Welcome to Debate Club! Please be aware that this is a space for respectful debate, and that your ideas will be challenged here. Please remember to critique the argument, not the author.
Would you eat cricket protein?
Options
Replies
-
Sure. I've generally tried similar things when offered, and I have considered buying the cricket powder/flour to try it.0
-
ONLY If it was the only option for calories, I would eat it, preferably as a trail mix, but I'll need water accessible to wash it down, for I won't be able to get over "I'm eating insects."2
-
I researched the grasshopper plague once upon a time, and I remember whether people tried eating the grasshoppers was one of my questions. Here's something on that:
http://www.historynet.com/1874-the-year-of-the-locust.htm
Background--The hot and dry conditions of the spring and summer of 1874 had provided ideal breeding conditions for the Rocky Mountain locusts. “The grasses seemed to wither, and the cattle bunched up near the creek and the well, and no air seemed to stir the leaves on the trees,” Kansas pioneer Susan Proffitt wrote. “All nature seemed still.” And then they came.
“They looked like a great, white glistening cloud, for their wings caught the sunshine on them and made them look like a cloud of white vapor,” one unsettled pioneer wrote. “It seemed as if we were in a big snowstorm,” recalled another, “where the air was filled with enormous-size flakes.”
In places the mass of insects blocked out the sun for as long as six hours. When the locusts did descend, they covered every shrub, plant and tree, sometimes breaking limbs with their combined weight. They flattened and devoured corn stalks and reaped fields of grain. They consumed only the most succulent bits of the wheat crop, letting the rest rot on the ground. “Wheat and grasshoppers could not grow on the same land,” one forlorn homesteader put it, “and the grasshoppers already had the first claim.” The locusts picked clean whole watermelon patches and stripped fruit trees, leaving peach pits dangling from empty branches.
Having ravaged the fields and trees, the locusts then invaded the farmers’ houses, clearing out barrels and cupboards and devouring anything not secreted away in wood or metal containers. They even shredded curtains and clothing. At night farm families had to shake bedding to dislodge grasshoppers before retiring and considered themselves lucky if another shaking was not needed before morning. “The air is literally alive with them,” a New York Times correspondent wrote from Kansas. “They beat against the houses, swarm in at the windows, cover the passing trains. They work as if sent to destroy.”
As a result, many were starving, so:Enter Charles Valentine Riley. The Missouri state entomologist noted that livestock and wild animals happily ate the locusts and that man had used the insect as food since ancient times. Riley thus proposed “entomophagy”—simply put, eating the bugs—as a way to reduce their numbers while nourishing hungry settlers. The insects, he insisted, yielded an agreeable nutty flavor when one removed their legs and wings and fried their bodies in butter. He added that the rendered locusts also made a palatable soup. To prove his point, Riley sent a bushel of scalded locusts to one St. Louisan caterer, who insisted he would have them on his menu every day if he could get them.
Hard-pressed pioneers gave Riley’s recipes a try. Gourmands claimed that locust coated in butter, fried and seasoned with salt and pepper tasted just like crawfish. Others elected to add their crispy locusts to broths and stews. But a number of settlers who had watched the locusts destroy their farms said they would just as soon starve as eat those horrible creatures....estherdragonbat wrote: »I'm a kosher vegetarian, so that would be a "no". Unless it was a matter of life and death, of course.
For similar but possibly kosher insects (doesn't help with the vegetarian bit and the article notes there is disagreement on whether they can be considered kosher), when I was trying to find again a piece on eating grasshoppers during the 19th century Great Plains crisis, I found this, which is interesting:
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21847517 -- Eating locusts: The crunchy, kosher snack taking Israel by swarm
It's from 2013, but there are a few parallels: "Israel is in the grip of a locust invasion. Farmers are seeing their crops gobbled up in minutes - and some people are taking a novel approach to pest control. Eating them."
5 -
I would. I considered it, in fact, when I saw one on Amazon. Then rationality won over curiosity...
If crickets are a cheap source of protein, then why is that protein bar so expensive per gram of protein? I'll wait until (if ever) the process is streamlined enough to have a reasonable cost. As long as cheese is produced commercially, I see no real reason to switch to crickets unless crickets get exceptionally cheap. Whey is a waste product, after all, and that waste needs to go somewhere.
0 -
my forst thought is "of course" But then again I am always interested in new (or in this case very old) types of foods. IMO in western diet we have moved away from a lot of good foods and habits due to 'civilisation' and wanting to attain to when 'higher' classes eat and live like.
Never mind that those 'higher' classes not higher just richer in money and often poorer in empathy and taste2 -
I'm a vegetarian. That would be a nope from me.1
-
:noway:2
-
I have seen so many bars made with cricket protein and it sounds disgusting. I just can't stop picturing the bugs and it would turn me off even if it tasted good. I've heard a few people who have tried the bars say they are terrible, but I am sure there will be others who love the taste, haha.0
-
I would try it.0
-
midwesterner85 wrote: »@cricketpower Thoughts?
@midwesterner85 ~ ha, yep!
I don't recommend mixing the flour with eggs for "huevos con grillos". That was nasty.
I had no problem chugging the pure flour in water, though. After awhile it actually kind of tasted like chocolate to me.
1 -
There are a lot of cricket-based foods available besides the bars -- I think the flour (which is basically a protein powder) is more interesting. Here's a site selling them: https://www.cricketflours.com/5-reasons-you-should-be-eating-cricket-powder-cricket-flour/
The problem, and why I will not order any, is that despite the better argument for cricket as a source of protein being that it should be very cheap and possible to be sustainably produced, they are all really expensive niche products. Maybe that's, in theory, a necessary stage to make them catch on, or to appeal to a certain market, but it makes me not interested.0 -
I actually find living crickets to be disgusting and can't stand being around them. So the idea of actually eating one, whole or ground, sounds repugnant.
And although I am generally an adventurous eater, I'm not sure I could purposely eat any bug unless I needed to for survival.
0 -
I'm in! Have actually eaten these while vacation traveling...Not for the faint of heart. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0Fmpzkjnmw2
-
Some of the cricket protein bars aren't too bad either. Would definitely use cricket powder. Bit pricey the last time I checked though.1
-
These are really popular at my grocery store..
1 -
I would try crickets and MAYBE worms but that's it for insects.0
-
I would try one of the bars if I came across it and it wasn't super expensive. Not sure I could eat an actual cricket, the legs freak me out some. On the other hand I eat calamari, so maybe its just something I would have to try to get over.0
-
Have a look at ingredients - most food stuff percentages do not add up to 100 %. The rest are: bugs, beetles, mouse and rat droppings and other delightful additions...2
-
My great nephew is a cricket farmer with some friends of his. They raise them & then they are shipped to California? to be made into flour. His mom has eaten them, but not sure I am brave enough! (I also think they are white..not the ordinary black ones that drive you nuts with their chirping! Lol)0
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 391.3K Introduce Yourself
- 43.4K Getting Started
- 259.6K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.6K Food and Nutrition
- 47.3K Recipes
- 232.3K Fitness and Exercise
- 387 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.4K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.5K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 152.7K Motivation and Support
- 7.8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.2K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.2K MyFitnessPal Information
- 22 News and Announcements
- 913 Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.3K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions