Imagine a low-calorie, protein-packed noodle that evokes the butteriness of French cheeses.
The good news is that you don’t need to book a table at a buzzy new bistro to try it. This earthy delicacy is served in a brown paper bag — and it doesn’t really put up a fight.
“Mealworms [are] a contender for, like, one of my most favorite insects,” a Chicago-area resident named Carlos declares before slurping down a handful.
“And my favorite thing about them is the flavor. It’s a lot like buttered popcorn.”
If you haven’t gagged yet — brace yourself! Carlos, 26, scarfs down heaps of live mealworms and roaches on Wednesday’s episode of TLC’s “My Strange Addiction.”
In an exclusive preview clip provided to The Post, Carlos likens crickets to a veggie delight.
He also swears that the insides of cockroaches “taste like custard.” And even worse — he loves the way creepy-crawlies “swarm” his mouth, “massage” his tongue and “tickle” his throat.
“When it, like, squiggles around your mouth, very rewarding. You don’t get that from any other kind of food, I guarantee you,” Carlos said.
Carlos is unemployed but livin’ his pest life, as his partner and the mother of his infant daughter frets that he is risking his health and frittering away their savings.
Just because these insects are found in dirt doesn’t make them dirt cheap. Carlos is shown in the episode shelling out $8 for a mealworm-roach mix at a reptile specialty store.
“When I first found out about Carlos’s bugging, I thought it was, I guess, cute,” partner Ashley said.
“But as time has gone on, it’s become evident that it’s a major crutch for him.”
Carlos said he caught the bug as a little boy.
“At a very young age, I always had a curiosity about eating them,” he explained.
“My earliest memory as a child was when I was like 4 years old, and I was eating bugs at that age.”
Now, Carlos is devouring up to 100 live bugs a day. “My Strange Addiction” producers helpfully note that’s 30,000 insects a year or roughly the weight of a Thanksgiving turkey. Heart-worming, indeed.
It’s tough to say exactly why Carlos eats live bugs. Some of it appears to be a need for control.
“When I eat and chew live bugs, it makes me feel like I am the master of their destiny,” he said.
“I’m pretty animalistic and primal about it,” he added.
Carlos acknowledged that “channeling [his] inner predator” may not be “fair to the bug, but it does taste pretty good.”
Ento-terrorism aside, Carlos finds his cravings the most powerful “in times of crisis.” Perhaps that’s why he enjoys the struggle.
“I like to … chomp the head,” he said as a creature pinched the inside of his mouth.
“I like a certain boldness and intensity in my food. I don’t know why I like it, but I do.”
But Ashley isn’t thrilled, so now it’s crunch time.
Carlos visited an alternative medicine clinic in Wisconsin to find out if there are any health downsides to creepin’ it real.
He tried to convince nurse practitioner Nanette Cambronero that his arthropod addiction is A-OK because over 70% of the world’s nations consume insects.
“In some cultures, eating bugs is accepted, but the big difference is live bugs are gutted and they’re cooked,” Cambronero replied.
“The problem is when you eat these bugs live, you are contaminating your body with active live parasitic and bacterial infections.”
Cambronero said that toxins from bugs can seep into the bloodstream, potentially causing multi-organ failure.
“There are studies that show that parasitic infections can even travel to the brain and basically eat at your brain tissue and contribute to chronic diseases that resemble early dementia,” Cambronero said.
She suggested eating dead bugs instead of live ones and avoiding cockroaches, which can carry and transmit harmful bacteria.
Though he seemed otherwise healthy, Carlos noted that he does experience heart palpitations sometimes.
“I had no idea the full extent of damage that it could potentially cause. I do want to change, but I also really like eating bugs,” he admitted.
Carlos later told The Post that he is no longer subsisting on grubs for grub.
“I’ve cut back significantly since filming,” he said. “It was a contained period of my life, and while traces of it remain, it’s no longer something I engage with intentionally.”
“My Strange Addiction” airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on TLC.
