"There is another suspect in the room that could be confused with ADHD- the blood sugar curve. As a nutritionist, this is the trigger I am most excited to educate on because for the most part it is preventable through nutrition."
The definitions of ADHD/ADD are insidious and ambiguous, offering more of a checklist than a solid definition. The diagnosis can appear to be a catch-all for troubled and troublesome children and adults that don’t have anywhere else to turn. The CDC, American Psychiatric Association and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders have unified their definition of ADHD/ADD. While these were two separate diagnoses until 1994, they now both fall under Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Contingent on symptoms, there may also be an “impulsive” or “inattentive” element added in place of or in addition to “hyperactive”.
All too often I think it is dangerous to label a human like this without searching for the roots first, as labels can be confining and limiting as a stand-alone. Once a child or adult places themselves in a category of ailment or illness, it doesn’t credit their individual actions and can become a daily narrative that manifests itself through pattern. “I have ADD” can make a person feel powerless, as if there is nothing they can do to help it- and no one wants to feel helpless.
I don’t mean to discredit the disorder, and I have encountered people in my life that truly struggle with ADHD and in my youth, I checked off all of the boxes required to be medicated for ADHD. Can you believe the ease of which we will prescribe amphetamines to children who are already struggling? I was never medicated for ADHD, but I struggled through school trying to force focus. My motivation for this blog is the thinking that we need to be really careful when putting young children inside of a box or label that could help to define the rest of their life when there may be other triggers for inattention, hyperactivity and impulsive behaviors that we can nurture and heal.
By nature, children can be all of these diagnostic adjectives, and I would bet that all humans have experiences of hyperactivity, inattentiveness and impulsivity at some point or another in their lives. We must be careful not to confuse these words with curiosity, the excessive energy children seem to have, overwhelming excitement and more that comes with the magic of being a child. The DSM is careful to note that these symptoms of ADHD are experienced “often” - a word that is ambiguous in its own rite. I think the point they are trying to make is that the symptoms are a distraction to the child’s well-being and progression in development or that of others around them.
For the focus of this blog, I want to turn the spotlight on blood sugar. To be clear, I am not trying to discredit ADHD as a real phenomenon, I am merely saying there are other triggers for this kind of behavior. Examples would be a child who has a troubled home life or isn’t getting the attention that they require to feel seen and loved. There is another suspect in the room that could be confused with ADHD- the blood sugar curve. As a nutritionist, this is the trigger I am most excited to educate on because for the most part it is preventable through nutrition. There is no better time to use nutrition as preventative healthcare, than childhood.
While we know that overconsumption of sugar has plagued our country with diabetes and heart disease, we don't talk enough about detrimental side effects and misdiagnoses our children are experiencing due to overconsumption. An unhealthy blood sugar curve can result in, you guessed it:
1. Hyperactivity 2. Inattentiveness 3. Impulsivity.
Imagine if your child was able to remove these labels and start nurturing a curious spirit with more focus. Learning would be easier, time-outs and “naughtiness” stigmas disappear, and your child is able to thrive.
Quickly, let’s have a look at blood sugar curves so we are all on the same page. When you eat food, any kind of food, your blood sugar levels rise in the blood. The sugar is used by your body for basic functions to create energy, and what is left over is stored as fat. Rightfully, obesity gets a lot of attention in the mainstream - learn more about the process here and here.
Below are two blood sugar curves, one fueled by excess sugar, and the other is more balanced. The green curve represents healthy blood-sugar, and the red is a spike and crash roller coaster, caused by excess sugar consumption.
Unhealthy blood sugar curves cause more than obesity - they are responsible for the same behaviors attributed to ADHD. According to Mental Health America, countless medical professionals and science, when your blood sugars rise to high levels you may experience: Restlessness, anxiety, trouble thinking clearly, fatigue and mood swings. Hmmmmmm.
When we consume too much sugar, we experience a spike followed by a sharper crash resulting in low blood sugar. The symptoms of low blood sugar are: nervousness, anxiety, irritability, confusion, hunger and more. Do you see what I am getting at? Considering the unicorn advertising of the “Gogurt” my son was begging me for at the store recently had 29 grams of sugar, and the average ADULT recommended intake is 24 grams of sugar IN A WHOLE DAY…I’d say we have a problem.
We need to aim for more moderate blood sugar curves to avoid these symptoms.
It is HARD as a parent to make sure your kids are getting the food they need. Food is expensive today, and even if you get the right foods, getting your kids to eat them is a whole other topic! Even if you control what you can at home and tow the line at the grocery store when every turn offers bright colored cartoon characters at a kid's eye level, our culture is so ingrained with sugar consumption, you’ll hardly avoid Dum Dum offerings at the bank and cookies at preschool. So what do we do?
Protein, fats and fiber help keep us full longer and support healthy blood sugar. Make sure your kid isn’t just eating carbohydrates. I do not think carbs are evil, in fact lettuce is a carbohydrate, and I think that the fear of carbs is its own diagnoses. BUT, carbohydrates should be mindfully paired with a protein, fat, fiber or all three. Why?
Start the day right - make breakfast the healthiest meal of the day. Sending your kid to school with protein, fat and fiber in the belly instead of sugary cereal can help foster their curious spirit and aid with focus and ability to learn.
Don’t keep sweets in the house. If they aren’t there- they can’t be eaten and they can’t be a source of desire. I promise you that if your child is otherwise healthy- they will eat! Hunger strikes can push boundaries and seek control, but ultimately your child will get hungry and eat what you put in front of them. The work may seem hard initially, but it is well worthwhile, and for a parent who is concerned about an ADHD diagnosis and trouble at school, what is there to lose?
