> For the same reason we don’t eat grass. We get them preprocessed by other animals and then eat them instead because they are tastier.
The reason we don’t eat grass is because our digestive system can’t really absorb much energy from it. Eating grass requires a very specialized digestive system, and we just don’t have those specializations.
The reason grass isn’t tasty is because our taste has coevolved with our digestive system so things we can digest are tasty.
Bugs are tasty. We can get nutrients from bugs. Do you like breadcrumbs on your macaroni and cheese? Try ants instead. They give the same crunch and a similar texture, but a bit of a different flavor. I think it’s a nice contrast to the load of soft carbs and fat in macaroni and cheese.
That said, I’m still going to use breadcrumbs. I’m just not that adventurous. Bugs are treated as novelties, not food, in mainstream US culture. If they’re not part of your tradition, you end up making a big deal out of them.
The answer to what? The post you replied to didn't raise any questions like that.
Also, why not just say what your point is rather than being vague and cryptic. And your point about what percentage of insects are edible isn't very relevant because there are like 5k species of mammals and over 900k species of insects, and we don't need more than a handful of different species to actually eat.
And if your 1000 sheeps escape in the wild, you have a chance to get some back, and you will be able to protect you fields against them.
It's practical.
Plusyou don't have to care about venom when cookinh lamb.
http://theconversation.com/the-parasite-a-crickets-nightmare...
He replied "I eat bugs because they're the enemy!"
Not a vegetarian.
The idea that all bugs are gross is largely due to unfamiliarity. Most unfamiliar foods are considered gross the first time someone tries them (as anyone with kids can attest).
With that said, some of the large ants commonly eaten in southern Mexico are extremely bitter. Not my favorite for sure.
I'm really, really skeptical of this idea. One of the most interesting phobias is Trypophobia, fear of irregular patterns or of small holes/bumps. It's not really a fear, ... but more of an evolutionary response. Humans are good at recognizing patterns and irregular holes/bumps tend to mean disease or "something gross and dangerous probably laid eggs here". Those things tend to be insects, or bugs, or whatever.
As an aside, eating bugs has become all the rage with some of my more culturally eccentric friends. I don't really know why, since they can definitely afford actual food and seem to engage in this as some kind of signal of cultural experience or "competency".
If you take any bug and you eat it without cooking it, you risk diseases or venom, and you'll get a hard crunch shell.
So batch preparing those little things requires deep fry, which is a quite recent addition to our life.
Besides, it was hard to safely gather or raise enough of them to nourish a village. So we did eat some of them anecdoticly, but that's all.
When I was very young growing up in Zambia, we used to eat those flying termites that appear everywhere after the rains, as well as a certain type of caterpillar.
And I remember them being delicious. Then we flew off to the US for about 6 years.
That was enough time for me to completely lose the taste for them on a very visceral level.
I guess if you take grass, deep fry it and put cummin on it, it tastes ok too.
You can eat a cucumber, a carrot, an apple or a steak raw. Even things you need to cook, such as wheet or potatoes, taste alrigh by just being boiled in water.
Depends on the bug. Different bugs have different flavors. It depends on their diet, too, like many animals. There are lots of ways to prepare them. Some of them are bland, others are very flavorful. I don’t see how this is any different from other foods. As a category, bugs are flavorful and interesting, but again, it depends on the bug and its diet.
> I guess if you take grass, deep fry it and put cummin on it, it tastes ok too.
No. You’re just tasting the fry oil and the spices.
> Even things you need to cook, such as wheet or potatoes, taste alrigh by just being boiled in water.
I think bugs taste better than potatoes or wheat boiled in water.
The human digestive system evolved in the Paleolithic to easily digest starchy roots like the potato. Besides meat, starchy roots were a favorite.
Wheat btw is a Neolithic phenomenon. And there is some proof that grains are toxic and that some of those toxins aren’t annihilated with cooking. Grains being toxic is an evolutionary trait meant to discourage mammals and insects from eating the seeds. Fruits are meant to be eaten, but not seeds.
Could insects be toxic too? The dose makes the poison, plus it takes decades for us to observe the effects.
Also deep fried food is unhealthy, no matter the food. Vegetable oils and high temperatures don’t mix well.
https://youtu.be/yxXoRtRr3WE?t=65
Also happens to be hilarious, but I don't disagree with the point he's making.
TL;DR Most people don't live like that because more desirable choices are available, and they're prepared to spend more to achieve that.
It's the mental block that we've been conditioned with. That bugs are "disgusting" things.
The crickets tasted/felt like semi crunchy shells. Not very enjoyable to eat and the after effect was lumps of ground up shell in my teeth.. meh
The mealy worms were not quite as bad as the crickets but waaaay overpowered by the herbs and stuff mixed in with them.
I'm also very much anti deep fried anything so I'd really like to try them prepped another way.
My ancestors (up to a generation ago) lived in a place that was a frozen wasteland for half the year (so no bugs for all that time) and basically subsisted off grains, cabbage in various stages of decomposition and products of animals that could actually survive long enough to be useful.
As efficient as it seems today to be able to farm crickets, for farmers a few generations ago it would have been much easier to simply keep a few cows, pigs, and plant things than waste time trying to catch crickets and grasshoppers who can't even survive the winter. There's a reason the cultures who do eat bugs do so opportunistically and don't waste a ton of resources on it.
We don't eat cattle whole. When we make burgers, we leave out the skin and poop and horns and teeth. Bugs aren't any different.
You now buy an insect burger in Germnany https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/22/bug-appetite-g...
I look into this every couple years and I have yet to find anything good.
I don't know if it's a fact or a myth
Perhaps when buying ground coffee instead of beans. But then, all industrially processed food items contain parts that you wouldn't intentionally put in, simply because it's hard to prevent foreign objects completely at scale. Heck, I guess apple juice might have quite a few bugs in it, too.
