So, I've been reading a lot today about eating insects.

[conuly]

Some of these sites are fascinating, and (almost) have me convinced.

I say almost because, of course, societal conditioning is really, really, really hard to overcome here!

I'm tempted to suggest something to the SICM to go with their Bugs exhibit. Oh, I get so tired of people who go in there with their kids and then talk loudly about how "gross" the whole room is. Here's an idea! If you're terrified of bugs, steer your child somewhere else!

Comments

[lady-angelina.livejournal.com]

I wonder how those same parents would feel if they learned that they have most likely actually consumed small insects by accident. ;) Not exactly the most appetizing thing in the world to think about, but I daresay they should realize that it hasn't killed them, soooo... ;) Besides, some of them have good protein and all.

[conuly]

All these websites bring that up, that the FDA allows a small percentage of insect parts in foods because, well, it happens.

Oh, years ago, on c_s, somebody was whining about how Judaism is wrong, they could never be Jewish, because it's wrong for anybody to tell people not to eat perfectly good foods.

And all I could say is "Well, you live in the US, so you probably don't eat insects, or horses, or dogs, or cats, or rats, or probably even rabbits, and any of a number of other "perfectly good foods", so wtf are you talking about?" Nobody eats every possible food out there, we've all got foods we think aren't food!

[sayga.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my sister and I just made a batch of cherry jam and we TRIED to pick out all the cherries with worms in them (each cherry has one single worm inside, so we tried to pick all the best no-worm cherries, but some with a worm inside got in the batch too), but we ended up just smushing everything down and naming it Wormy Cherry Raspberry Jam. Whatever. It's all sterilized and probably adds some protein, or something.

[conuly]

That's what I said about the worms in our coriander seeds. Froze the batch, picked out the most obvious ones, and declared the rest "free protein". Then I vowed to never speak of this again, but you can see that that hasn't worked so well...!

[gingembre.livejournal.com]

*cough*cardamon*cough*

[conuly]

You're talking about it....

[rantinan.livejournal.com]

Yum, grubs and grasshoppers. In a stir-fry. With crispy green bell peppers water chestnuts and some hoken.


Damnit I'm hungry now.

Oh I also eat rabbit (YUM)Dog (triple yum) horse (not much good) game birds (tasty, but watch out for the bones) and I've tried (canned) whale. The last is revolting, just purely freaking yuck. Imagine pork fat if it tasted fishey. This is the most charitable, safe for work way I can think of to discuss canned whale.

[conuly]

I like pork fat. And fish.

But I don't like eating endangered, very intelligent species. That squicks me out big time.

[rantinan.livejournal.com]

Ate it when I was ooh, 12, 13, and didn't have any ethical sense, and had a friend just back form japan.
So i can safely say i developed an aversion to the taste before i discovered it was like eating human... which i also wouldn't do. OR any other sort of primate. No monkey brains for me, thanks.

[velvetchamber.livejournal.com]

Not all of them are endangered. I think reasonable hunting of f.ex. minke whale is perfectly fine. But I do think that whale hunts should be limited to the waters of the nation that does the hunting, that international trade in whale meat should be disallowed, that the hunting should not be opposed but well regulated and governed by an international body that is unbiased by either those that wish to hunt as much as they can or those that think whales should not be hunted at all.

Besides, the intelligence of a species should not really dictate whether it is to be eaten or not.

What is much worse than the hunting is the cetacean bycatch, because that is largely ignored, in particular the right whale bycatch that the US is responsible for.

[conuly]

Besides, the intelligence of a species should not really dictate whether it is to be eaten or not.

I disagree.

[velvetchamber.livejournal.com]

Do you then maintain that domestic animals are not intelligent enough to be off the menu?

For our domestic animals are much more intelligent than they are credited to be. People that do not associate much with them often tend to experience them as dull and dumb as they are not familiar with how they think and communicate, but cattle, sheep and horses are all quite clever in my experience.

[conuly]

I maintain that animals which are reputed to think more like people are, yes, off the menu, though I don't have a level criteria for where that starts.

