The insect diet - healthy AND sustainable!

[Chasing Amy]

http://news.yahoo.com/un-eat-more-insects-good-good-world-145950434.html

ROME (AP) — The latest weapon in the U.N.'s fight against hunger, global warming and pollution might be flying by you right now.

Edible insects are being promoted as a low-fat, high-protein food for people, pets and livestock. According to the U.N., they come with appetizing side benefits: Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and livestock pollution, creating jobs in developing countries and feeding the millions of hungry people in the world.

Some edible insect information in bite-sized form:

WHO EATS INSECTS NOW?

Two billion people do, largely in Asia, Africa and Latin America, the Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said Monday as it issued a report exploring edible insect potential.

Some insects may already be in your food (and this is no fly-in-my-soup joke). Demand for natural food coloring as opposed to artificial dyes is increasing, the agency's experts say. A red coloring produced from the cochineal, a scaled insect often exported from Peru, already puts the hue in a trendy Italian aperitif and an internationally popular brand of strawberry yogurt. Many pharmaceutical companies also use colorings from insects in their pills.

Dig in! (You'll probably want to shell him first)

[witchypoo]

i suspect - if bug protein were mashed and formed like a lot of other mass produced proteins - neither you nor i would be any the wiser.

as long as it doesn't still look like a [hideous, revolting, awful] slug when it sits on my plate, i'm fine with the idea.

bug burger, anyone?

[radial]

[mango]

meh, this is no more revolting unusual than eating any other animals.

[onawhim]

meh, this is no more revolting unusual than eating any other animals.

1.  And I agree with witchy.  If it did not look like bugs people would be fine with it.  People were fine with it at SB until they found out it was bug dye. 

[diablita]

not this people

[radial]

Dinner is served!

[CheryG]

If they taste like lobster I'm all for it.

[mango]

But what if they do look like insects?

you mean like how pigs look like pigs?

[witchypoo]

But what if they do look like insects?

depends on the insect.  i've eaten ants and crickets and <shudder> grubs.  i don't know that i could eat a slug.

i'm sure you could ask some people if they've ever eaten an actual chicken-looking-like-a-chicken, and the answer would be 'no'...

[caribougrrl]

depends on the insect.  i've eaten ants and crickets and <shudder> grubs.  i don't know that i could eat a slug.

i'm sure you could ask some people if they've ever eaten an actual chicken-looking-like-a-chicken, and the answer would be 'no'...

I've eaten snails, so I imagine I could eat a slug.  Nonetheless, slugs aren't insects...

One of the labs I worked in during my undergrad used to keep a mealworm colony for feeding their turtles.  When the colony got to big, the grad students would have a harvest and snack on salted toasted mealworms.  They are surprisingly tasty.

[mango]

salted toasted mealworms

bundaegi (aka steamed and seasoned silkworm pupae) is one of the popular street foods of my homeland.

they are also surprisingly tasty.

or so my childhood memories tell me.

[BobM59]

I could definitely eat any of the crunchies, but would clearly struggle with the slimies.

[witchypoo]

I've eaten snails, so I imagine I could eat a slug.  Nonetheless, slugs aren't insects...

i realize they're molluscs.

but they're yucky beings which ooze around outside and make me gag.  and are therefore grouped with BUGS in my brain.