So that is all I have to say about that. I hope that this is helpful to moms and dads who are doing their best in the world to raise good humans. In a world that has plenty of parenting obstacles and challenges, we can all use a break here and there. If diet is something that can turn your child’s inattentive and distracted or disturbing behavior in the school room into behavior that supports learning and a peaceful mind- why the hell not, right? I hope this has been educational, and also offers some tips worth trying out. And maybe your child doesn’t have ADHD after all, and it is just a wild and crazy blood sugar rollercoaster that we need to stop feeding gravity!
Before John Mackey and Renee Hardy built the most successful health food brand of modern times, and before Bezos created the largest online river of supplies, “whole foods” had a more natural meaning. Many have heard of the “whole foods diet” or the trademarked “The Whole 30”, but are you familiar with the philosophy and principal behind these diet trends?
As a trained nutritionist, I am highly averse to diet trends…because they are just that - trends. Generally, if someone is searching out a diet they have motivations to be healthier, to optimize performance or to lose weight. The words trend and diet imply a temporary and fleeting nature. If someone is looking to obtain wellness and fitness, they are probably looking for results that endure long term. This makes the very concept of diet and trend irrelevant and unhelpful in reaching goals.
While I don’t believe in dieting nor food trends, I am a huge fan of whole food nutrition. The concept behind whole foods is incredibly powerful on many levels. It is a food tradition of all humans and when embraced, has the power to heal broken food systems and broken bodies at the same time. What is the definition of a whole food?
Whole foods are foods that don’t require processing, they occur naturally, and offer a spectrum of nutritional value as a result of being whole.
Modernized food systems are shaped by a booming human population and money hungry corporations who are driven by large profit margins. Our food systems are stressed to produce enough food to feed the masses, reliant on limited water, arable land and nutrient-dense top soil. Big food business conglomerates are constantly figuring out how to squeeze the most money out of the food we grow and raise. A crucial piece to that puzzle is the processing of whole foods, rendering them, often times un-recognizable to the human body. This robs the derivative of nutritional value but becomes more cost efficient to create food in a lab. Another problem is the massive hidden environmental cost. The profit of large companies promotes mono-agriculture (growing large swaths of one crop-and thus robbing the earth of biodiversity). The other parts of the once “whole food” are either wasted or sent to another food project (can you say huge carbon footprint?) Corporations benefit from creating food products that are void of nutrients and I’d like to explain how our foods transform from having the ability to prevent illness-to causing illness.
We were originally born nomadic peoples, hunter gatherers dependent on the landscape and seasonality of foods. We learned how to harvest and forage wild roots, fruits, vegetables and to hunt for meat. Your geographical location facilitated exactly what foods you were eating, but they were often beneficial for the climate- seal fat in climates where warmth was crucial, fruits and veggies in areas where you need to replace vitamins and minerals lost through sweating. What all of these foods have in common were their “wholeness” in nature. Our bodies evolved to process these foods, and it wasn’t until relatively recently on the human history timeline that we learned to separate nutrients and create new food entities with a lab.
Imagine a human body that has evolved to a certain climate. One day that person purchases a product like Ka’chava, or a Doughnut, two completely different products, but equally as confusing for the body and its ability to process nutrients. Let’s talk about Doughnuts first. Doughnuts are made with highly processed wheat flours, mainly the endosperm which is the sugary part of the plant that helps the plant grow into a full-grown plant. Couple that with highly processed sugars and lab created flavorings and additives. Our body is now confused, because not only have we taken all of the nutrients out of the wheat, but we have added other ingredients that have been separated from their valuable nutrition as well. The wheat lost its vitamins, minerals and fiber. What we have created is something the body never would have come across in the wild, and therefore doesn’t have the resources to assimilate. Take sugar for instance, we never wandered into high fructose corn syrup or coconut sugar, we found the sugar inside of a package that had fiber, and other nutritional value. Sugar is very harmful when it is consumed in the concentrated form, affecting blood sugar negatively and ultimately causing diabetes and heart disease.
Okay, now to talk about Ka'chava and other health foods that claim to be healthy. I am not saying that Ka’chava is unhealthy, only that it is ridiculous to combine 80 plus ingredients in one serving and then market the nutritional benefits of each ingredient. This philosophy is trying to ram all of what you could possibly need to be healthy into one meal, which is highly ineffective for how our bodies evolved to function. For one, the foods we eat compete for absorption, so combining all of your day’s nutrients in one bite is not effective, much of it is excreted. Just because you put something in your mouth, does not mean it will be absorbed into your blood stream. For a more in-depth analysis of how this works, you can revisit biochemistry 101. In another argument, it makes little to no sense from a sustainability perspective to harvest hundreds of different plants from all over the world with different seasonality to cram into one bougie meal that most of the world cannot afford. This is disrespectful to the earth in my opinion. We all do our best, but it seems elitist to pick and choose your foods so carelessly.
Another great example of how harmful processed foods can be is the rise in diabetes humans are experiencing. I will write a separate blog on how blood sugar works, but plain and simple, sugar is far less harmful when it is coupled with fiber, fat, protein, or all three. For instance, a whole orange is far better for your blood sugar than orange juice. The whole orange has a lot of fiber that slows down the absorption of the sugar to level out the blood sugar spike. This leads to more sustained use of sugar and less storage. When we have an excess of sugar it is stored as fat. When we eat honey straight it is a lot of sugar, but when we put it on a peanut butter and banana sandwich, it is absorbed more slowly. It is always mind boggling to me that we sent kids to school on sugary yogurt with sugary cereal and orange juice and then complain that they can’t focus and are unable to contain their own energy. This kind of eating leads to major spikes in blood sugars, and you guessed it- HUGE crashes. The lesson? Eat sugar in whole food form, fruit is not bad, fruit juice is a lot to handle.
