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Eating insects good for health

By Carla Bevan on Thursday 5 June 2008

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Marie Claire health news: Grasshopper

Eating bugs and insects is good for our health and good for the environment, according to scientists, and we should all be munching more of them.

Wasps, grasshoppers and the like are rich in protein, but lower in fat that more traditional meat dishes, and have the added benefit of requiring forests to be conserved the more we eat them.

'Insects are the most valuable, underused and delicious animals in the world,' David George Gordon, a Seattle-based naturalist and author, told The Telegraph.

'Maybe we in the West are the weirdos.'

Certainly eating bugs isn't anything new in certain countries: in Mexico, grasshoppers are a popular choice and giant butterfly larvae are a veritable delicacy in restaurants.

Grasshoppers are also a popular choice in the Philippines, alongside crickets and locusts, while in Papua New Guinea, moths, dragonflies and beetles top certain menus.

Still not tempted? You might change your mind when you hear these facts: grasshoppers have 20 grams of protein but just 6 g of fat per 100g, while crickets are rich in iron, zinc and calcium. If you're on a diet, fire ants have 13.9g of protein and just 3.5g of fat per 100g.

Thursday 5 June 2008

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Yum... Caterpillar stew & roast cockroach for dinner tonight? Perhaps we could drink rats milk with it too (like Mucca suggested) Who's coming round to mine then?
Comment by radiantrose on June 05 16:57

That's 6% fat for a grasshopper? Give me my 5% fat portion of chips instead!
Comment by HanHan on June 06 09:46

Well here's one person who will definitely be giving them a miss-I can't bear to touch them let alone eat them. I would need to be in a very bad way to even consider it but the best of luck to those willing to give them a try
Comment by Lorna on June 06 12:42