Insects contains more proteins than beef or chicken, so eating them is recommended U.N. Urges Eating Insects; 8 Popular Bugs to Try From beetles to stinkbugs, people in dozens of countries eat insects. Fried locust on display before being eaten. Insects, like these fried locusts on display in a market, are a popular snack in a number of countries. Ants are sweet, nutty little insects, arent they? Im not talking about their personalities, but how they taste. Stinkbugs have an apple flavor, and red agave worms are spicy. A bite of tree worm apparently brings pork rinds to mind. This information will come in handy for those of us following the latest recommendation from the United Nations: Consume more insects. A report released Monday by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization reminds us that there are more than 1,900 edible insect species on Earth, hundreds of which are already part of the diet in many countries. In fact, some two billion people eat a wide variety of insects regularly, both cooked and raw; only in Western countries does the practice retain an ick factor among the masses. Why eat something that we usually swat away or battle with insecticides? For starters, many insects are packed with protein, fiber, good fats, and vital minerals—as much or more than many other food sources. One example: mealworms, the larval form of a particular species of darkling beetle that lives in temperate regions worldwide. Mealworms provide protein, vitamins, and minerals on par with those found in fish and meat. Another healthful treat: small grasshoppers rank up there with lean ground beef in protein content, with less fat per gram. (Related video: Family learns how to cook and prepare mealworms.) And raising and harvesting insects requires much less land than raising cows, pigs, and sheep. Insects convert food into protein much more efficiently than livestock do—meaning they need less food to produce more product. They also emit considerably fewer greenhouse gases than most livestock (think gassy cows). Entomophagy, the consumption of insects as food, is also a safe and healthy way to help reduce pest insects without using insecticides. Plus, gathering and farming insects can offer new forms of employment and income, especially in developing tropical countries where a lot of edibles live. That helps to explain why 36 African countries are entomophagous,
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 13:36:50 +0000
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