

Jennifer Sygo: Are you ready to eat bugs? Get past the creep and crawl factor because insects are a great way to get protein and healthy fats

More from Jennifer Sygo

Would you like cricket with your dessert? Jennifer Sygo writes that before dismissing the idea of eating bugs, we need to consider a) their nutritional value, b) their lower impact on the environment and c) the possible positive ramifications they could have for global food security.


Grasshoppers (100g):
89-160 calories (depending on country of origin)
13-28g protein
Yellow mealworms (100g):
138 calories
14-25g protein
Termites (100g):
560 calories
13-28g protein
high source of palmitoleic acid (omega-7 fatty acids)

And now for something completely different. What if, instead of relying so much on traditional sources of animal protein, with their substantial impact on the environment, we switched our focus entirely and agreed to eat more bugs?

Yes, it’s true: There is a small, but growing movement to encourage Westerners to drop their fear of creepy-crawlies and embrace entomophagy — or eating of insects. And while cricket flour or locust meat aren’t necessarily high demand items (yet), that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t at least start to explore our relationship with bugs, which are commonly consumed as sources of energy and protein in many other parts of the world.


Eating cockroaches might not be your cup of tea, so to speak, but there is a good case to be made for them: Insects are natural sources of protein, and in particular contain a full complement of essential amino acids, the building blocks of protein, in many of the same ways that animal products do. At the same time, their environmental impact is far less substantial.

Termites are particularly rich in oleic acid, the same type of fat found in olive oil

According to a study, published in 2010 in the journal PLOS One, for every kilogram of mass (basically, weight) gained, insects typically produced about half as much carbon dioxide as cattle (an average of 2,835 g of CO2 produced per kilo of mass gained for beef, vs. a range of 337-1539 g of CO2 produced per kilo of mass gained by insects), as well as significantly smaller amounts of harmful ammonia and methane gas. At the same time, insects gained weight at a faster rate than the larger animals, which means that they could be brought to market faster, and yet with less damage to the environment.


While their nutritional value can vary widely from species to species, and across their lifespans, in general, insects offer protein and fat, as well as energy (calories), and some key micronutrients, such as iron, magnesium and zinc. So how many calories does the average grasshopper contain? Estimates range from 89 calories per 100 grams of raw grasshoppers native to Thailand, to 160 calories per 100 grams of home-grown Canadian red-legged grasshopper — values that are comparable to many cuts of chicken, fish, or beef. If mealworms are more your style, however, you’ll want to account for the extra calories: 100 g of mature mealworms offer up 138 calories, but their larvae are relatively rich at 206 calories per 100 g.


Beyond calories, the protein content of insect is also on-par with meat: Yellow mealworms, for example, provide between 14 g and 25 g protein per 100 g fresh weight, while termites, locusts, and grasshoppers provide 13 to 28 g. By comparison, beef, chicken, and fish typically provide 15-26 g protein per 100 g raw weight. Insects are also typically a source of fats, and often provide essential linoleic (omega-6) and alpha-linolenic (omega-3) fatty acids. Termites are particularly rich in oleic acid, the same type of fat found in olive oil, and numerous insects, including weevils and grasshoppers, boast up to one-third of their fat content as palmitoleic acid, a type of fat known as an omega-7 that has recently been reported to improve insulin sensitivity and have anti-inflammatory effects.


While eating bugs could provide environmental benefits for the Western world, it could also be of vital importance to developing nations, where malnutrition and deficiencies in protein, iron, and zinc can be major concerns. In some cases, the essential amino acids (the building blocks of protein) in insects are used to complement other foods, such as grains, which lack some of the eight essential amino acids. In Papua New Guinea, for example, palm weevil larvae provide lysine and leucine to those who practice entomopagy — two essential amino acids that are absent in tuberous (starchy) vegetables. Termites have also been suggested as a means of obtaining key amino acids in parts of Africa where maize, which is naturally low in tryptophan and lysine, is a staple food. The movement to promote the use of insects in our diets is significant enough that in 2011, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO) published a report, “Edible insects: Future prospects for food and feed security.”

Before we get too excited about having crickets for dinner, however, experts caution that we must be careful to develop sustainable cultivation and harvesting methods: there are examples of human overconsumption that has led to the collapse of some insect species. With careful cultivation and further research, however, there is good reason to believe that six-legged critters and their friends could have a valued place on our dinner plates at some point in the not-so-distant future — provided we can first overcome our fear of munching on food that creeps, crawls and flies.


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