Some days, this view of the world is all that keeps me from killing off my fellow man and having a barbecue.

[velvetchamber.livejournal.com]

If you need a more logical reason for not consuming humans then I can tell you that such consumption poses an unnecessarily high risk for pathogen transmission (this is also a reason to avoid eating other simian species), and that we are also rather unhealthy food, for we are high enough in the food chain and long lived enough to accumulate a considerable amount of undesirable molecules and compounds in our bodies. The liver would generally be the worst.

If you on the other hand absolutely must eat a human, the ones that are the closest to being herbivores and the youngest ones would be your wisest choice. In particular if they have been in good health and not known for cannibalism.

[conuly]

No, no, I think I'll go with unreasonable reasons of squickiness to keep from eating the rest of the world. But thanks for the help :)

Glad for the excuse to devour PETA members first in the event of a societal collapse, though. Good to know.

[velvetchamber.livejournal.com]

Horse can be delicious, but you need to know how to cook it, same goes for fresh whale (any canned meat sounds revolting).

I was quite disappointed by rabbit though, I would liken it to a bland chicken, only with a mammalian texture and lacking the quite good skin of a bird.

I wouldn't fancy dog though, meat eating animals don't sound appetising. Not that it's any better to be eating other animals high in the food chain (tuna for example), but fish eating animals are somehow less off-putting.

[velvetchamber.livejournal.com]

What has bothered me about the intact insects I have tasted is the chitin. It tends to make my gums sore. Granted, all the insects I have had have been long dead and bone dry, but that would be my biggest annoyance. I could imagine that a more fresh insect would be better for the gums, in particular as sub-adults.

[conuly]

Probably.

Or maybe if they're cooked properly? Or if you shell them? I mean, we don't eat the shell on shrimp, do we?

[velvetchamber.livejournal.com]

Shelling might work on relatively big ones, but not the ones I have had, they were much to small.

I think I liked the chocolate covered ants the best of what I have tasted. The spiced dried mealworms on the other hand were just brittle and overly spiced.

[conuly]

Well, chocolate makes everything taste better.

[velvetchamber.livejournal.com]

Not fish.

[conuly]

Shrimp, though.

[lady-angelina.livejournal.com]

I wonder how those same parents would feel if they learned that they have most likely actually consumed small insects by accident. ;) Not exactly the most appetizing thing in the world to think about, but I daresay they should realize that it hasn't killed them, soooo... ;) Besides, some of them have good protein and all.

[conuly]

All these websites bring that up, that the FDA allows a small percentage of insect parts in foods because, well, it happens.

Oh, years ago, on c_s, somebody was whining about how Judaism is wrong, they could never be Jewish, because it's wrong for anybody to tell people not to eat perfectly good foods.

And all I could say is "Well, you live in the US, so you probably don't eat insects, or horses, or dogs, or cats, or rats, or probably even rabbits, and any of a number of other "perfectly good foods", so wtf are you talking about?" Nobody eats every possible food out there, we've all got foods we think aren't food!

[sayga.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my sister and I just made a batch of cherry jam and we TRIED to pick out all the cherries with worms in them (each cherry has one single worm inside, so we tried to pick all the best no-worm cherries, but some with a worm inside got in the batch too), but we ended up just smushing everything down and naming it Wormy Cherry Raspberry Jam. Whatever. It's all sterilized and probably adds some protein, or something.

[conuly]

That's what I said about the worms in our coriander seeds. Froze the batch, picked out the most obvious ones, and declared the rest "free protein". Then I vowed to never speak of this again, but you can see that that hasn't worked so well...!

[gingembre.livejournal.com]

*cough*cardamon*cough*

[conuly]

You're talking about it....

[rantinan.livejournal.com]

Yum, grubs and grasshoppers. In a stir-fry. With crispy green bell peppers water chestnuts and some hoken.


Damnit I'm hungry now.