So, what do we do? I know that time and money are always a factor to the manner in which we nourish our bodies and families, and I think we all do the best we can with the knowledge and resources we have. Here is what I can say. We should all try to read our labels, and choose the simplest whole food ingredients, and when possible, eat seasonally! Limit your ingredient lists, and always choose the most pronounceable and familiar ingredient lists.
I will only toot the Orchestra horn shortly, after all, it is a blog on our business website! Many of our protein users claim that our protein powder is the best tasting protein powder they have ever tried, and are amazed that they never get a stomach ache after they eat it. This is sad to me that people get used to having a sore tummy as if it is normal, but also not surprising. We have become disconnected from our bodies intuitively as a result of the available food products on the market. The fact that we have conditioned our bodies to undergo pain as if it is normal because that is just the natural way of protein supplements, is discouraging. Our protein powder doesn’t hurt the belly and it is no mistake or surprise to us. Our products were crafted for optimal absorption and to be gentle on the body’s systems. There are only four ingredients in our protein powder and all of them are whole foods, including the kiss of sweetness, which is powdered dates. Our protein was created by someone who is nutritionally trained, and understands the way our bodies evolved to absorb and assimilate nutrition. Our products are proprietary recipes formulated by a food scientist, a mother, an athlete and a small business owner- NOT Pepsi Co., Nabisco, General Mills etc. And lastly, our products were designed with the earth in mind, if we don’t design our food systems this way, we will run our future generations toward hunger and hardship like we have never seen before.
I hope this has been educational and also hopeful. If we all make our decisions daily to eat more whole foods than processed foods, we can make a great impact in both our personal health, and that health of the earth that sustains us.
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Grow Ensemble | February 8, 2022
Orchestra Provisions' very own Kate Stoddard joined Grow Ensemble’s Founder and podcast host, Cory Ames, on the Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation Podcast to explore how eating crickets could be the key to a sustainable food system.
Kate is a mother, social entrepreneur, and environmentalist. She has a Master’s in the science of nutrition and is interested in finding regenerative solutions to mending broken food systems. She is the Founder of Orchestra Provisions, an organization that is reimagining traditional protein sources by incorporating crickets into daily-use superfood blends.
In this conversation, Kate talks with Cory about how she discovered the benefits of eating insects and decided to build a product line to advocate for them. They discuss our rich history of entomophagy (eating insects), what has separated Western culture from this practice, and how Kate is overcoming the barriers to its re-adoption through her marketing.
They also cover the many reasons why insect protein is more sustainable than other sources, and how Orchestra Provisions is slowly shifting perceptions using their line of delicious spices, protein powders, and therapeutics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ5XIcNxEfs&t=2s
A hopeful solution for a promising legacy.
]]>Everyone reading probably already knows of trophic cascades by another name. If you have seen the Lion King, you might call it “The circle of life”, in school they called it the “food chain”, in yoga class they might call it “interconnectedness”. Wildlife biologists study these concepts under the label of “Trophic Cascades”. This is the researched reality that every ecosystem in balance is inherently connected with intimate and crucial relationships of survival. Some of these confluences are visible to us, and some of them become more obvious when studied with a meticulous eye.
A trophic cascade is: powerful indirect interactions that control entire ecosystems, occurring when a trophic level in a food web is suppressed.
Our earth and the life inside of it evolved into a wild and cacophonous balance. Sure, it isn’t always pleasant, pretty or enjoyable to witness, but it is PERFECT. It works very efficiently when left alone…enter humans. Introducing the Industrial and agricultural ages coupled with modern technology. The same things that could ultimately solve all of our problems in the long run, are simultaneously the ones that have put our wellbeing as humans and the health of our environment in a dire situation. People are disturbed by an increase in natural disasters, melting ice caps, rising oceans and shortened and warmer winters, but it is very hard to understand how we can fix this day to day. So, we go on with our guards up in denial.
BUT WAIT, I promise you this isn’t another diatribe about the doom and gloom of the “state of things”. This is precisely why learning about trophic cascades is beneficial. Before I go down that rabbit-hole, I want to say that by understanding the damage we have done with our food systems, we will be able to see how much power we have as the individual and collective to mend them. I give you HOPE!
Our food systems are the leading cause of climate change and global warming. Modern agriculture is destroying the earth that sustains us. By illustrating how balanced ecosystems and trophic cascades work, you can easily see why. Let’s begin with a balanced ecosystem, one that is healthy and regenerative, meaning it is biodiverse, sequestering carbon as fast as emissions, and the aquifer is functioning on a healthy timeline for life on earth. These systems look very different geographically, from tundra to desert and ocean to forested lake. Each unique system is evolved to its climate, bacteria, geological landscape, humidity and so on- you get the picture.
These ecosystems are made up of some version of the same equation. First you have predators at the top, these creatures are at the top of their food chain. They normally gestate for a longer period of time and give birth to fewer young, making their numbers few in the landscape, but incredibly monumental in impact-we’ll talk about that later. Often these members are carnivorous and eat animals lower on the food chain, but will also eat plants and insects to supplement. Examples of predators are Mountain lions, Sharks, Snakes and Spiders. Of course, predators can fall prey to other creatures on occasion, but generally speaking they are safe from predation themselves.
Next you have prey. These creatures have a much larger population and normally feed on plants or smaller creatures for survival. Many of them are “browsing species” which have dramatic impact on the landscape as they forage on willows, buds of aspen trees etc. These animals have slightly lower gestation periods and give birth to more offspring on average. Examples of prey would be zebra, salmon, fox, rabbits, elk and llamas.
Lower still in the animal kingdom are insects, which are worth mentioning for countless reasons. They reproduce quickly and efficiently and their hatches result in very large numbers of insects to ensure survival. They thrive off very few natural resources, but their impact on the ecosystem is expansive. You can imagine what insect populations without checks and balances look like. Insects serve and have served the rest of the animal kingdom as a critical nutrition source since the beginning of time. Insects are food, but they are also significant players in the game of decomposition. Their role in composting provides regenerated top soil for all plant, bacteria and fungal life to be synthesized and reborn. In this system, death is rebirth.
Lower still on the food chain are bacteria and fungi. Both of these entities are crucial to healthy ecosystems- flora, fauna and human alike. A small and tangible example is demonstrated in our recent research on the microbiome and the role our bacteria has in our digestion and overall health. There are more bacterial cells that makeup our bodies than human cells! Incredible. And fungus research is equally as impressive. Recently through mushroom-pioneers like Paul Stamets’ research we find the medicinal and health properties of fungus are seemingly infinite beyond the birth of modern antibiotics (penicillin). Together, bacteria and fungus are primarily responsible for breaking down organic matter and emitting nitrogen, carbon, oxygen and phosphorus into the atmosphere and soil to both clean and revive our natural landscapes. Sort of important.
One can easily see the interconnectedness that lives in balance through nature’s complex systems. Predators are only healthy if the numbers of prey animals are healthy. An example of this would be a mountain lion meeting its demise of starvation during a cold winter in response to an unhealthy population of big horn sheep or deer (favorite meals for the cats!) in the ecosystem.
Predators and prey have healthy food systems only when the flora below is healthy and in balance- this is a bottom up trophic cascade.
Prey animals will take over in an unbalanced way if the predators are removed causing other complicated problems- this is a top down example. An example of this is when mountain lion and wolf populations are weak the “browsing species” (elk, deer, moose, sheep) multiply. These species over browse on willows, grasses, aspen etc. This limits habitat for birds and squirrels directly impacting insect populations. It also impacts soil stability, increasing erosion on river and stream banks. The plants that keep the banks together also provide shade for species of fish that prefer a cooler temperature of water for optimal health.
Nature is FULL of these examples, and this demonstrates how crucial mother earth’s balance is to the health of life on earth…but also how delicate and vulnerable to disturbances.
A very interesting trophic cascade is one of subsidy.
Subsidy trophic cascades are perhaps of most interest for the purposes of this blog. A couple of examples follow, but the definition is something like this: A non-native food source that did not originate in evolutionary balance with the “eater’s natural habitat”.
These disturbances in the food chain are monumental.
HEY! I thought she promised us hope for a utopian future. Well, yes, the answer is fairly simple to avoid the disaster above.
Why is it important to eat lower on the food chain?
10 billion people by 2050, we need to feed them with limited natural resources, and now we are behind because we have de-mineralized our top soil-much of which blows away in the wind because of changing climate patterns that have led to higher temperatures, less moisture and higher winds.
That’s it! The further up the food chain you eat more regularly, the more natural resources, time and energy are required. The further down, the less energy, time and natural resources are required. Each time you alter a food by processing it, that food loses nutritional value, recognizability in the body and requires more ENERGY and TRANSPORT to arrive at your grocery store.
Maybe we should a little bit, and anyone wanting to change their diet for the environment should be empowered to do so! BUT here are my thoughts as a nutritionist on lab meat.
It’s not in the food chain at all? Our bodies never had the chance to evolve to lab food. We thrive off whole foods and not big masses of lab-made conglomerate. Our bodies evolved to recognize whole foods, our entire digestive system was built by 6 million years of trial, error by genetic mutations. When we found whole foods in nature before the modern agricultural era they were always in whole food form and rarely if ever were we eating large numbers of ingredients together (they compete for absorption by the way).
Impossible Burger : Water, Soy Protein Concentrate, Coconut Oil, Sunflower Oil, Natural Flavors, 2% Or Less Of: Potato Protein, Methylcellulose, Yeast Extract, Cultured Dextrose, Food Starch Modified, Soy Leghemoglobin, Salt, Mixed Tocopherols (Antioxidant), Soy Protein Isolate, Vitamins and Minerals (Zinc Gluconate, Thiamine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B1), Niacin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Vitamin B12).
Beyond Burger : Water, pea protein*, expeller-pressed canola oil, refined coconut oil, rice protein, natural flavors , dried yeast, cocoa butter, methylcellulose, and less than 1% of potato starch, salt, potassium chloride, beet juice color, apple extract, pomegranate concentrate, sunflower lecithin, vinegar, lemon juice concentrate, vitamins and minerals (zinc sulfate, niacinamide, pyridoxine hydrochloride, cyanocobalamin, calcium pantothenate).
Besides, think about all of the process and energy consumed to put these ingredients into lab creations. Getting these products on the shelf at the market has a huge environmental cost. There is a serious debate over whether the energy use and CO2 emissions may cause more problems than they solve. It appears that while this might be sustainable in the short-term, it is looking more resource intensive in the long term.
If this topic excites and captivates your attention, we highly recommend these two books:
The Wolf’s Tooth- Cristina Eisenberg
https://islandpress.org/books/wolfs-tooth
Path of the Puma- Jim Williams and Joe Glickman
For kids: PBS show “Wild Kratts” watch online for free! https://pbskids.org/wildkratts/videos/
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In the fall, insects hurry indoors prolonging their existence each day despite colder temperatures. This is the apex of how we know them in their identity as pests, (unless you are a farmer).
