Comparison of cricket diet with peanut-based and milk-based diets in the recovery from protein malnutrition in mice and the impact on growth, metabolism and immune function

Abstract

Some evidence suggests that edible insects could be used to treat malnutrition following protein deficiency. However, additional studies are needed to better assess the potential of edible insects as a therapeutic food supplement and their long-term impact on recovery from malnutrition. The goals of this study were to investigate the effectiveness of a cricketbased diet in recovery from protein-malnutrition in early life, and to compare cricket protein to more traditional sources used for food fortification and supplementation. Protein-malnutrition was induced by administration of an isocaloric hypoprotein diet (5% protein calories) in young male mice for two weeks during puberty, followed by a six-week recovery period using a cricket-, peanut-or milk-based diet. We examined the impact of protein-malnutrition and subsequent recovery on body weight, growth and select biomarkers of inflammation and metabolism. Protein-malnutrition resulted in growth retardation, downregulation of inflammatory markers in spleen tissue, decreased levels of serum triglycerides, and elevated serum levels of leptin and adiponectin. The cricket-based diet performed equally well as the peanut-and milk-based diets in body weight recovery, but there were differences in immune and metabolic markers among the different recovery diets. Results suggest edible crickets may provide an alternative nutrient-dense protein source with relatively low environmental demands for combating the effects of early-life malnutrition compared to more traditional supplementation and fortification sources. Additional investigations are needed to examine the short and long term impacts of different recovery diets on metabolism and immune function.

How Healthy Are Non-Traditional Dietary Proteins? The Effect of Diverse Protein Foods on Biomarkers of Human Health

“…The effect of cricket powder consumption on metabolic health has been examined in rodents. Bergmans et al (2020) compared the effectiveness of cricket, peanut, and milk proteins in the recovery of malnutrition in a mouse model [ 50 ]. Cricket protein showed similar improvements in body weight recovery, but the differences in immune and metabolic markers were inconclusive.…”

“…Cricket protein showed similar improvements in body weight recovery, but the differences in immune and metabolic markers were inconclusive. No differences were observed between the expression of select inflammatory genes (TLR4, TNFα, IL-1β, IFNγ) in the spleen between the control group and the mice fed cricket or milk diets [ 50 ]. Similarly, Oibiokpa et al (2018) fed a cohort of albino rats isonitrogenous diets containing casein (10% protein) or four different types of insects (cricket, termite, grasshopper or moth) for 28 days.…”

Impacts of insect consumption on human health

“…Insects are also thought to supply important amino acids that are deficient in other cereal, tuber, and legume-based diets (Bukkens, 2005;Manditsera et al, 2019;Nadeau et al, 2015;Van Huis et al, 2013). A recent study of malnutrition recovery in mice indicated that a tropical house cricket-based diet was comparable to a both a peanut-and milk-based diet in terms of body weight recovery, but differed in impacts on immune and metabolic markers (Bergmans et al, 2020). Parker et al (2020) assessed nutrient content of raw, roasted, and groundnut mixed palm weevil larvae in Ghana to supplement CFs.…”

“…Numerous studies have investigated potential health impacts of insect consumption -from nutritional analyses (Belluco et al, 2013;Rumpold and Schlüter, 2013;Womeni et al, 2009) and hypotheses as to impacts on deficient populations (Nadeau et al, 2015), to laboratory studies where insect components are tested on cell cultures in vitro (Latunde-Dada et al, 2016) or fed to animals (Bergmans et al, 2020). These studies provide a foundational understanding of how entomophagy could influence human health.…”

Functional properties of edible insects: a systematic review

“…However, all the doses were able to increase the percentage of lipid categories such as saturated fatty acids (SFA) and n-6 and to decrease monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), PUFA, n-3 and n-9 in zebrafish; histological analyses of fish intestine did not show any morphological alteration or inflammatory event (59) . Two studies (61,62) were conducted on malnourished animals. In particular, powder of whole Acheta domesticus or Rhynchophorus phoenicis fabricius was included in the diet of malnourished weanling Sprague-Dawley rats, increasing their body weight gain, organ (spleen, right kidney, brain, liver) weight, bone mineral content and lean mass.…”