Paradox Protein

Most companies are using bugs for protein powders or bars. We think it’s a shame the other nutrients are ignored. Instead of mixing synthetic materials you can’t pronounce or isolating nutrients, we let nature do the work.

The Original Cricket Pill is 100% ground up crickets. Period.

When you market a supplement product, you have to be careful about the health claims you make.

We honor transparency and honesty, so we’ll update you as more research emerges about the benefits of bugs. We trust new research will continue to provide evidence around the functional benefits of eating insects. So far, research has provided evidence that, “Cricket supplementation selectively changes the gut microbial and metabolite environment,” and cricket consumption is safe. (Read more: Impact of Edible Cricket Consumption on Gut Microbiota in Healthy Adults, a Double-blind, Randomized Crossover Trial)

Instead of asking why eat insects, we should be asking: “Why not?”

Crickets are sustainable.

Choose any food enviro-metric: gallons of water, CO2 equivalents of greenhouse gases, acres of land, feed-conversion-ratio comparisons, you name it. Insects come out ahead of traditional livestock like beef. Insects are cold-blooded, meaning they do not waste energy converting feed into body heat. Insects take around 12x less food than cows, produce 100x less CO2, take 1000x less water to raise, and can be grown anywhere. To put this in perspective, a pound of beef takes about 2000 gallons of water in total to get from the farm to your table. A pound of crickets takes only ONE gallon of water.

We care deeply about the narrative humans have around food. Food impacts our bodies and the environment in a big way, but we seem to have lost touch with this in the day-to-day.

Evolution is driven by technology. As hunter gatherers, we crafted the spear. As farmers, we invented the tractor. As industrialists, we transformed the food industry. We’ve introduced production lines for packaged foods, biotechnology into our seeds and all sorts of new additives, preservatives, and flavors. What will be the future of food?

This question comes as we speed towards 9 billion people by 2050. The food industry today already has an outsized impact on the environment (one-third of the world’s arable land is used for agriculture.) How we feed the future world is perhaps this generation’s most important responsibility.

In this story, people are both hero and villain. We can be lazy, self-interested, and near-sighted. We can also be determined, resourceful, and empathetic. If every purchase is an endorsement for the world we desire, then so far, we must not have been well-informed in our purchases. But education and purpose put into action can enable us to make better choices. The future of good food is in our hands.

Check out our products at paradoxprotein.com.