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| Fig. 1: An American cockroach ( P. americana) specimen. (Source: Wikimedia Commons) |
Keeping oneself properly fed can be an expensive and tedious daily chore, especially when living the life of a busy student. A single cheap, abundant, and nutritionally complete food source could alleviate these issues. The American cockroach (Periplanata americana) (Fig. 1), despite its infamy as a household pest, may be exactly that food source.
Recommendations for daily caloric intake vary with age and physical factors such as height and physical activity, but for our purposes we will follow the 2000 kcal standard used for general nutritional advice. One kilogram of P. americana contains 1482 kcal , meaning the average adult would need to consume roughly 1.4 kg of cockroaches every day to fulfill their caloric needs. That would be the equivalent of 2650 insects, dried. [1]
Nutritional balance is another important factor when considering a cockroach-exclusive diet. The National Institutes of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommend that adults obtain 20-35% of their calories from fats, 45-65% from carbohydrates (including soluble carbohydrates such as starch or sugar, as well as insoluble dietary fiber), and 10-35% from protein. [2] Reports of the nutritional content of P. americana vary significantly (Table 1), but cockroaches generally appear to be a low-fat food source. [1,3] While reports find that cockroaches may not provide an adequate amount of either protein or carbohydrates--depending on the study--nutritional imbalance is arguably a feature of the current diets of many Stanford students anyway.
Cockroaches are also a rich source of minerals vital to metabolic function, such as calcium, magnesium, sodium, phosphorus, and potassium. The aforementioned daily diet of 1.4 kg of cockroaches would provide over three times the daily recommended intake of calcium, and five times the amount of magnesium. [1,3] However, the same diet contains roughly 40 times more iron than tolerable upper intake levels, so extra caution should be taken to monitor for iron overload and consequent organ damage. [1-3]
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| Table 1: Recommended adult human nutritional intake and nutrient content of P. americana adults. [1,3] | |||||||||||||||||||||||
The greatest advantage of a cockroach-exclusive diet is in its low production costs. Depending on rearing techniques, the cost of producing one kilogram of cockroaches ranges from Tsh 4829 - Tsh 7394 (Tsh = Tanzanian shillings), or $1.96 to $3.00. [4] Assuming three meals per day, that amounts to $2.74 - $4.20 per person per day, or less than $1.50 per meal. For comparison, the USDA's Low-Cost Food Plan estimates that the weekly cost to maintain a "budget-friendly" nutritious diet is $269.30-$310.40 for a 19-50 year old (which roughly covers the age of the average Stanford student). [5] Assuming three meals a day, that translates to $12.82-$14.78 per meal. Considering those costs, the eight-fold reduction in cost on a cockroach diet is considerable.
What would it look like if the entire student body of Stanford moved to a cockroach-exclusive diet? In 2024, Stanford had 7554 undergraduates and 9915 graduate students. Allergies notwithstanding, if everyone switched diets, we would collectively consume 6.25 million cockroaches every day and 15.7 billion over the entire academic year. Laid end to end, these roaches, at an average of 4 cm long each, would encircle the Earth more than fifteen times over.
In light of those numbers, the question of where to farm all these cockroaches is an obvious one. But considering the state of student housing, what difference will a few billion more roommates make?
While a cockroach-exclusive diet is unlikely to take off anywhere (if only for nutrition's sake), the fact of the matter is that edible insects have, and continue to play an important role in many cultures. Contrary to their general reputation as a "famine food" turned to only out of necessity, a wide range of insects are considered culinary delicacies in different parts of the world.
A growing field of food science research is in the cultivation of edible insects. As a livestock with low food and space requirements, insects may be a more ecological and economical alternative to animal-based protein. [6] In fact, edible insects are already more prevalent than some readers might expect. Insect feed makes up a major part of the pet food industry, as well as a growing portion of agricultural livestock feed. [7,8] Researchers have also found that processed insect meal, such as cricket flour, can be successfully incorporated into "conventional" human food without sacrificing taste or texture. Rather, the desirability of such foods is mainly influenced by cultural attitudes towards insect edibility; in some cases, the insect-based food may actually be more popular. [9,10]
So, if it turns out that insect food really is a part of the path to the future, I invite readers to take a stroll with an open mind.
© Abby Pan. The author warrants that the work is the author's own and that Stanford University provided no input other than typesetting and referencing guidelines. The author grants permission to copy, distribute and display this work in unaltered form, with attribution to the author, for noncommercial purposes only. All other rights, including commercial rights, are reserved to the author.
[1] S. O. Sule, T. A. Ojetyo and A. O. Sotolu, "Cockroach (Periplanata americana) Meal Nutritive Composition," FUW Trends in Science and Technology Journal 5, 238, (2020).
[2] Dietary Reference Intakes For Sodium and Potassium (National Academies Press, 2019).
[3] R. B. Ukoroije & D. Bawo, "Cockroach (Periplanata americana): Nutritional Value as Food and Feed for Man and Livestock," Asian Food Science Journal 15, 37 (2020).
[4] E. C. Lyawatwa, M. J. Martin, and G. H. Lawsal, "Effects of Diets and Rearing Periods on the Yield and Nutritional Quality of Cockroach Meal as Source of Protein to Broiler Chicken," Am. J. Entomol. 9, 111 (2025).
[5] "Official USDA Food Plans: Cost of Food at Home at Three Levels, U.S. Average, September 2025," U.S. Department of Agriculture, October 2025.
[6] A. van Huis, et al., "Edible insects: Future Prospects For Food and Feed Security," Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Forestry Paper 171, 2013.
[7] A. Belluco et al., "Edible Insects in a Food Safety and Nutritional Perspective: A Critical Review," Compr. Rev. Food Sci. Safety 12, 296 (2013).
[8] A. T. Dossey, J. A. Morales-Ramos, and G. Rojas, eds., Insects as Sustainable Food Ingredients (Academic Press, 2016).
[9] K. G. Burt, et al., "Acceptance of Using Cricket Flour as a Low Carbohydrate, High Protein, Sustainable Substitute for All-Purpose Flour in Muffins", J. Culin. Sci. Technol. 18, 201 (2020).
[10] M. H. Alemu, et al., "Can Insects Increase Food Security in Developing Countries? An Analysis of Kenyan Consumer Preferences and Demand For Cricket Flour Buns," Food Secur. 9, 471 (2017).
