Insect Food For Human Consumption

Insect food seems to be rarerly discussed in the paleo blogosphere, especially in the groups based in the U.S. where discussions often center on beef, sausage, bacon, dairy butter, eggs, and coffee. Insect consumption is paleo and offers its own advantages.

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/34172/title/Why-Insects-Should-Be-in-Your-Diet/

 

http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/nutrition-values-edible-bugs-insects-9602.html

"A 3.5-ounce serving of raw grasshoppers contains between 14 and 28 grams of protein, which is quite a lot for such a small amount of food. That translates to between 30 and 60 percent of the 46 grams of protein women need each day and between 25 and 50 percent of the 56 grams men need on a daily basis.

3.5-ounce serving of red ants supplies about 14 grams of protein, according to the National Geographic website. The same serving of red ants also supplies 5.7 milligrams of iron, which is 71 percent of the 8 milligrams men need each day and about one-third of the 18 milligrams women require on a daily basis. Ants are also a good source of calcium.

A giant water beetle, for example, supplies about 20 grams of protein per 3.5-ounce, serving while the same amount of June beetle supplies 13.4. A serving of palmworm beetle can have as much as 36 grams of protein.

A 3.5-ounce serving of the average caterpillar contains 6.7 grams of protein and about 13 milligrams of iron. A serving of the mopane caterpillar supplies between 31 and 77 milligrams of iron, however, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The mopane caterpillar also supplies about one-fourth of the potassium you need each day, as well as 100 percent of the copper you require. Termites are a good source of heart-healthy unsaturated fats, and about 49 percent of their body composition contains these beneficial nutrients."

 

eating insects is probably the way of the future, and by future I mean after modern society implodes.

I found a little package of fried crickets in a candy shop at the beach once, but it really would take society imploding before I could bring myself to eat them.

 

i think insect food is mostly plants.

 

Human kind has been eating insects and worms for survival for several eons. It's probably what allowed us to build the same societies we inhabit today; by having an easy and reliable source of protien when shortages and famine occurred. Not all bugs are safe to eat, but there are still many cultures around the world that eat crickets. I wonder why we stopped eating insects all of a sudden? I speculate it had something to do with technologial advancements that allowed society to have easier access to higher quality, better tasting meats and produce that we all forgot about insects.

I saw an episode of Shark Tank where an entreprenuer pitched his business of manufacturing energy bars made with a high-protien flour made of ground up crickets, and he got the investment he wanted http://sharktanksuccess.blogspot.com/2014/03/cricket-energy-bars.html

I think it will take lots of consumer educating and cultural adaptation before we see eating insects becomming acceptable in society once again. It happend when Sushi was introduced to the west. As recent 1950s-60s, westerners were appalled with the idea of eating raw fish. Now sushi is a multi-billion dollar industry in the west.

 

I'm sure all that protein is great, but I'd probably harvest kale before I even considered eating insects...esp because creepy crawlies give me the heebie jeebies

 

Depending on species it takes at least 190,000 red ants to make a pound. Good luck collecting enough for a 3.5 oz. serving.

 

^
That's why they invented stores ;P So you don't have to collect everything yourself

I would try it.

Why not eat both (if you can get to like it of course)? The more diverse you eat the better it seems.

Kale is called boerenkool (farmer's cabbage/cole) here in the netherlands by the way. Very common to eat with potatoes, epecially in winter.

 

put a cookie in the yard and come back in an hour.

 

Sounds like a good idea but the object is to get enough ants to eat not feed the ants. Red ants don't eat things directly in the field but take food back to their nest to compost before eating. Of course if it did work you could just consume the whole affair having your dessert and main course at the same time providing the ant didn't require any additional preparation. It is a good idea to incapacitate them so they don't bite and sting when you put them in your mouth..

I can see raising colonies of red ants in confined conditions like commercial chicken factories unless you were somehow concerned that your ants should be free range. Black soldier fly larvae live on compost or manure and are edible to humans. Interestingly they do their own processing, when the larvae have completed their larval development through six instars, they enter a stage called the prepupae wherein they cease to eat, they empty their guts, their mouth parts change to an appendage that aids climbing, and they seek a dry, sheltered area to pupate This prepupal migration instinct is used by grub composting bins to self-harvest the mature larvae. These containers have ramps or holes on the sides to allow the prepupae to climb out of the composter and drop into a collection area. The larvae are highly efficient in converting proteins, containing up to 42% of protein, and a lot of calcium and amino acids. In 432 hours, 1 gram of black soldier fly eggs turns into 2.4 kilograms of protein. Many people grow soldier fly larvae for use as animal feed and obviously this is a sustainable cycle.

 

All the bugs I have tryed have been tasty.
I think it's mostly just a mental thing. Kids being brought up to think of bugs as icky things
When I lived in a city with Asian markets I would buy big fryed grasshoppers and some kind of big grubs.
Crisp the hoppers in the oven and use the grubs in stir fry. Yummy

 

I actually want to raise crickets, meal worms and hissing cockroaches. For food

 

Eating insects... Disgusting! What can be worse?

 

Starvation. Veganism

 

Honey is the only insect food I'd consider eating.

 

Yeah but it took a Norwegian to convince the Japanese to eat raw salmon.

http://www.nortrade.com/sectors/articles/norways-introduction-of-salmon-sushi-to-japan/

“Everybody said ‘we do not eat raw salmon’,” said Olsen, who was also responsible for market research for Project Japan from 1986-1991. “We had to really fight to introduce salmon into the market…It took 15 years from when the first salmon went to Japan (in 1980) to the breakthrough for raw consumption in 1995.”

 

Eating raw herring is also a dutch tradition. So eating raw fish in a certain way is not strange to all westerners. I bet there are more examples

They're traditionally consumed like this (after being dipped in raw onions):

 

I've never tried straight raw herring, but I do like it pickled or creamed...

Hmm, I wonder what kind of insects would be good fermented and /or creamed... lol