Top 10 Biggest Benefits of Eating Insects
I'm not saying we should all start eating insects instead of our conventional food, but there is no denying that insects are highly nutritious.I wanted to make a list to show you the scientific studies that have been conducted on the nutritional benefits of insects. Even the United Nations recommends that people eat insects to combat hunger and poverty.
Now you might think, THAT'S CRAZY! Nope, it isn't, it definitely isn't. The fat-protein ratio in the insect diet is much lower than in your regular cereal or bacon. Insects are second trophic level organisms, which means they have the necessary nutrients stored in their tissues as they eat a range of plants. To get the same amount of nutrients as them, we have to eat a wide range of foods like vegetables, fruits, nuts, and meat (or eggs for protein). But meat also contains a lot of unwanted fat, which is harmful to your health. However, the amount of fat present in insects is almost negligible.
They rival the highly expensive soy-based or fishmeal formulas. Weird, isn't it?
We can never run out of insects if we start breeding them. They can also be a reliable source of food.
The amount of greenhouse gases produced for rearing cattle is ten times the amount produced while rearing insects. Thus, it helps in curbing global warming.
Low production of carbon dioxide, reduced abuse of antibiotics on animals that create multi-resistant bacteria, and the potential to feed the whole world.
Funnily enough, we are indirectly insectivores too. We don't realize we are actually consuming them! The culprit who makes you eat insects secretly is the packaged food you buy from the supermarket.
This is an article about packaged food given by the magazine, The Week -
"The FDA's Defect Levels Handbook lays it all out. Staples like broccoli, canned tomatoes, and hops readily contain 'insect fragments - heads, thoraxes, and legs' and even whole insects. (I won't tell you about the rat hair limits...) Fig paste can harbor up to 13 insect heads in 100 grams. Canned fruit juices can contain a maggot for every 250 millilitres. 10 grams of hops can be the home for 2,500 aphids."
Whenever we talk about insects, our mind quickly diverts to the disgusting, pathogenic, and disease-spreading creatures that create problems in the normal lives of humans, but that is a huge stereotype! Cockroaches, mosquitoes, flies, and fleas aren't the only insects in this world. They belong to the 0.5% harmful category. The rest are really harmless to us.
You heard it right. Insect food is less likely to make us sick. Only 0.5% of insect species are harmful to humans. The rest are completely harmless. Because mammals share many diseases with us (like flu), many of the diseases that can happen to pigs can spread to humans if consumed as bacon. Because insects and humans are anatomically very different, the diseases of insects are very different from ours, and therefore their diseases cannot spread to us and our diseases cannot spread to them.
You can find insects even in your own backyard. Do you need any more proof?
When insects are added as a diet source, it relieves pressure from agricultural produce and livestock rearing. The country can then become self-sufficient in food.