by Kevin Coupe
Here's a sentence I never expected to read, as reported by the Washington Post:
"Experiments suggest that cockroach milk is among the most nutritious and highly caloric substances on the planet."
And it goes on:
"Pound-for-pound, cockroach milk crystals contain three times more energy than buffalo milk."
It is, according to scientists, "a complete food."
The Post explains:
"Most roaches lay eggs. Not the Pacific beetle cockroach. It gives birth to live young, sort of like humans if we kept babies by the dozen in fleshy organs called brood sacs. Also like humans, mother Pacific beetle cockroaches produce food for their offspring. The embryos dine on a liquid substance packed with fats, sugars and protein. You can think of this like cockroach milk.
It gets weirder."
Really?
It is only recent research by the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine in Bangalore that has demonstrated that this cockroach milk is enormously nutritious, and in fact could end up being a highly desirable ingredient in, say, energy drinks.
There are just two problems.
One is getting the milk. You can't milk a Pacific beetle cockroach the same way you would a cow.
The other problem is one of branding ... because saying you are actually putting anything with the name "cockroach" in it into a product is probably a fast way to kill sales.
But if they can just get past these two problems...it'd be an Eye-Opener.
Here's a sentence I never expected to read, as reported by the Washington Post:
"Experiments suggest that cockroach milk is among the most nutritious and highly caloric substances on the planet."
And it goes on:
"Pound-for-pound, cockroach milk crystals contain three times more energy than buffalo milk."
It is, according to scientists, "a complete food."
The Post explains:
"Most roaches lay eggs. Not the Pacific beetle cockroach. It gives birth to live young, sort of like humans if we kept babies by the dozen in fleshy organs called brood sacs. Also like humans, mother Pacific beetle cockroaches produce food for their offspring. The embryos dine on a liquid substance packed with fats, sugars and protein. You can think of this like cockroach milk.
It gets weirder."
Really?
It is only recent research by the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine in Bangalore that has demonstrated that this cockroach milk is enormously nutritious, and in fact could end up being a highly desirable ingredient in, say, energy drinks.
There are just two problems.
One is getting the milk. You can't milk a Pacific beetle cockroach the same way you would a cow.
The other problem is one of branding ... because saying you are actually putting anything with the name "cockroach" in it into a product is probably a fast way to kill sales.
But if they can just get past these two problems...it'd be an Eye-Opener.
- KC's View:
