What's Stopping Us From Eating Insects? 655
Lasrick writes "Scientific American has a really nice article explaining why insects should be considered a good food source, and how the encroachment of Western attitudes into societies that traditionally eat insects is affecting consumption of this important source of nutrients. Good stuff."
Especially when they're so easy to grow.
Good Question (Score:5, Insightful)
It's all in our heads. We choose to eat some animals (like cows) and not others (like cats) because of cultural reasons. Same with insects.
Re:Good Question (Score:5, Funny)
We choose to eat some animals (like cows) and not others (like cats)...
Speak for yourself; I find cat makes a fine goulash. Okay, well I might if I lived in Lousiana... :)
Re:Good Question (Score:5, Funny)
in many places in the world, they walk their dog. in some places in asia, they wok their dog.
Re:Good Question (Score:5, Informative)
in many places in the world, they walk their dog. in some places in asia, they wok their dog.
It is believed among the first domesticated animal, raised for consumption were dogs.
Re:Good Question (Score:5, Interesting)
They served as a dual purpose... dogs actually were a result of wolves domesticating themselves. The socialable wolves were not killed by humans as they hung out eating their scraps. The new dogs served as companions and were used as "reserve" food supply. Humans used to eat wild horses regularly, and later used them as a beast of burden AND a "reserve" food supply.
Once you start having a relationship with something, you tend to want to avoid eating it, because you cannot undo it. So, you keep looking for another food source. Eventually, it becomes taboo.
Re:Good Question (Score:5, Funny)
no, you made up that last bit about "taboo" yourselves. Dogs on the menu at many places in the word, so are horses (FDA just added Mr. Ed to list by the way, my glue-eating classmates of 40+ years ago were clearly ahead of their time)
Re:Good Question (Score:5, Informative)
1) The Sun is the god of all gods, superior to whatever deities you already have
2) The Inca is the king of all kings, superior to whatever ruler you already have
3) No more sodomy (they wanted to increase population as quickly as possible
4) Stop eating dogs
We have three 'calatos', the Peruvian hairless dog (my wife's family has had one or more of these dogs continuously for at least 40 years). Wonderful animals, clean, loyal, no shedding, no fleas, affectionate, intelligent, pretty much everything you want in a dog. And since there's no hair they're easy to prepare for the oven.
Re: Good Question (Score:4, Informative)
Re: Good Question (Score:5, Interesting)
Horse is a reserve food. Taste is secondary to usefulness. A horse can do a large amount of work, they are more useful on the yoke than on the table. Same with dog. Dogs are more useful as a work animal than a food animal. Cows, not so much. I can't think of too many situations where a cow would be best suited as a work animal. So we eat cows, same with most kinds of pig. Over time the cost benefit gets melded with some of the cultures and you get a social taboo.
Re: Good Question (Score:5, Interesting)
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with the dog as a hat you could research the question,
Q: which side of your dog has more hair
A: the outside
Re:Good Question (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Good Question (Score:5, Informative)
I dunno, fish is healthy, and most fish we eat is not vegetarian.
Re:Good Question (Score:4, Informative)
pigs and chickens are omnivores. anyone trying to sell you vegetarian-fed eggs/chicken is merely aiming at the market that thinks that vegetarian-fed somehow means better. chickens love to eat bugs, rodents, and lizards. a chicken raised strictly on grain is nutrient-deficient and probably shouldn't be eaten.
Re:Good Question (Score:5, Funny)
Except the laces keep getting stuck in my teeth...
Carnivore meat is not inherently toxic. (Score:5, Informative)
Parent may have been clueless to the tongue-in-cheek nature of my post but whoever modded this down was nonetheless a fucking moron; it's well understood that the flesh of nearly-completely-carnivorous creatures (such as felines) is highly toxic and can kill you if you eat it.
Not really. Salmon, tuna, and swordfish are completely carnivorous and are eaten worldwide. Alligators and snakes are eaten in various parts of the US and are carnivorous. Indigenous Arctic peoples ate diets drawn primarily from seals (all carnivorous) and whales (many of which are carnivorous). Squids and octopi are carnivores.
Now, that said, carnivore meat does carry some risks, all in the form of bioaccumulation of toxic materials. (e.g. Mercury and other heavy metals, PCBs, etc.) But "highly toxic" is a bit over-dramatic. You can eat a serving of carnivorous fish once a week and be fine. You can also eat far more than that and survive, but you may run into health risks or, more importantly, pass on unsafe levels that will affect your child's development if you get pregnant. Adults only risk death if those kinds of fish are your primary protein source and/or you get them from an actively polluted area. (See, e.g. Minama disease.)
But the meat *itself* is fine, in absence of human-cause problems.
Re:Carnivore meat is not inherently toxic. (Score:5, Informative)
Whales and seals, which I mentioned, are mammals and not fish. Lion meat is also sold and eaten (though not without controversy over its conservation status). Polar bear meat is eaten by Arctic indigenous peoples as well, and it's only the liver that's toxic due to its extreme vitamin A content (seal and whale liver is a-okay).
Black bears are a bit more omnivorous but are also eaten by peoples around the world, including in Japan. Dogs are also eaten in various parts of the world, though their diets as food animals can vary wildly from the standard "mostly carnivore" model.
And to the specific subject at hand, domestic cat meat has been eaten widely across the world [wikipedia.org]. I have found absolutely no references to it being toxic.
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Anyhow, the toxicity of the flesh of a carnivore is going to depend heavily on the diet of said carnivore (with feral [domestic] felines in an urban environment likely consuming a highly-omnivorous diet given their role as a scavenger) and is probably nowhere near as toxic as, say, the meat of a jaguar.
In any case, here's what I wrot
Re:Good Question (Score:5, Funny)
and a) mammals aren't poisonous b) cats are useful (Score:5, Informative)
Insect shells, legs, etc. aren't as good for food, and they are far more likely to be poisonous. Some bugs are poisonous themselves. Others, like flies, hang out in rotting meat which is full of bacteria and toxins. So we evolved to not eat bugs because bugs are likely to make us sick.
Of course, fungus is similar. Mushrooms are an acquired taste, not something that most people enjoy immediately, but with modern practices we can separate the edible fungus from the poisonous. We eat some edible fungus and smoke one of the poisonous ones.
Cats and dogs aren't "all in our heads", we have them for a reason, and that reason isn't food. Evolutionarily speaking, it's better to let your cat keep the rats away than to eat the cat. "Don't eat your friends" is a good idea, not just a cultural convention.
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Depends on what you're feeding your beef, but a respectable feed conversion from grain is generally around 5:1. Higher conversion ratios are usually found when animals are grazing, owing to the lower nutrient density of forage versus concentrated energy foods like grain.
But insects are remarkably efficient, particularly with regards to water!
I'm pretty curious about that cricket flour now. :)
Re:and a) mammals aren't poisonous b) cats are use (Score:4, Insightful)
> as being any different from the process of learning what plants to eat.
The poisonous parts tend to be the leaves, not the fruit. Humans, and primates generally, don't often graze on random leaves.
We eat the sweet fruit, which is designed to be be eaten. Tomato stems and leaves are poisonous, the fruit is delicious.
The poisonous part is not delicious. Beans are a notable exception to this general rule.
> far-less-than-modern practices [wikipedia.org] led humans to separate the poisonous mushrooms from the edible ones
From your wikipedia link:
The first reliable evidence of mushroom consumption dates to several hundred years BC in China.
The Chinese value mushrooms for MEDICINAL PROPERTIES
If you're familiar with the medicinal properties of 'shrooms, you may recognize the 'medicinal' ones ARE the poisonous ones - they cause hallucinations. Anyway, it's a general rule - we eat a lot more fruit than fungus.
