News/Commentary

Mother reveals her trick to slashing grocery costs: Feeding her daughter crickets

April 26, 2023 | | Print Article

Canadian food writer Tiffany Leigh wrote a piece at Insider extolling the virtues of feeding her 18-month-old daughter crickets as a source of protein, claiming that it saves her hundreds on her grocery bills and is healthy for her little one.

The left has been pushing bugs as an alternative food source for quite a while now. Leigh’s revelation at Insider appears to be another attempt to take the gross food supplement mainstream.

The essay is not for the faint of stomach. The Toronto mother and foodie began supplementing her little girl’s protein sources of beef, chicken, and pork with whole roasted crickets, cricket protein powder, and Cheeto-like cricket puff snacks. She mixes it into mac & cheese and pancake mix as well.

The daughter doesn’t understand that what mommy is giving her are bugs and the mother doesn’t get that doing so appears to many to be a form of child abuse, or if she does, she doesn’t appear to care.

Instead, she brags that she has slashed her grocery bill from $250 to $300 a week to between $150 and $200 all in the name of leftist idealism, regardless of the cost to her little one. Anything to save the planet.

New York City-based registered dietician Jenna Werner predictably spewed leftist talking points and proclaimed to the New York Post in an email that crickets are a great source of protein.

“Crickets boast quite a few nutritional benefits important for both children and adults, and at decreased prices than other protein sources it could be a great way to get your family what they need, for less … IF they will eat it!” Werner wrote.

That’s a monstrous “if” and many would rather go without than eat bugs, no matter how much it saves them.

Leigh’s essay went on to note that cricket protein powder contains 65.5% protein.

Werner recommends ensuring the product has an NSF or third-party certification, which ensures that the ingredients on the package label are actually inside the product.

“Cricket powder also contains nutrients such as B12, calcium, iron, magnesium, fatty acids, and potassium,” Werner stated.

Leigh went on to write that a “mere 2 tablespoons of cricket powder provides 100% of the daily protein needs of a baby, which for my 20-pound baby is nine to 14 grams a day, or 11 grams on average.”

The writer says she’s always been open to trying new foods and doesn’t have a thing against bugs. She recounts that she’s eaten fried tarantula legs, ants, crickets, and scorpion on a stick. Many of those, by the way, are delicacies found in Chinese and other oriental food markets.

Leigh has traveled to Vietnam and Thailand and is a fan of how they add bugs to their food. So naturally she decided to do the same for her child as a three-week experiment.

In 2013, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations published a study that found consuming crickets could be a solution to climate change and world hunger. The mother’s little experiment falls right in line with that leftist premise.

She goes on to warn consumers to be careful of allergies when consuming bugs. She also recommended that parents should consider the age of their child when it comes to choking risks, especially if you feed them a whole cricket. She should have warned about choking and vomiting due to the grossness of it all.

The mother claims her daughter loves the cricket-enhanced Cheeto-like puffs, which are made by a brand called Actually Foods. Then she gave the child a whole roasted cricket which the little one wisely spat out, shaking her head “No.”

Leigh went on to blend the crickets into a pancake mix. When fed the pancakes, the child did not realize there were bugs in them and asked for more.

“I ate some and could understand why — you couldn’t tell that crickets were in these fluffy cakes,” Leigh said. “The only difference was that they had a slightly nutty finish.”

Then she put cricket protein powder in a macaroni and cheese mixture and the little girl seemed to like that as well.

“From what I see with the cost of the cricket protein powder, it is very comparable to many whey or plant protein options out there, so if you are looking to spice and switch it up, go for it and give it a try!” Werner recommended. “But simply as a protein powder option — not sure it saves any money … HOWEVER if you love/prefer it, that is great!”

Everyday Health insists that insects may also be a great source of vitamins and minerals, such as iron, zinc, and calcium.

Leigh is thrilled with her experiment and now plans to feed her child other edible insects in her meals, like ants, grasshoppers, and worms.

Latest posts by Terresa Monroe-Hamilton (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles