

so let me just kind of illustrate that

for every

kg of cricket protein produced

requires less energy less input

less feed less water than beef

chicken or salmon so for example

a a kg of

cricket protein will only produce

um one gram of greenhouse gas

whereas a kg of beef protein

will produce 3 000 grams

of greenhouse gas just think what that’s

going to be doing to our environment

so we’ve got less of everything there

so actually thinking about it listening

to all of that

you’re probably thinking actually yeah

crickets sound

like a really good superfood but what do

they taste like

they have a mild nutty taste

it’s definitely not unpleasant and

smells slightly nutty as well so they’ve

got that nutty around me

they carry flavors really well so you

can add them to all sorts of foods

and that’s something that we need to do

increasingly

to actually make sure that we’re able to

feed the world’s population

so next time you’re walking down

nantucket high street

thinking about the food that you should

buy please look for food that has

crickets in

because they might be small but they

pack a really powerful nutritional punch

and will be part of the big solution to

solving climate change