> Why do you say they are an acquired taste compared to anything else we eat?
Our taste buds are:
Salty: meat
sweet: fruit, including "vegetable" fruits like cucumber
sour: fruit
bitter: danger
maybe umami (glutamate, MSG)
Mushrooms are neither sweet, nor salty, nor slightly sour. Those are hallmarks of "food". Fruits and some vegetables are sweet and a bit sour, meat is salty. Things that don't fit the taste profile of either fruits or meats are not pleasant when most people first try them. We can learn to enjoy them, however, and beer is a great example. Give young child mushrooms or bleu cheese and see what happens - they haven't learned the taste, so they only enjoy the naturally attractive flavors.
Umami (glutamate) is debated as to whether it's a basic taste, but it does seem that IN COMBINATION WITH other food flavors, it can enhance those other flavors and make them more delicious. Mushrooms are full of glutamates, they are nature's MSG. Perhaps that's why we eat mushrooms and not other fungus, and why we normally put mushrooms on top of some base food, like meat. Putting mushrooms on a steak is the same compounds as putting MSG on it - it amplifies the steak taste.
Re:and a) mammals aren't poisonous b) cats are use (Score:4, Informative)
The poisonous parts tend to be the leaves, not the fruit.
My understanding is that there are plenty of poisonous fruits / berries, many in the same family as human-cultivated varieties that we now eat. But I don't really know the distribution. Also, not all poisonous leaves taste bad or bitter (e.g. hemlock), but I do believe those are the exception to the rule.
Humans, and primates generally, don't often graze on random leaves.
Well, I don't know about gorillas, but humans have plenty of leaves in our diet and they had to have gotten there somehow--lots of trial and error, I'm guessing. Why can't the same be applied toward creepy crawlies? (Again, I'm guessing it did, given the prevalnce of bugs in some cuisines.) So I don't see "there are some poisonous ones" as being a unique feature. Maybe there are more poisonous / unsanitary bugs overall so that made it not worth the effort? Maybe there are more look-alikes that made it harder to catalog (though if you've ever tried to use a mushroom key that factor doesn't seem to have dissuaded us either).
From your wikipedia link: The first reliable evidence of mushroom consumption dates to several hundred years BC in China. The Chinese value mushrooms for MEDICINAL PROPERTIES
Also from the link (the following two sentences in fact): "Ancient Romans and Greeks, particularly the upper classes, used mushrooms for culinary purposes. Food tasters were employed by Roman Emperors to ensure that mushrooms were safe to eat." There's nothing modern about eating mushrooms, we can just learn a lot more about the toxins with modern techniques.
Mushrooms are neither sweet, nor salty, nor slightly sour. Those are hallmarks of "food".
I just don't know why that necessarily means it's an acquired taste. Why is umami, whether in its own right or in combination, not equivalently "naturally attractive" as any other taste sensation? Glutemate is found in meats and veggies too. Conversely, plenty of things may not be perceived as pleasant upon first try; a hypothesis I've read regarding this is that kids have higher sensitivity to different tastes so many common foods for adults are overwhelming and therefore somewhat aversive (e.g., here [divinecaroline.com] but that's just a random link I found on this topic). I just don't see where you're basing some of your statements from.
Umami (glutamate) is debated as to whether it's a basic taste
I thought it was pretty accepted at this point that it was a basic taste in its own right. Wikipedia points to several references claiming so at least. Maybe it doesn't elicit a specific perceptual response on its own (I don't know), is that what you mean?
Lastly, non-mushroom fungus we eat includes blue-cheese cultures and cuitlacoche [cuitlacoche.com]
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Simple answer (Score:3)
I'd probably eat insects if I could actually buy them.
Only very few specialty stores sell them and they're too expensive for anything but exclusive party snacks.
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And before investing time effort and funding into insect based food sources I would think making that investment into alternative plant based foods, like quinoa for protein and purslane for omega-3s, would make sense.
