Snacking insects: good for you, good for the enviroment
For me, this month is all about finding and experiencing different foods and ways to innovate my healthy lifestyle. I want to tell you about something very special. A while ago I was working as a hostess on a food fair called Health Ingredients. During my break I was walking around looking at all the cool innovative food supplements and ingredients. I stumbeled up on a stand called Delibugs. They where serving insects as a snack! I was so shocked and surprised at the same time, but I had to try them. Jup, snacking insects.
Delibug is a Dutch company that sells eatable insects and products containing insects. At the food fair, they served 4 types of eatable insects: mealworms, buffaloworms, crickets and grasshoppers. I asked the stand host why this food is so special, apart from the fact that it was an insect. He told me about the benefits of insects as a healthy 'snack'.
The benefits of snacking insect
- The insects are high in protein. Some of them contain even more protein then fish!
- Insects release fewer greenhouse gasses than normal live stock. Transportation is easier and they release less ammonia and methane than pigs.
- Agriculture consumes 70% of water worldwide, and the production of animal protein requires 100 times more water than protein from grain. Insects need far less, and can be grown throughout the drought.
- All of our concerns about live animal exports and battery farm hens are based on the need to reduce animal suffering. High density of livestock is necessary for commercial food production but is undesirable from an animal welfare point of view. Insects, on the other hand, are naturally gregarious. Many of them prefer to live in high densities and killing them humanely is possible and easy.
- They are everywhere! So you can snack away what you want and don't need extra production.
In short: snacking insects has health benefits, are better for the environment and economically attractive.
source: theconversation.com
Eating insects is not a new thing. Countries like Thailand, Mexico, China and Ghana are eating bugs for centuries. If you feel adventurous and want to try a grasshopper yourself, you first need to remove the wings and the paws. They are not intended to be eaten. Bonne apetit! I noticed that all the insects have the same kind of protein smell. Not very strong or special, same goes for the taste. Insects have a pretty neutral taste, but a very crunchy texture!
What kind of 'Western' snack could you make?
I suggest to bake them in the oven with olive oil, pepperbell and salt or caramelise them. They taste much better like that! Reheat them in the oven and use them, instead of croutons, in your salad. Since recently you can even buy insect snacks in you local supermarket. So for the Dutchies... if you feel like snacking something different, just go to Jumbo and get yourself some bugs!!
On the picture below you see something very special: a chocolate-peanutbutter-cricketproteinbar from Chapul. The taste was amazing and I liked it more then other proteinbars. Defenitly a healthier and more nutritions option!
