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Apr. 29, 2005 I consider myself an open-minded person. I can accept conventional wisdom, but I try not to be tied down by it. I try to apply my free-thinking and rational nature to all things, not just philosophy and politics, but also food. It's never bothered me to realize that beef is usually cow muscle, for example, nor does the sight of various legs and other appendages on a lobster upset me as it does some people. I've never been one of those, “I'll eat it as long as you don't tell me what's in it” kind of people. Several years ago I read about humans eating insects. Fascinated, I looked up some recipes. Soon after, I bought some mealworms (not actually worms, but beetle larva) and crickets. The clerk asked me, “What'cha guh'na feed these too?” I replied, “myself – I'm going to eat them”. Seemingly non-phased, but with a look that said, “don't give me any details”, he answered, “Whatever floats your boat”. Per the instructions, I fed the beasties whole grains for about three days to purge the pet store nasties (newspaper, sawdust and so on) from their systems. I anesthetized the crickets by placing them in the freezer for a few minutes (keeps them from jumping around), and dry roasted them in the oven. Based on a handy Internet tip, I removed their legs and antenna (they tend to get stuck between teeth, it seems). I fried the mealworms in garlic and olive oil. They were almost as delicious as the look on my girlfriend's face (though she did have a taste)! Humans have been eating insects since before history, and they have more protein (real animal protein, unlike plant proteins such as soy), but less fat and cholesterol than the staples (beef, chicken, pork). They also have minimal environmental impact - they don't require acres of grazing land and can live on clean vegetable “trash”, items such as peels, husks, non-edible seeds and so forth. Some insects are so healthy that vitamin-overdose is a risk. No one protests the condition of insects in captivity, and, finally, they just plain taste good! Naturally, I tried to convince a friend to eat insects. There is every reason that humans should be eating them, I told him, even in rich countries. He was disgusted; I was baffled. We soon entered into a debate, and volleyed questions back and forth at each other: “Did you play with bugs growing up?”, “Why didn't you play with bugs growing up?”, “Would you let this creature walk on you?”, “Are you scared of this kind of creature?”, “Did you ever dig up worms?”, “If this kind of creature doesn't scare you, why wouldn't you let one walk on your arm?”, “Why would you eat this food, but not that food?”, “How can you eat this, when you know that it's made from that?”, “Can you catch flies with your bare hands?”, “Even butterflies seem creepy to you?”, “Do you smash spiders, or take them outside?”, “Have you ever had lice?”, “Come on, you really don't like butterflies?!” - after an itchy debate, we realized that I seem to have an issue with spider eyes. Something about eight eyes just seems, well, wrong to me. Some spiders don't have eight eyes, and most spider heads are too small to see the eyes anyway, but, yet, they bother me. I realized that even if spider heads were among the most healthy and environmentally friendly foods around, I wouldn't eat them as long as I had alternatives... I also realized that maybe I'm not quite as open-minded and rational as I thought. ------------ About the author Frederick Smith: I enjoy writing about the positive virtues of humanism - humanists are the good guys. Email: dahlek65@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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