Re:Good Question (Score:4, Funny)
I heard there is a saying "in xx province they eat anything with 4 legs except a table"
Re:Good Question (Score:5, Informative)
Spoiling the milk gets rid of all of the lactose that will give those Chinese the biggest bellyache and case of the runs they've ever had.
That is why humans consume a wide variety of fermented milk products (not just cheese).
Fermentation is not bad and it's not just limited to dairy.
Cheesy response (Score:3)
Re:Good Question (Score:5, Insightful)
I wouldn't cook any of my cats, but from the descriptions it seems like cat might be ok in a stew or soup. I have seen a few stories of cat consumption which tend to agree with this thought. In fact, most of the wikipedia headings on it seem to indicate stew is a common choice for those who eat cat: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_meat [wikipedia.org]
Overall though, I think this is part of why cats self-domesticated:
1. We don't eat the same things they do... vermin tend to not be worth our time. They are not terribly good meat themselves, and also not really worth our time.
2. They are not tasty nor worth our time in terms of meat:carcass ratio
3. They don't eat the same things we do... they can't taste sugar and their need for lysine makes them obligate carnivores,
4. They eat vermin who do eat the same things we do. Cats don't eat grain, but mice and rats do.
5. They can't harm us beyond a scratch or a bite, which can mean infection and even loss of limb or death, but that isn't really the same issue; a cat in such a fight with a human is most likely going to lose badly and quickly.
Throw in cuddly and warm, and its easy to see why cats and humans made natural, mutually beneficial, community, and why we let them move indoors with us.
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Cats know better than to "fight" humans in the way you describe. When I get in a fight with my cat , it's because I forgot to feed him some morning or neglected to clean out the litter box over time; he responds with a left hook by leaving a big steaming pile of something in the shower as a present.
Re:Good Question (Score:4, Informative)
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But it's fine for us to package them into steaks and sell them to other people? Huh, no that doesn't seem hypocritical at all...
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Horse meat is very good (or so I hear) but because of the culture of horses as pets/companions rather than livestock, most Americans would shy away from eating it.
Kinda, but not really. Most people I know couldn't give a rat's ass less about horses, outside getting stoned and watching My Little Pony, or putting their offspring up on one of the miniatures at the county fair.
My wife comes from a family that raises horses, and their rationale seems a bit more reasonable: Very few horses in this country are bred for consumption. That being so, the vast majority of horses spend their lives being fed wormer to keep parasites out of their systems. Wormer is poison, and it b
Re:Good Question (Score:4, Funny)
I eat insects occasionally and at first it does take a bit of willpower to get past the grossness of it.
If you grind them up like meal worms in flower then it's much easier.
1. I'm sure the ruling class are going to dive head first into this trend. But they sure will appreciate the momentary dip in meat prices when foodstamps are only valid for insects. After all it is the economical thing to do.
2. I can say one thing for certain... there aren't enough poor assholes on this planet to be exploited. Hopefully, these new food sources allow us to expand the population... especially in poor regions.
3. My ethics tell me... eat the rich first. The insects are a backup plan.
Re:Good Question (Score:5, Funny)
Some of us have been eating insects for as long as we have owned motorcycles.
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We all swallow 2 or 3 spiders a year, in our sleep.
That's not true. The real number is much higher.
http://img.chan4chan.com/img/2011-05-09/37902.jpg [chan4chan.com]
LAND SHRIMP (Score:5, Insightful)
Insects taste like shrimp, crab, or lobster. It's just the cultural bias that keeps people from eating them.
Re:LAND SHRIMP (Score:5, Interesting)
Insects generally have a lower meat to shell ratio than sea arthropods.
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Only as adults. The larva are just bags of protein.
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Insects taste like shrimp, crab, or lobster. It's just the cultural bias that keeps people from eating them.
Psst, they're free if you know how to find the best habitat!