It is October, and I welcome the cold air to alleviate my kitchen of the common house fly and fruit flies that seem to be enjoying my fruit bowl and window sills. I, myself am buzzing about the kitchen trying to prepare breakfast for my young son who is three, when I look over to see him smash a fruit fly and without a blink consume it as food.
For a brief instant I am shocked, and then the frontal lobe kicked in and the conscious scientist in me realizes that I have been successful. Sure…he probably needs a little more training on when and which type of insects we should consume for human nutrition, but the common aversion to insect protein failed to grab hold of his consciousness. Children don’t have social norms, we as parents are busy forming them each day.
When we talk about food systems that can both regenerate and mend the damage we have incurred over the last hundred years and feed billions of people simultaneously, we ought to chat about how we are forming future minds. The power of parenting has everything to do with shaping the future generation’s position on what is normal and enjoyable to eat. The most powerful and transformative truth is that we can overcome aversion by simply normalizing actions in our parenting technique. A more obvious truth is that each moment a child is born ready to tackle the previous generation’s follies with ingenious solutions. It is up to parents to put their food systems baggage aside in forming healthy habits for the upcoming generations.
I never taught my kiddo to resent insects. We talk about how everything is connected and each organism is a part of the greater whole. Everything exists because it has a place and a function. My line of work is unique and my business Orchestra Provisions focuses on product development using cricket protein, so it has made it easy to incorporate insect nutrition into a young child’s diet. I have yet to observe a scoff, cringe, nose crinkle or otherwise. What I see is a thriving, too smart for his own good healthy toddler, vibrating at insane frequencies ready to take on the world. What my experience has proven is that overcoming aversion isn’t as hard as everyone is making it out to be, especially if the wager is food security and a healthy planet.
Maybe some people think this is strange…"is she really feeding her kid crickets”? Yes I am, just like 2.5 billion people world-wide. I have previously written about the benefits of insects in the diet of growing young people, and there is plenty of information out there explaining this developing food system. I would like to focus on the viability of this food staple and the main obstacle between insect protein and traction in the mainstream, I think it is twofold:
I think about this all of the time. The fuel for this blog post was the most recent episode of the Dave Chang Show podcast that my cousin sent one morning. Thank goodness the fine people over there are talking about feeding billions of people with limited resources. However, their words were harmful to an incredibly vibrant industry with limitless potential- to do just that, feed the world and do it efficiently. The podcast renounced insect protein as smart, but disgusting and not worth talking about in its own episode. Dave Chang said something to this affect:
"I don’t want to eat bugs. I would if I had to, but I don’t want to do it by choice."
For this reason, it was unworthy as a topic of discussion any further. I think many people live in this vein when it comes to eating insects. Basically, we acknowledge this is smart and maybe even inevitable, but we just don’t want to eat insects…And I, of all people, understand. When I started Orchestra Provisions, I was one of these folks. I had researched how smart it was for us to eat bugs in graduate school, I ordered every insect available in the human food market to a western consumer, and they sat in the pantry for way too long. I knew I should eat them, but I didn’t want to eat them. This is how Orchestra was started. I realized that if I was the nerdy scientist that wanted everyone to eat bugs, how on earth was I supposed to do that if I couldn’t bring myself to eat them?
Here is where Dave Chang falls short and Orchestra shines- We don’t have to experience the insects, we can fold them in as ingredients and this fits our current food systems formula. How many ingredients can you pronounce in most of the foods you find at the market today? Even if you are an educated consumer with healthy focus, one of these processed foods will end up in your cabinet with unpronounceable additives. Wouldn’t it be nice if one of those was a damn superfood that can save the planet from hunger and environmental demise? Our products at Orchestra do just this, we are normalizing entomophagy with a gentle approach that provides products where cricket powder is an ingredient, but it isn’t noticeable.
It is easy for people to shove insect protein aside for shiny things like seaweed, lab meats, and who knows what else, but the truth is that it will take all of these solutions, and then some to tackle the problems we are faced with. And those problems? I’d rather combat them with solutions then to add another layer of stress to the rampant adrenal fatigue we are all experiencing.
I have read so many articles in the mainstream media about the future of food and entomophagy/insects as food in the past three years. They are each passionately written by people who know what they are talking about. Energy goes into these publications with intent for impact. They normally have this trajectory-
The WHO and CDC are projecting 10 billion humans by 2050, UN and FAO believe we can feed them all with insect protein. There are a lot of options as far as diversity, but if we talk about crickets we find that they have a whole bunch more protein than beef, more calcium than milk and more iron than spinach. On top of this they require a fraction of the arable land, water and feed as other competing protein sources.
OK GREAT, EVERYONE IS ON BOARD! No…because they did one simple thing wrong, and as my dad in marketing reminds me, it could be the only way it was even passed as an includable story in the first place. What makes this story sexy and appealing to the reader? The image that preludes the story. The headline is always accompanied by the worst, most unappetizing image of someone eating a whole bug, or macro-photo of a live grasshopper staring you in the eyes. I am sorry, but I want nothing to do with that on my plate. These images do great harm to the industry, and I don’t want these pictures resembling my dining experience.
My conclusion and experience is that when people try Orchestra Provisions products, they buy them again and again. Our products are wonderful, thoughtful, easy to use, healthy, and support the most sustainable and regenerative forms of agriculture. This is three years of business, research and development and statistical proof that people will eat the dang things if you grind them up, fold them in and make them delicious. We give YOU the power to confront global hunger and combat environmental demise at your own table.
If you read to this point in the blog, I hope I gave your brain some food, now let us feed your family too:
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I am approached by curious vegans and vegetarians ALL of the time. Many have the question - “Are crickets vegan?” The answer isn’t simply a yes or no proposition for many. I normally answer this question with another question- “What motivates you toward veganism?”.
