Howzat? Crickets are good for your gut

Widely accepted as nutritionally valuable (2 billion people regularly eat them), a US pilot study of 20 healthy adults has shown eating ground up crickets can have extra health benefits. Twenty-five grams of ground-up crickets in a smoothie or muffin were found to increase a type of good bacteria, Bifidobacterium animalis, 5.7-fold.

They also found lower levels of a blood protein linked to inflammation, TNF-alpha. Higher levels of TNF-alpha are often seen in depression and even cancer cases. The study was very small, so further investigation is needed.

Scientific Reports, July 2018