Re:LAND SHRIMP (Score:5, Informative)
Insects taste like shrimp, crab, or lobster. It's just the cultural bias that keeps people from eating them.
No, it's mostly economics. I looked into this a few months ago. The best flavor from an insect comes from a an emperor scorpion, which tastes much like shrimp. They take about 18 months to grow to a harvestable size and require about 20 gallons of space to stay healthy. They need lights if kept in captivity and cannot get along in large groups.
From there, the amount of meat per volume goes way down, unless you're eating meal worms and crickets, which can be toasted as snacks or ground up to make various pastes (McBuggets?) but not enjoyed as a piece of meat.
If I were to raise emperor scorpions on my farm, they would cost more than lobster (which may still be viable in some restaurants for an exotic option). In our current scheme all of the time, food, and habitat for the lobsters are 'free' and not included in the cost of the meal.
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I'm in. (Score:2)
I'll give it a try. I just ask that it be cooked well. Give me some tasty recipes.
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You can dry roast mealworms in your oven and pulverize them in a blender or spice grinder for a cheap protein powder. It adds kind of a nutty flavor to whatever you put it in.
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You can dry roast mealworms in your oven and pulverize them in a blender or spice grinder for a cheap protein powder. It adds kind of a nutty flavor to whatever you put it in.
I could definitely try this. There is a certain revulsion towards eating insects due to the appearance. Imagine opening a bag of flour and finding some maggots crawling inside... you'd just throw the whole bag away. At that point, even if you filter them out, the flour is "tainted" in your mind and is no longer edible. Same goes for a spot of mold on a slice of bread.
However, if you could simply grind them up into a powder or paste and eliminate the visual association, I would certainly not be against
Re:I'm in. (Score:5, Insightful)
Give me some tasty recipes.
1. Feed insects to chickens.
2. Cook and eat chickens.
They're gross looking (Score:4, Insightful)
Why is this some mystery? The *smart* thing for humanity would be to eat nutrition sticks composed of a solid mash giving us all the nutrients we need for a day. But, we're humans not robots so we don't simply dismiss emotion from our diets.
For those of you who disagree, cicada season will be here shortly. I invite you to test out your theory in your backyard.
Re:They're gross looking (Score:4, Funny)
For those of you who disagree, cicada season will be here shortly. I invite you to test out your theory in your backyard.
I looked into it - supposedly they taste like asparagus. I dislike asparagus!
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I went through the same thing and ended up looking at Ensure (or similar type) meal replacement shakes as a possibility...my wife rightly pointed out that no matter how easy it made lunches, it would just make everyone who looked in the office fridge and found out they were mine think I was dying of cancer.
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These were awesome, back when you could get 'em: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilberito [wikipedia.org]
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Try the powdered version. I used to 'premix' non-fat dry milk and an ensure powder. In the morning I'd put 1/2c in an empty sealable drinking container and take it with me to work. If I were too busy to eat a proper lunch, I'd fill up the drinking container from the water fountain, give it a few shakes, and at least have something to keep me from getting ravenous.
I liked it because I could forget the premade lunch at work, or in my car without it going bad since it was powder until the moment I decided
Uh... (Score:5, Funny)
Would you like flies with that?
*crickets*
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Would you like flies with that?
*crickets*
Yes please .. I'll have a serving of crickets, and if you have them can I get a serve of Snowy Tree Crickets to go??
What's Stopping Us From Eating Insects? (Score:5, Funny)
Windshields.
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Reminds me of that old joke ...
Q. How do you tell a happy biker? :-)
A. His teeth is full of bugs.
Well, do it, then (Score:2)
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There's no food shortage, thus no incentive, no problem that eating bugs could solve. We could just as well go vegetarian, we just don't do it because we can afford to live better. That's like asking why don't we live in tents. Because we can afford not to.
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Because anyone smart enough to run a supermarket knows that counterspace allocated for bugs will simply reduce his profits, not only for that counterspace, but for his entire store. People will go out of their way to avoid even SEEING bugs, nevermind eat them. That instinct exists for a reason.
All programmers already eat Bugs (Score:2)
Yummy, yummy bugs.
I used to get by on the radiation from my CRT, but since LCD monitors I have to get my nutrition from bugs. Unfortunately, the internet is so full of bugs I'm considering going on a diet.
Yuuuuucckkkkk! Bleah! Ugh! (Score:5, Insightful)
Ugh that risotto with grubs did not help either... yuuuuucckkkkk! Bleah! Ugh!
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Les Stroud (Survivorman) calls it plate fright. You need to be really hungry to overcome it.
Re: Yuuuuucckkkkk! Bleah! Ugh! (Score:4, Insightful)
There are two problems here:
1. Some insects flock to filth. So culturally we consider insects as being unclean (roaches in particular are associated with unhealthy living conditions).
2. No one seems to want to put effort into preparing the insects before they try to get people to eat them. While I like shrimp I would not be interested in popping a living shrimp in my mouth. Similarly I would be much more willing to eat a cockroach if it had been decapitated and cooked first.
Corollary to #2. The less you have to dismember the insect yourself the better. Blue crabs are really popular where I live but something like 1 in 5 people refuse to eat them the "traditional" way where you tear apart the boiled crab yourself, and many more refuse at first and need to be peer pressured into it before they decide they like it. They usually will eat crab cakes or crab soup however.
Back in my day . . . (Score:2)
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Well it used to be Western cultures were less squeamish about eating all parts of the animal as well.
We aren't really. In fact we're probably eat more parts of the animal than any other society in history. To further that end we have invented such techniques as air-blasted pig brains and mechanically recovered meat. If there's protein or fat in it, then someone will buy it and turn it into food.
Basically anything that's far enough from a good cut now gets ground up and put into various products. On the bot
I have tried insects before (Score:5, Interesting)
I ate insects during a special event at Insectarium in Montreal. I have to say, people do not eat insect because it simply does not taste good.
There are three problem with insects. First is the exoskeleton. With shrimp and lobster. The shells can be easily removed. Not so with grasshopper. The stir fried grasshopper with heavy sauce can mask its insecty taste, but it still feel like eating little shrimps with shells on.
The second problem is the texture. Of the insects I had, none has the chewy texture people associate with "meat". Beef/pork/chicken, or shrimp/lobster/octopus, or fish, has chewy texture. With insects, it does not. For example, I tried silk worm. No exoskeleton. But when you bite into it, its body burst gooey stuff in your mouth.
Third is the taste. People naturally like cooked meat. Without any seasoning, most cooked meat and seafood taste great on their own. With insects, there's something about their taste that is off-putting to human and require proper seasoning to mask it.
Re:I have tried insects before (Score:5, Insightful)
I think you pretty much nailed it here. With bigger animals like cows and even shrimp you can separate the meat from the shell, with insects you can't. Insect exoskeletons also frequently come with spiny legs, thoraxes, etc, not the most pleasant things to have in your mouth or try to swallow.
Supposedly roasting insects and grubs makes the interiors firmer and less gooey. As far as taste goes it is telling that advocates always (for instances) promote chili powder covered or chocolate dipped insects. Even they can't handle eating bugs as they are.
There is also the issue of disease and parasites. I'm not sure you can clean insect bodies off as thoroughly as you could, say, a lobster. With beef you are taking meat that hasn't been exposed to the environment unlike insect bodies. With insects you are also eating the contents of their digestive tracts.
The advocates are telling (Score:3)
When something is truly tasty, it is generally good plain. That doesn't mean you only eat it plain, that seasoning isn't awesome, but that it isn't needed to be good.
I love a good steak with no sauce at all. Raw salmon is great as is (though I do like it with soy sauce better). Chicken is a little bland when cooked with nothing, but no problem and actually needs very little (bit of oil and garlic) to make it quite good. Etc.
