Many people find the very thought of insects disgusting - especially when they're in your
mouth. But
have you ever considered that insects could be more nutritious, environmentally friendly,
and abundant
than most other foods? Should we all be eating insects?
Compare 100 g of crickets, to 100 g of chicken, beef or pork, and you'll find they have comparable
protein content, but crickets are much higher in essential vitamins and minerals such as
calcium, zinc
and iron. Similarly, insects like mealworms are low in fat, and contain large amounts
of fibre.
But, that's not the only reason to incorporate them into your diet. Currently there are 1.53
billion
hectares of cropland and 3.38 billion hectares of pastures covering our Earth. Essentially,
38% of the
land you see on a map is used for agriculture and farming. But where it takes 200 square
meters of land
to grow 1 lb of beef, it only takes 15 square meters to grow 1lb of crickets.
Furthermore, by 2025 its expected that 1.8 billion people will live in areas with little
to no fresh water. And yet, 70%
of our fresh water sources are used in agriculture alone! To produce 1 kg
of beef it takes
22,000 litres of water, whereas 1 kg of pork takes 3,500 litres, and 1 kg of chicken takes
2,300 litres. But
to make 1 kg of crickets? It only requires 1 litre of water! This is because insects
can become fully
hydrated just from the food that they eat. They're also more digestible - In fact, 80%
of a cricket is edible
and digestible compared to 50% of a chicken and 40% of cattle.
And its not like our mouths have never tasted insects before. For every 100g of spinach,
50 small
insects like aphids, thrips and mites are permitted. Peanut butter is allowed to contain
roughly 30 insect
fragments - such as heads, bodies or legs - per 100g. And even the hops used to make
your favourite
beer can contain 250 aphids per 100g. Yup - your summer beer may be spiked with a little
more bug juice
than you anticipated.
So WHY aren't we eating insects? They're actually consumed in some parts of Asia, Latin America
and Africa.
In fact, the capital of Congo has households eating 300 g of caterpillars a
week, which is 96
tonnes of caterpillars every year! But much of the Western world is used to screaming
in disgust if
they find a bug in their salad! This may be because western culinary traditions have spawned
out of
colder climates with less insects, increased farming and larger animals to eat. As Europeans
began to
colonize the world, they contextualized bug eating as savage and primitive because they
observed many
indigenous people doing it. Little did they know, bugs are actually extremely nutritious!
But while the idea of eating insects may literally be hard to swallow, as recipes are created,
processing technology evolves and our mindsets adapt, maybe insects will become the superfood
of the future.
Look out greek yogourt and kale! There are some new kids in town.
We actually challenged ourselves to chomp down on some bugs, try out a few recipes,
and eat things
like cookies and snack bars using insect flour, in our latest AsapTHOUGHT video. We also discuss
the role
and potential for insects in helping to solve world hunger. Make sure to click the screen
or the link in the
description below to check it out!
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