We love to chirp about the benefits of eating crickets here at 3 Cricketeers!

One of the many benefits of having crickets in your diet is that they are a great source of protein.

Protein plays a key role in every cell of our body and helps create and maintain every system. You need protein for building bone, muscle and cartilage. Red blood cells contain a protein compound which oxygenates the entire body. Protein is needed to build and repair tissue and cells. Almost half of our daily protein requirement goes to making enzymes which aid in digestion. Protein aids in hormone regulation, especially during puberty and pregnancy. Protein is known as a "macronutrient", and for good reason, we need a lot of it!  

The protein found in crickets is a complete protein. A complete protein has all 9 essential amino acids our body cannot produce on its own. Amino acids are important because they are the building blocks of protein and they decide how it breaks down in our bodies. There are 20 amino acids, 11 our body can produce on its own, and the other 9 our body can only get through our diet.

Crickets are 60% protein by weight. Meaning if you eat 100 grams of crickets - 60 grams is pure protein. Compare this to other sources of protein: beef around 26g, chicken around 30g and fish 22g of protein per 100g serving. As you can see crickets have double the amount of protein!

We talked about crickets containing prebiotic fiber in our last post. Crickets have protein and fiber- win win! 

We will explain more health benefits of eating crickets coming up in our next post.