For many, the vegan pitch is one of animal welfare. These incredibly compassionate humans thrive on a vegan diet and don’t want to harm a living creature. While admirable, many genetic profiles don’t thrive on this diet and become iron deficient.
For many other vegans, their motivations are environmental or health related. We have found that healthy, whole food vegan and vegetarian diets help reduce inflammation, and may be preventative to heart disease. Of course, just because you are vegan doesn’t mean you eat a healthy diet, there are many unhealthy processed foods that are vegan.
For the second group of vegans and vegetarians, we will call them the environmental and health motivated vegans, cricket protein is absolutely a wonderful supplement to the diet. Not only is it more sustainable, requiring a fraction of the arable land and water as competing plant proteins, but it hosts many of the nutrients that are hard to obtain as a vegan- namely iron, b-vitamins and protein. This is a perfect food for these vegans and of my particular interest is the “heme-iron”. As a food scientist, I know that iron deficiency anemia (lack of iron in the diet usually) is a number one public health concern globally. Plant based iron is hard on the body and doesn’t get absorbed efficiently, about a 50% excretion rate. Heme-iron, from blood carrying animals, is 90% absorbed. IF we are to eat for the earth and sustainability, it is helpful to have supplemental sources of iron to avoid iron deficiency anemia as vegans and vegetarians.
For those nature lovers, crickets are of mass appeal. Since they can be grown indoors and in urban centers, they make local protein possible EVERYWHERE. They also don’t require us to eat into the naturally balanced wild landscapes that we have left. Cutting down rainforests for corn and soy feed-cows? Not necessary! We must protect the wild spaces we have left to promote biodiversity and carbon sequestration, and cricket farming is aligned with these goals.
Some vegans don’t want to kill animals because of their capacity to experience pain and suffering, in line with this is the philosophy that these creatures have central nervous systems and shouldn’t be consumed by humans. These are all valid parameters for the vegan diet and support the plant-based diet movement. Normally, these folks are NOT interested in cricket protein, and you know what…I support that. For those who can thrive on a vegan diet, they should, remember I mentioned that nutrition is hugely personalized, and these folks have the capacity to have great environmental impacts on our food systems creating a healthy demand for more whole-unprocessed foods. Yay for vegans!
I have always considered mushrooms to have something akin to a central nervous system, and we now know that trees can feel pain. For me personally, these boundaries and lines are very blurry and I still have nutritional needs. While I was in school obtaining a masters in the science of nutrition, I realized the incredible benefits to vegan diets for 1. The earth 2. Decreasing inflammation, and figured I better try the vegan diet if I was going to suggest it to others clinically. As a nutrition graduate student, I had all of the tools I needed to be a successful vegan- the knowledge that I would need to find strong supplemental sources of iron, protein, b-vitamins etc.
The one truth I left my graduate studies with was this: Nutrition and diet are personalized. Each genetic profile processes foods uniquely, and there isn’t one diet for EVERYONE. I did not thrive on the vegan diet, I found that the occasional use of red heme-iron carrying meat that was intentionally sourced was hugely therapeutic to my wellbeing. There is a new diet trend that has been coined “ento-veganism”, of course these folks are completely vegan with the exception of insect protein.
So, are crickets vegetarian and vegan? You will be the judge based on your personal criteria, but the answer for Orchestra Provisions is…Maybe, indeed!
]]>Why use crickets as a food staple? To put it simply, they're incredibly nutritious, and gentle on the planet.
Gram-to-gram, crickets have more protein than beef, more calcium than milk and more iron than spinach. That in and of itself is impressive, but the more you dive in, the more crickets impress.
Iron is an essential mineral your body needs to carry oxygen in the blood. Proper amounts of iron in the diet help to avoid iron deficiency anemia which is a number one global, public health concern. This topic is very interesting as plant-based diets gain popularity, as iron remains a very hard nutrient to get from a vegan or vegetarian diet. While iron exists in plants, it exists in a different form. Iron from animals is called “heme-iron”, this form of iron is 90 percent absorbed in the gut, where plant-based iron is only 50 percent absorbed. Crickets, of course, are an excellent source of highly absorbable heme-iron, making them an excellent nutritional supplement for vegans and vegetarians who are environmentally motivated or interested in the health benefits of a plant-based diet.
Crickets are a whole-food. Our body has evolved to recognize nutrition value through whole foods, not derivatives. Cricket powder is a perfect whole food that includes all of the added nutrition of such. When you get the protein benefits, you are also absorbing it with the fiber, vitamins and minerals that were meant to accompany it in a way that is very natural to the body.
Cricket powder is a complete protein, meaning it contains all 9 essential amino acids your body needs to function. Protein is crucial for building and maintaining muscles and all body tissues, healing, and fueling metabolic processes.
Cricket powder is highly bioavailable, very easily digested and assimilated into the blood stream. For this reason, it is highly attractive to those with compromised absorption.
Cricket protein also contains a healthy amount of prebiotic fiber, chitin, which helps to maintain a healthy microbiome.
Crickets are soy free, dairy free and gluten free, making them a friendly protein alternative to folks that have a hard time with these ingredients.
Crickets are low on the food chain, this means that they reproduce quickly and efficiently in large numbers. When we eat lower on the food chain “trophic cascade” there are fewer demonstrative impacts to the natural world. Eating in this way requires a fraction of the earth’s natural resources we are compromising with our large population. Crickets don’t demand much water, feed or arable land. Crickets are incredibly efficient at converting feed into protein for the human diet.