Same deal with fruits and veggies. Carrots, tomatoes, apples, peaches, bananas, etc,
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Like anything else, the gustatory qualities of an insect depend on how the insect is prepared. You wouldn't care for a raw shrimp, and you wouldn't care for a raw silkworm either. For that matter you probably wouldn't like raw chicken.
Crunchy ants straight from the mound is a taste many people might never acquire, but it doesn't mean you can't use your culinary skills to transform them into something else. For example there are forest people in India who grind stinging ants into a paste and make it into a
Economics (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes, we don't insects because of purely cultural taboos. I personally will try anything once. But cultural taboos don't change because we think it they should, they change because they are forced to, either physically (like conquerors forcing natives to adopt their religion) or economically (countries sinking into abject poverty have to start eating insects because they can't afford conventional high quality protein).
That aside, insects are neat in that they convert things like cardboard into high quality protein (ie you can feed cardboard to termites kept in a plastic box). The animals we have used for food in the past have usually either converted inedible biomass like grass or waste food (think pigs) into tasty protein. Insects broaden the potential input sources. Rather than having all that cardboard and presumably paper go to rot in a landfill, why not use it as a feedstock? Even if humans aren't the target, I'd bet it would work well in dog and cat food, or even cattle feed.
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Dont be ridiculous; look at any economic standard, we continue to be top 10 in the world. Median income, GDP, GDP per capita, nil starvation levels, etc etc etc.
We're discussing it because someone decided to stir the pot a little and claim that western culture is destroying the world by eating foods that have been eaten for thousands of years. And noone outside of this ridiculous article (LOTS of people eat insects, its just not culturally western) discusses this because its a stupid question. You cant j
Two insect restaurants in LA (Score:3)
In LA, you can eat insects at Typhoon [diglounge.net] in Santa Monica or La Guelaguetza [ninaonthemoon.com].
It's the legs (Score:3)
They get between my teeth all the time. Cow and pig legs don't do that as much.
What billionaire invested in bug farming? (Score:4, Insightful)
Seriously. This year has been a non-stop onslaught of "YOU WILL EAT BUGS". It's DeBeers diamonds all over again.
Stop trying to manipulate me you shitbags. I'm eating a goddamned steak wrapped in bacon wrapped in a bigger steak, served between two pork chops. FOADIAF.
Pushing the insect diet much? (Score:4, Insightful)
This is like, the fourth article in as many months on slashdot about why we should use insects as a food source. Are they pushing this as a new diet fad or something?
Protein Bars (Score:3)
We will eat insects soon enough in the USA. But it will be mashed to a pulp, processed and reprocessed into "food bars" so that we will not recognize it as eating bugs.
McDonalds will be sure to include a lot of bug in it's "100% pure beef" hamburgers.
With the rising cost of feed, and the rising cost of meat, fast food and processed food will gradually include more and more bug into their mixture that becomes whatever it is we're eating...
Parasites (Score:3)
It's never as simple as "Just grow some bugs and chow down". Most species of insects are hosts to assorted parasites.
For instance, the common grasshopper (yummy when fried) can carry tapeworms.
While we have lots of experience dealing with parasites of domestic mammals, not so much for bugs that live on other bugs.
Presentation (Score:4, Insightful)
Process it like a hamburger or a hotdog and there will be a lot less resistance.
Comment removed (Score:3)
It is not all in the head. (Score:3)
You know that people eat it for the protein does not mean it taste good. And so far since tehre does not seem to be a food shortage here around, I would like to spend the few years I have left eating good stuff.
Re:Shrimp, Lobsters, and Crabs are Insects (Score:5, Interesting)
Didn't use to be that way. They got turned into gourmet items in a process that rather reminds me of Discworld's gourmet muddy old boots. In colonial Massachusetts there was a servant strike; one of the concessions made to return peace was a contract stating, among other things, that the servants would not be forced to eat lobster more than three times a week.