Oh I also eat rabbit (YUM)Dog (triple yum) horse (not much good) game birds (tasty, but watch out for the bones) and I've tried (canned) whale. The last is revolting, just purely freaking yuck. Imagine pork fat if it tasted fishey. This is the most charitable, safe for work way I can think of to discuss canned whale.

[conuly]

I like pork fat. And fish.

But I don't like eating endangered, very intelligent species. That squicks me out big time.

[rantinan.livejournal.com]

Ate it when I was ooh, 12, 13, and didn't have any ethical sense, and had a friend just back form japan.
So i can safely say i developed an aversion to the taste before i discovered it was like eating human... which i also wouldn't do. OR any other sort of primate. No monkey brains for me, thanks.

[velvetchamber.livejournal.com]

Not all of them are endangered. I think reasonable hunting of f.ex. minke whale is perfectly fine. But I do think that whale hunts should be limited to the waters of the nation that does the hunting, that international trade in whale meat should be disallowed, that the hunting should not be opposed but well regulated and governed by an international body that is unbiased by either those that wish to hunt as much as they can or those that think whales should not be hunted at all.

Besides, the intelligence of a species should not really dictate whether it is to be eaten or not.

What is much worse than the hunting is the cetacean bycatch, because that is largely ignored, in particular the right whale bycatch that the US is responsible for.

[conuly]

Besides, the intelligence of a species should not really dictate whether it is to be eaten or not.

I disagree.

[velvetchamber.livejournal.com]

Do you then maintain that domestic animals are not intelligent enough to be off the menu?

For our domestic animals are much more intelligent than they are credited to be. People that do not associate much with them often tend to experience them as dull and dumb as they are not familiar with how they think and communicate, but cattle, sheep and horses are all quite clever in my experience.

[conuly]

I maintain that animals which are reputed to think more like people are, yes, off the menu, though I don't have a level criteria for where that starts.

Some days, this view of the world is all that keeps me from killing off my fellow man and having a barbecue.

[velvetchamber.livejournal.com]

If you need a more logical reason for not consuming humans then I can tell you that such consumption poses an unnecessarily high risk for pathogen transmission (this is also a reason to avoid eating other simian species), and that we are also rather unhealthy food, for we are high enough in the food chain and long lived enough to accumulate a considerable amount of undesirable molecules and compounds in our bodies. The liver would generally be the worst.

If you on the other hand absolutely must eat a human, the ones that are the closest to being herbivores and the youngest ones would be your wisest choice. In particular if they have been in good health and not known for cannibalism.

[conuly]

No, no, I think I'll go with unreasonable reasons of squickiness to keep from eating the rest of the world. But thanks for the help :)

Glad for the excuse to devour PETA members first in the event of a societal collapse, though. Good to know.

[velvetchamber.livejournal.com]

Horse can be delicious, but you need to know how to cook it, same goes for fresh whale (any canned meat sounds revolting).

I was quite disappointed by rabbit though, I would liken it to a bland chicken, only with a mammalian texture and lacking the quite good skin of a bird.

I wouldn't fancy dog though, meat eating animals don't sound appetising. Not that it's any better to be eating other animals high in the food chain (tuna for example), but fish eating animals are somehow less off-putting.

[velvetchamber.livejournal.com]

What has bothered me about the intact insects I have tasted is the chitin. It tends to make my gums sore. Granted, all the insects I have had have been long dead and bone dry, but that would be my biggest annoyance. I could imagine that a more fresh insect would be better for the gums, in particular as sub-adults.

[conuly]

Probably.

Or maybe if they're cooked properly? Or if you shell them? I mean, we don't eat the shell on shrimp, do we?

[velvetchamber.livejournal.com]

Shelling might work on relatively big ones, but not the ones I have had, they were much to small.

I think I liked the chocolate covered ants the best of what I have tasted. The spiced dried mealworms on the other hand were just brittle and overly spiced.

[conuly]

Well, chocolate makes everything taste better.

[velvetchamber.livejournal.com]

Not fish.

[conuly]

Shrimp, though.