
Why Don’t More Humans Eat Bugs? (2018) - kirion25
https://www.sapiens.org/culture/eat-bugs/
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klodolph
A comment was deleted, which said,

> 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.

~~~
kokokokoko
I encourage you to research what percentage of bugs are actually edible and a
reasonable source of protein in northern climates. And then research the
eating habits in regions where the percentage of edible and protein rich
insects is significantly higher. Within there, I imagine you will find an
answer.

~~~
sametmax
Also, insect are hard to find in the winter, and much harder to raise at a
reasonable quantity than cows and chickens.

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.

~~~
Double_a_92
> and much harder to raise at a reasonable quantity than cows and chickens.

Doubt that. Livestock eats up much more energy than its meat gives back (i.e.
you would have to feed 7kg of soy protein to get 1kg of meat protein).

With insects such as Mealworms that's much easier. They basically eat anything
and they turn it almost 1:1 into valuable protein. Also you can raise them
pretty much everywhere, even in crammed indoor farms without it being cruel.

It's sounded more like you were imagining wild crickets being collected from
grass fields or something... which is obviously not a good solution.

~~~
klodolph
> With insects such as Mealworms that's much easier. They basically eat
> anything and they turn it almost 1:1 into valuable protein.

I looked up the feed conversion ratio for mealworms, I found values around
5:1. This is comparable to beef. Chickens are much better, somewhere around
1.5:1. Some other insects are better or worse in terms of FCR.

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4689427/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4689427/)

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stevenwoo
One thing about some insects - I used to have fish in an aquarium that were
large enough to eat crickets in one bite, and every single insect I caught in
our home and put in the water also had parasitic worms that tried to escape
the host insect immediately when it realized the insect was in water - these
parasitic worms seem to take up most of the insects abdomen. This might not be
a problem in non tropical parts of the world, but it's like a horror movie in
miniature.

[http://theconversation.com/the-parasite-a-crickets-
nightmare...](http://theconversation.com/the-parasite-a-crickets-nightmares-
are-made-of-19364)

~~~
coconut_crab
Farmed insects like silkworm should be safe to eat, I often stir fry them as a
snack with beer. Quite tasty!

~~~
DonHopkins
Are farmed tapeworms safe to eat?

~~~
coconut_crab
Nematode aren't insect though :)

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DonHopkins
I was eating out with an "ideologically motivated" vegetarian friend of mine,
who doesn't eat meat because it's "ethically wrong", and he ordered crabs. I
challenged him (jokingly, but ready to argue my point on aesthetic grounds):
"Crabs are just giant bugs, and you're a vegetarian, so why do you eat bugs?"

He replied "I eat bugs because they're the enemy!"

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SideburnsOfDoom
> vegetarian friend of mine ... he ordered crabs

Not a vegetarian.

~~~
ralusek
That is literally the entire point of the whole comment that they made you
pedantic ding dong.

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remarkEon
Because they’re gross looking and honestly don’t taste that great (speaking
from experience). It’s not rocket science.

~~~
jacobolus
There are many parts of the world where bugs are considered to appear and
taste palatable. Some are delicacies.

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.

~~~
remarkEon
>The idea that all bugs are gross is largely due to unfamiliarity.

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".

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trypophobia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trypophobia)

~~~
jacobolus
Ants, termites, wasps, bees, cicadas, grasshoppers and crickets, beetles,
beetle larvae, moth larvae, caterpillars, ... have a very wide range of
appearances, textures, flavors, habitats, diets, ....

I don’t see why Trypophobia would have anything to do with a fear of eating
insects rather than, say, honey, pomegranates, sunflower seeds, or
strawberries.

There are many things commonly eaten in e.g. the USA which are considered
disgusting by some people in other countries. Fermented cabbage, non-dairy
“cheese” product, twinkies, weird stuff made out of jello or marshmallows,
deep-fried butter, wonder bread, raw kale, ...

There are also many foods eaten in other parts of the world which don’t look
weird and have nothing to do with bugs but most e.g. Americans refuse to eat
for no apparent reason.

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skc
It's a cultural thing.

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.

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sametmax
Fried spiced bugs are tasty. Raw bugs not so much. I liked fried scorpio. Raw
cricket, taste like crap.

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.

~~~
bad_user
You can eat potatoes raw too.

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.

~~~
sametmax
Somehow i don't think a restaurant selling raw potatoes will suceed much
though :)

~~~
bad_user
I meant that you can eat potatoes raw and it won’t make you sick and it won’t
give you nausea.

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FooHentai
I think this clip sums it up pretty well. Albeit, they're talking about living
in tiny houses. But it's the same general idea. Joey's commentary is on point,
IMO.

[https://youtu.be/yxXoRtRr3WE?t=65](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.

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0x8BADF00D
It’s not so strange to eat bugs. Aren’t crustaceans, particularly crawfish and
the like, the bugs of the sea? They certainly look and behave like insects,
scavenging the ocean floor.

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smb06
I was very apprehensive when i first tried roasted crickets. By the time i was
on my second spoonful, i was wondering the same. Why haven't i had more of
them?

It's the mental block that we've been conditioned with. That bugs are
"disgusting" things.

~~~
dotancohen
I had a similar experience. I've had fried crickets, they are delicious. It is
like eating a tasty crispy french fry.

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senectus1
I've had deep fried crickets and deep fried mealy worms. I think its was the
preparation that put me off them.

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.

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Mikeb85
It's not about being squeamish. It's about having better options.

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.

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tropo
We don't eat bugs because nobody has yet developed a machine that can
affordably extract the meat.

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.

~~~
Retra
If you were 1000x the size of a cow, you probably could (and would) eat it
whole, as your teeth would mash through bone and skin without a problem.

~~~
tropo
I could, but I wouldn't, because those parts taste bad. The poop is
particularly awful.

~~~
beatgammit
The are a lot of things that people eat whole, such as sardines, anchovies,
and other small fish. Some cultures even use bile as a flavoring (see Papaitan
from the Philippines), and others eat bugs (crickets and grasshoppers are very
popular).

~~~
tropo
In the USA we don't do that.

Our sardines and anchovies have the head and guts removed, and probably the
tail. We do sometimes eat skin and bones. The same goes for canned salmon and
herring.

We also peel, decapitate, and gut our shrimp. This is probably a better
comparison because the exoskeleton is similar.

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zdk
No idea why people don't eat more but I like eating deep fried insects e.g.
rice grasshopper, silkworm etc. the taste is just as awesome as mainstream the
deep fried chicken or french fried sort of things that we have been eating
since we was child :) also, where I live they even sell insects as snack
packaged food (Exactly like potato chips packaging) in supermarket and
minimart these days. I don't mean I eat them as my primary source of protein
but rather just eating it as a snack during watching movie at home instead of
popcorn.

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jayalpha
You can get every kind of bug on some markets in China. They taste disgusting.
In Korea you can get silk worms in cans. They taste neutral. If prepared fresh
on the street the taste is hardly bearable for any Westerner.

You now buy an insect burger in Germnany
[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/22/bug-
appetite-g...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/22/bug-appetite-
german-supermarket-sells-burgers-made-from-worms)

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ohiovr
I think there are recommendations on the maximum amount of bugs that can fall
into a can of green beans or a bag of potato chips. So per year I've eaten a
certain amount of bugs without knowing. Ignorance is probably biss.

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Alex3917
Is there a good field guide to edible insects of New England, or does one just
need to join an entymology club?

I look into this every couple years and I have yet to find anything good.

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maxencecornet
I've heard that I'm unknowingly "eating" bugs everyday by drinking ground
coffee

I don't know if it's a fact or a myth

~~~
AngryData
There are almost no crops that are totally free from bugs, coffee has extra
stages of sitting and drying too which would do it no favors either. It's just
not enough to worry about, just like the shit you inhale when you smell a
fart.

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hyperion2010
My best case imagination of the future is that we get all our dietary protein
from buffalo worms. Insects are some of the most efficient systems for
converting plant mater in to human dietary protein, the fact that humans have
a disgust response against them is one of the saddest facts impacting the
future of our planet.

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adrianN
I'd like to eat insects, but they're a lot more expensive than chicken.

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dkdbejwi383
If access to meat is the problem, why not just go vegan?

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savrajsingh
Cricket flour tastes, like, really bad.

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kortilla
We do all the time. Ever had lobster?

~~~
sametmax
Shell fishes have marinated in a tasty iodine and mineral packed salted water,
that also have the benefit of preserving it from a lot of infectuous agents.