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Yes, I eat lobster without butter often, I also eat soft shell clams (STEAMERS) without butter (the broth is enough). Honestly, if you don;t like it without slatering it in butter save it for those of us who actually like it. (sorry but water is getting warmer here in the northeast and it is driving the lobsters north)
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It has more to do with the fat content. We were told for some many years that fat is bad that we forget that fat is necissary for the absorption of a lot of nutrients. Lobster, by itself, has almost no fat. Eat it as your primary protein (almost sole protein for those workers if the reports are to be believed) for weeks, months, and years on end and you're end up with all kinds of health issues.
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and we pay extra to eat them
Crawdads, too! Mudbugs!
I had some of these at Popeye's, like itty bitty lobsters.
Re:Shrimp, Lobsters, and Crabs are Insects (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Shrimp, Lobsters, and Crabs are Insects (Score:5, Informative)
Shrimp, Lobsters, and Crabs are Insects
No, they're not. Insects and crabs share the same phylum: arthropods.
For reference we're on the phlum chordata. This includes things such as mammals, all fish (bony, otherwise and even jawless), hagfish (weird craniates which aren't really quite vertebrates), lancelets (kind of small brainless proto-proto-proto-fish) and sea squirts which are sessile bag shaped filter feeding blobs.
Now crustacians is still quite broad but doesn't contain insects. It does however contain woodlice and that really, really gross parasite which eats the fishes tounge and then spends the rest of its life acting as the fishes tounge.
*shudder*
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use lots of corn syrup.
Re:"Eww it's like a pus explosion in my mouth!" (Score:5, Insightful)
Another paraphrased quote:
"When I eat bugs, it always tastes like they get a last bit of revenge on me by taking a dump in my mouth."
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Nuff said.
Yet, people will pay more for a crab with all of its legs than one missing one or two. Go figure.
Or they choke you to death: (Score:3)
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/bug-eater-choked-death-article-1.1208649
Which actually is an interesting problem. Bug legs are notoriously small, stiff and designed to stick to things... precisely the opposite of what you want going down your throat. Not insurmountable... as with bones in chickens it's going to come down to preparation (boneless) and making good choices (don't eat chicken bones).
And I don't know how I feel yet about getting wings stuck between my teeth like popcorn kernels.
But, y
Re:How the sausage is made (Score:5, Informative)
You are deluded, there is nothing sociopathic about killing and preparing an animal's flesh for a meal. Mankind and his predecessors have been hunting, preparing and cooking animals for over a million years. It's natural.
Humans also have eaten certain insects, most of us have eaten some of the aquatic kinds of insects. But most prefer fish, livestock, poultry, amphibians. Eating one is no more evil or wrong than eating the other.
Re:How the sausage is made (Score:4, Insightful)
It's natural.
"It's natural" is one of the worst non-arguments there is. Flinging poop is natural. Many parasites are far, far more disgusting and entrely natural. There are plenty of natural things which are beyond disgusting and whose behaviour we wouldn't want to replicate in a remotely civilised society.
There is much that we do that isn't natural, living in shelter, eating cooked food, wearing clothes, arguing on the internet and I for one am very glad of it.
most of us have eaten some of the aquatic kinds of insects
I doubt that very much. Perhaps you are talking about crustaceans? Crabs are about as close to insects as cows are to sea squirts.
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Re:Size problem? (Score:4, Insightful)
Exactly. The same reason we don't eat pigeons or rodents anymore, it's just too much work to cook them for that little meat. And those animals are still giants compared to insects.
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I guarantee you will eat some fresh protein during the night.
What happens between you and your boyfriend at night is your business.
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Where are you getting your vegetables? The reason I ask is that there are a lot of vegetables where the standard stuff in the grocery store is a bit nasty, but fresh from a healthy plant has a sweet flavor. For example, if you eat a fresh green bean, and it's not slightly sweet, that's not a good bean.