Back in 2013, Mark Cuban from the show Shark Tank invested in a company that sold bars made with cricket protein powder or flour. What Mark was interested in wasn’t in selling the bars as much as supplying cricket flour. This can be used like regular protein powder in recipes, replacing a portion of the flour to increase the amount of protein in whatever you’re baking.

We already have protein powder. Why bring in a new source? And is it a high-quality bioavailable protein? If it can be shown to help us build muscle better than a whey protein isolate, then I can guarantee guys who lift aren’t going to care it came from insects.

In January, the World Economic Forum met in Switzerland, and one of the items on their agenda was on how eating insects could reduce climate change. I’m not going to go into everything. Still, they brought up an interesting projection stating by 2050. The earth will have nearly 10 billion people on it, and the demand for protein will exceed our ability to acquire it.

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Not enough protein to support our gains now that’s a problem, I’ll be 85 in 2050, but I’m still going to be lifting. Whoop paw! Whoo paw? Whoop paw!

This is where insects come in; they can be farmed using fewer resources than traditional meat sources, and with their short life cycle and high reproductive rate, a female cricket lays close to 3000 eggs in her lifetime. Making it a very sustainable food source.

But back to my 85-year-old gains. Will insects be as effective in helping me build muscle as current protein sources?

At this time cricket powder seems to be the most marketable product. I looked for a cricket protein isolate so I could compare it to whey isolate, and as far as I can see, they currently don’t sell this product, or it’s not readily available.

I did find a study that compared the bioavailability of amino acids between Whey, soy and lesser mealworm protein isolate. They had the same 6 men on different days receive one of the three proteins and took blood samples one before ingesting, then right after and again at the 20, 40, 60, 90 and 120-minute mark.

They looked at essential amino acids, branched-chain amino acids, and leucine. Whey protein had the greatest concentration of amino acids, and at the 60-minute mark, both whey and soy protein ingestion peaked.

With insect protein not peaking until 120 minutes, making it a slow-releasing protein, its concentration of amino acids was comparable to soy isolate. (Show this in the study, it’s found in the discussion section) This isn’t bad. When you look at where soy is on the protein quality score, it’s not that much lower than whey.

If you are taking protein throughout the day, the fact it’s slow digesting shouldn’t matter. But if you’re training fasted and are looking for a quick protein source after your workout, mealworm isolate wouldn’t be it.

The researchers had thought the insect protein should have rated higher and hypothesized it was because of chitin which is found mainly in an insect’s exoskeleton and negatively affects the absorbability of protein.

There shouldn’t be much chitin in an isolate. But in a cricket flour or powder? There will be guaranteed.

Remember this as we move into the next portion of our discussion, where we compare insects to beef, chicken and pork. For many of us workout guys, chicken and beef is the foundation of our protein intake.

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    28 replies to "Insect Protein The Next Big Muscle Builder? (Better than Beef?)"

    • Fit and 50

      If you would like help losing excess body fat and building muscle, please email me at 1shark1bite@gmail.com for information on my personal training services.

      To purchase the tee shirt and shorts I’m wearing in this video or any Fit and 50 workout wear, click here, https://fit-and-50.creator-spring.com

      Check your testosterone levels from home. Just click this link http://trylgc.com/laurence and receive 30% off with code: LAURENCE30 I receive commissions on referrals to LetsGetChecked. I only recommend services I know and trust.

      If you would like to purchase a set of Torrobands for yourself, here is my affiliate link so you can receive 50% off on your purchase https://sale.torroband.com/?affId=555B3E5D

      Are you in the market for a fun way to get cardio in? If you are here is my affiliate link for 30 dollars off and free shipping on a set of 2 heavy jump ropes http://vip.torroband.com/heavyrope/?ref=codd&affId=555B3E5D

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    • andre roswell

      The WEF etc are going to make meat scarce so it’s going to be difficult.Something needs to be done.

      • Fit and 50

        They recognize the need for protein, but they have a ways to go before they can truly propose insects as a viable option.

    • iftaker uddin iftaker

      ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️🇧🇩🇧🇩🇧🇩🇧🇩🇧🇩❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

      • Fit and 50

        Thanks for watching!!

      • iftaker uddin iftaker

        @Fit and 50 ok bro..

      • iftaker uddin iftaker

        @Fit and 50 Make a video about arnold about his body. I like taj a lot

    • timshel Leo

      Feed that sheet to Joe Byden..

      • Fit and 50

        I want to stay out of the politics, but they’ve got to do better on the absorbability side of things before it can be proposed as a real option.

    • Teen oso

      April 1st falls early

      • Fit and 50

        😆

    • Steve Jarosz

      I’m glad you’re keeping an open minded tack on this, even though the people recommending it are some of the most bizarre people we’ve ever seen and I’m pretty sure don’t have our best interest at heart.

      • Fit and 50

        I’m just looking at it as a product and comparing it to what we currently have available, and it just doesn’t measure up, not yet, anyway.

    • John Rogers

      Woopa! Lol…. living in Thailand, I see a lot of these bugs getting the good news with some chili sauce.

      • Fit and 50

        Whoopa!!! I would try insects just to see if I enjoyed the taste, but it won’t be replacing my main protein sources for muscle growth.

    • Creative Training Hacks

      Taxonomically, scorpions aren’t insects 😉But whatever – yes, I would eat them. And all the other bugs, too. 
      If I remember correctly, chitin also slows down carb absorption, so it is good for stabilizing the blood sugar.

    • Dom C. Ouano

      the giant in the thumbnail 😆😆😆

    • Gummans Gubbe

      What about cancer in the spine as a food allergy?

    • Splash Moby

      Yeah no thanks

    • Dwayne Cunningham

      This was awesome. No one is discussing this objectively. Great job.

    • Donotuseme 001

      I love the scorpions and have worked out to many of their tunes for decades, but i would never eat one.

      • Dwayne Cunningham

        😂DUDE YOU ROCK ME LIKE A HURRICANE!

      • Donotuseme 001

        @Dwayne Cunningham 🤣

    • spicykimchi1

      I don’t know about crickets, but I had scorpion once when I lived in China. It was really good; it tastes like bacon.
      (Yeah, yeah, I know that a scorpion is technically an insect. I’m just sayin’.)

    • Christian Duval

      They could provide some ecdysterone.

    • Victor_Echo

      I’ll feed that stuff to my chickens and eat the eggs they produce.

    • JH'S GF

      I totally support this insects do have protein in nutrition and I do believe that at one point insects were part of the human diet but somewhere in history especially in the United States and bugs were no longer eaten
      I believe to this day there are some cultures who do eat insects I don’t see why we shouldn’t have them in our diets if they have nutrition to offer why not

    • Ruben Rios

      I’ve heard about bug protein before. The closest I’ve eaten insects was when I visited a ranch near the Louisiana and Texas border. It was a dish called “King Cake”. Honestly, it tasted well because it was mixed with a cake, but the discomfort of eating it was mentally there because we are taught that bugs inside of us are not normal. However, SEVERE hunger will definitely alter your mind and tell you to grill those dragonflies near the pond.

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