• Question: which insect has the most protein

    Asked by lea986 to Alex, Claire, Kate, Marcus, Neil on 23 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by mee3megemel.
    • Photo: Alex Lyness

      Alex Lyness answered on 23 Jun 2014:


      Hey lea986 and mee3megel,

      Man, you guys are really interested in eating insects!

      While it’s not really any of our expertise (as we’re all trying to repair humans instead!) I also wanted to know the answer as well.

      It looks like if it’s protein you are after, you should be eating Caterpillars as they have almost as much protein in them than beef mince. Check out a nutrition table here: http://www.billybeck.com/living-it/is-bug-protein-daniella-martin-eating-insects/

      There may be a day when we in the West (Europe and North America) might actually start having to eat insects as part of our diet. There really is no good reason not to eat insects… other than we might think it’s disgusting. Is it really more disgusting than eating lobsters, crabs and prawns? In Asia, Africa and South America people eat they every day as part of their diet.

      It might be a long while yet before you can buy them in Tescos though! 😀

    • Photo: Marcus Johns

      Marcus Johns answered on 23 Jun 2014:


      http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130514-edible-insects-entomophagy-science-food-bugs-beetles/ has some interesting information on edible insects! Apparently beetles are pretty good on the protein front.

    • Photo: Claire Brockett

      Claire Brockett answered on 24 Jun 2014:


      hey,
      insects are supposed to be pretty good to eat, but I have to say it’s not something I like the idea of (although I happily eat lobsters and prawns, so like Alex said, its actually no worse).
      This website is pretty interesting http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/survival/wilderness/edible-bug.htm
      and there are some online stores that sell edible bugs if you want to try them!

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