Crickets can be raised to support regenerative agricultural practices. What does this mean? Regenerative agriculture is raising food products in a way that actually helps to regenerate the soil, and leave a carbon neutral footprint. Crickets are very happy with food created from our food system’s waste. For example, our farmers are creative in regards to the cassava industry. There is a part of the cassava that is hard for humans to digest, despite the huge demand for cassava flour as a gluten free alternative. This waste from human agriculture can be turned into feed for the crickets that turn it into an additional food staple rich in protein. Since we can feed crickets this rejected agricultural “waste” we don’t have a need to cut down rainforests or expand into wild lands in order to cultivate food for our growing populations. This also cuts down on carbon emissions of wasted food.
Crickets also generate a product called “frass” that is a wonderful fertilizer that can help rebuild top soil. Our top soil health is crucial to the sustainability of agricultural processes that feed the world.
Another way in which eating crickets is immensely helpful in the balance of climate is the ability to grow vertically and indoors. This not only makes a local protein source possible for large urban centers, but protects wild lands. A growing issue is the assault on what is left of our natural landscapes. Not only are these places to recreate, but they are sanctuaries for wildlife. Perhaps the most important is the disappearance of biodiversity in these ecosystems. Natural landscapes are capable of cleaning water and sequestering carbon, which is more important than ever in supporting our healthy human population.
The reality is harsh, but we have a booming population and limited resources. It is time we took the wisdom of our insect eating predecessors to help achieve goals of food justice and access. Insects can be incorporated into any culturally appropriate solution. We like to think of it as a fortification of whole foods, cricket tortillas, rice bowls and pasta. If you support this industry, we can efficiently offer nutrient dense foods to those who have a hard time accessing nutritious foods. The UN, FAO and CDC are projecting 10 billion humans by 2050 and we need all of the solutions for efficient agriculture we can entertain.
2.5 billion people eat insects globally today. It has been hypothesized by scientists that our species evolved so effectively because of our ability to forage for this source of protein. This growing industry is exciting to watch, as you can now find cricket jerky, burgers, protein bars, chocolates and more.
Here at orchestra we believe your dining experience doesn’t have to be compromised to reap the benefits of these superfoods. Crickets don’t have to be eaten whole, and can be used as ingredients which fits our current food systems formula
]]>What could be more personal than food? Probably the only answer to that would be the food that you feed your child. There are many considerations, and double the advice on this matter. So, when I propose crickets as one of the most obvious super-food solutions to many of the developing child’s needs, I can see how there would be a grand backlash.
I don’t want to eat insects, why would I feed them to my child? Perhaps you should want to eat crickets as our survivalist Paleolithic ancestors did, and perhaps baby’s palettes and intuition should be more guiding than culture’s non-logic based aversions.
A mother is trained to be protective of her child, this is what keeps the gene-pool alive right? Of course this is a cut and dry answer to a dynamic that is laden with hormones and the emotions that follow, so as a mother, I would rather think of rearing a child as my life’s work and legacy, creating a best friend and a family member that makes life worth living! So I can see how a non-traditional but heavily important historical food source such as cricket would be revulsive to the modern parent regarding childhood development and meal time. But here’s the thing, crickets are quite delicious and nutritious…let’s take a deeper look:
The question of:
Increased demand for iron. Iron is not transmitted to child from breastmilk so baby travels through the first few months of life with the iron stores the placenta provided. This is one of the reasons the AAP recommends introducing solid foods around 6 months of age. Iron is important for (but not limited to) carrying oxygen throughout the body and brain development. Iron-rich foods like spinach and prunes are common foods that provide baby with the iron he/she slowly runs out of during breastfeeding.
Increased demand for B-vitamin complex. B-vitamins are important in countless ways in the human body, but on the most basic level they are the substrate that fuels energy production of each cell. Of course you can imagine the type of energy demands a human baby requires, since the type of growth a human child undergoes in the first year is almost unparalleled. B-vitamins are also extremely important for nervous system function.
Increased demand for omega-3 fatty acids. We learn more and more that fatty acids are crucial for proper brain development. I don’t need so say more, but I will. Omega’s are necessary for the inflammation process, both healthy inflammation and anti-inflammatory processes. Essential fatty acids play an important role in healthy endocrine function…and I will stop there as not to overwhelm. But if you're interested, you can read more here.
Increased demand for calcium. This is the one we all know too well. Bones growing, getting bigger…gotta’ have ample calcium. Calcium does a whole lot more, but we won’t get into that here.
Increased demand of protein. Protein is necessary for growth of tissues, immune function and much more.
ALERT: Crickets are an excellent source of protein, iron, b-vitamins (especially B12), omega-3 and 6 essential fatty acids and calcium! Not only are crickets a good match nutritionally, but they provide heme-iron. Vegetable and fruit sourced iron are non-heme and less absorbable in the human body.
When you do a search online to find out if your baby NEEDS cow’s milk at the age of 12 mo. as is usually suggested, it is suspicious that the top few hits are backed by big AG dairy. I mean of course that’s the case, but is it truly necessary to feed your baby cow’s milk? This is not an issue I am willing to touch with a ten-foot stick. Instead, I will chat a bit about the different forms of milk and their benefits, also that crickets could be an excellent supplemental addition to each form of milk as baby transitions to toddlerhood- 12 months and beyond.
Breastmilk: The most absorbable form of baby nutrition, easy to digest and vitamins assimilate effectively. Immune system is passed down from mother to infant. High in essential fatty acids required for brain development. The perfect-nature-designed infant food.
Formula: Excellent form of nutrition for moms who have had supply issues, desire not to breastfeed, have trouble integrating breastfeeding (it is a HUGE commitment!) into a busy work life and many of the other valid reasons! Formulas are fortified with all of the baby’s essential nutrition needs.
Cow’s milk at 12 mo.: Many suggest cow’s milk be introduced to a toddler diet starting at 12 months. The toddler has presumably developed well enough to handle the more complex animal proteins within cow milk. Indeed, cow milk packs a punch taking care of many bullet points on the nutritive list: Calcium, fats, protein, B-vitamins etc. This is why cow’s milk is so popular for parents who want to make sure their growing baby gets their needs met. Some parents would rather not go that route, and that is okay too! Perhaps goats milk, soy, or any of the nut milks that are fortified are a great sub. See where I am going here? A little cricket powder mixes well with baby food and formulating taste preferences are free of aversion-taint at this point!
Before everyone rushes the cricket farm, please be aware! Just as any allergic reaction (IgE-mediated) response requires a protein, crickets contain protein! It is possible that a child could have an allergic reaction to crickets. This is not dissimilar to the nature of a child having an allergic reaction to any other protein such as gluten, cow milk protein, soy, seafood etc. If your child is sensitive or has a family history of food allergies, please proceed knowing that crickets may cause a similar reaction.
It would be smart to avoid incorporating crickets into your child’s diet until other proteins are recommended by your physician. For a comprehensive guide on age appropriate foods click here.
Also, I am enjoying this book!
Bon Appetit
Kate Stoddard, MScN
Am I allergic to crickets if I am allergic to shellfish?
Great question, and one to be taken seriously. Usually humans have fear surrounding mystery, and the goal of this post is to create smart skeptics and eliminate fear of our own immune systems. The immune system is a great mystery itself. This is a field in medicine that is so complex we have yet to ground a full understanding of how it works, so it is no wonder many people would rather avoid certain foods completely than risk a reaction.
I had an amazing opportunity in my graduate education at the National University of Natural Medicine to take a class on food intolerances, allergies, aversion, toxicity and sensitivities. During that class I created this visual to help people understand the differences between the five. This immunologic study helped me to understand the basics concerning immune modulated responses to food. The most imminent and scary reaction we all think of when we think of food reactions is an IgE mediated response (think peanuts). This is a food allergy that can result reactions ranging from an itchy throat, on up to the narrowing of an airway and inability to breathe. Scary, yes… the latter is also known as anaphylaxis. These folks often carry epinephrine around when they may be at risk of accidentally eating something with hidden peanuts (or whatever their specific allergy trigger may be). Anaphylactic reactions mediated by IgE antibodies can happen from bee stings, other environmental offenders and plenty of other foods.
Whenever an allergic reaction is taking place, this is the effect of a protein. As much as science has enlightened us up until this point, proteins are the elements of food the immune system finds offensive.
Another food group people often have troubles with are shellfish. This is a complicated matter in and of it’s own because there are a multitude of proteins in each crustacean, so it is hard to isolate one protein to figure out which protein it is that is truly causing a reaction. To make things even more complicated, each type of shellfish has multiple proteins. For instance, a lobster may have some proteins in common with a shrimp, but many other proteins as well. In shrimp, scientists have found tropomyosin to be an offender that binds to IgE antibodies. This New York Times article is a great explanation on the topic, and more accessible than some of the scientific studies out there
To understand the seafood/shellfish/arthropod interactions that can occur in the body, here is a more scientific review with some helpful visuals.
So… crickets are arthropods. Shellfish are arthropods. A little refresher on how the animal classification system works: Domain-kingdom-phylum-class-order-family-genus-species. Arthropods are a very large phylum, arguably one of the most successful phylum of the animal kingdom. More than 800,000 species of arthropods exist, including members millipedes, centipedes, spiders, scorpions, lobsters and crabs. For more on this particular topic you can check this resource out.
Hopefully the information provided shows you how broad the classification of phylum-arthropod truly is. Now envision how many proteins make up the arthropod phylum. Surely being allergic to one member, shrimp, does not logically mean you are allergic to every single member of the arthropod phylum. Now…why would I put a cautionary warning on my cricket spices, if there wasn’t a strong reason to do so?
The FDA does not yet have a thorough system in place to ensure regulatory measures by the astringent standards of the “western world”. Up until now, the FDA regulates insects as an unavoidable inclusion of what inevitably wanders into human crops. You may have seen a caterpillar inside of a raspberry? Or maybe a beetle in your quinoa every now and again? Insects have also been intentionally included in food stuffs beyond recognition of the general public for quite some time. The most recent example of this application in the media might be that of the dactylopius coccus that when crushed creates a red cochineal dye that Starbucks was using to color it’s Frappuccinos red. More on that here.
In my humblest of opinions, proper parameters for regulating and studying the use of crickets as human food will not be in place until the industry makes enough money for the FDA to deem it worth the efforts to try to manage. Of course, more research and regulation benefit everyone involved in the industry, bringing legitimacy to its reputation as a safe foodstuff. Luckily for the smart and sustainably motivated insect eaters of the western world, I believe this time is right around the corner as millions of dollars annually are already being made off crickets by companies like Exo, Chapul, Thailand Unique, Cowboy Crickets, Cricket Flours, Chirps, Bitty Foods, Crick Nutrition, Entomo Farms, Aspire Foods and of course our very own Orchestra Provisions.
For now, the FDA is telling people to be wary of crickets if you have an allergy to shellfish, because they are in the same phylum as crustaceans. I hope after having read this post, you know that this is a warning to be taken both seriously, and with a grain of salt. With that being said, many people who have shellfish allergies have been fine consuming cricket protein. As with all of our unique immune considerations, proceed at your own risk. Who knows, once science is funded to study the proteins that make up crickets, I may be able to take the allergy warning off my labeling, but for now I will leave it… JUST IN CASE!
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