Hard work plus lots of protein equals muscles. But if you care about the environment at all, you’re probably a bit hesitant to beef up on beef. What’s an Earth-conscious meathead to do? Take Nas’ advice and get into Exo bars. The NYC-based rapper has just invested in the company, whose aim is to bring cricket flour-based goodies to the masses.
Yes, cricket flour. As in, a powdery baking substance made from the bodies of…well, you get the point. We’ve already talked about cricket burgers here before. Now the critters are showing up in your protein bars.
In spite of the fact that 80 percent of the world consumes insects on a regular basis, most Americans can’t get past the fact that Exo bars are essentially made of ground-up bugs. Which is exactly what Exo is trying to combat by teaming up with Nas and other investors in the brand.
“In the long term, we envision cricket powder being competitive with soy, and whey, and any other protein source,” Exo co-founder Greg Sewitz, 24, told Bloomberg. “That starts with introducing cricket protein to a consumer base with no direct experience with it and a lot of preconceived ideas that were negative.”
Putting aside the ick factor, cricket flour offers a myriad of benefits over regular old all-purpose flour. First of all, it’s high in protein: each of Exo’s protein bars contains 10 grams of the good stuff, taken from the equivalent of 40 crickets (flash-frozen, dried, and milled into the nutty-tasting flour).
Second, it’s sustainable: crickets produce 60 pounds of edible protein per 100 pounds of feed invested into them. Compare this to beef’s ratio of 100:5. Yikes. There’s also the issue of methane, aka cow farts. Crickets produce virtually no methane. Add in their quick reproduction abilities and the fact that they take up hardly any space at all, and you have yourself a source of protein that the United Nations estimates is 20 times more efficient to raise than cattle.
It’s also gluten-free, though it’s not exactly good for baking–just for blending into food to boost its nutritional profile.
Hopefully, as the bars catch on, nasty Nas will bless us with a verse about milled crickets and methane.
