Gonna be honest, if you told me a country was going to start doing this, I would not have picked Italy
You can buy cricket flour in Canada. There is a manufacturer in Nova Scotia.
Just remember that nearly 7 million people died worldwide from covid, so I donโt quite understand your use of quotation marks there. It absolutely was a reason to panic, Iโm also not sure what your connection is between covid in Italy and cricket flower. Please keep your conspiracy theory bullshit tucked deeply away in your dysfunctional brain because people like you are the primary reason so many lives were upended.
I am all for this, eating insects is done in many cultures and a healthy source of nutrition. We westerners may see it as something intimidating at first, because we so squirmish about bugs, but I am honestly curious about the taste.
That being said, I donโt know why we need more nutritious flour. We are not lacking protein in our diets. Even vegans and vegetarians easily hit the minimum protein intake by consuming plant based proteinโฆ
We are not lacking protein in our diets
Doesnโt mean that we canโt look for more environmentally friendly protein sources, or cheaper ones, or open up more options to replace the carbs that are badly overrepresented in the average Americanโs diet, or explore new potential flavors, or use this as a supplement for other nutrients it may contain, or any number of other perfectly valid reasons to explore a new food source. More knowledge is better, it lets us make decisions that more closely fit our needs and gives us more flexibility in solving problems.
We are not lacking protein in our diets.
Go to any fitness community and you will see tons of people trying to get more protein in their diet. This is a niche food, I highly doubt it will appear anywhere in any non specialty products. I donโt see any problems with more choice as long as it has been tested to be safe, which this is.
I, a white guy, have eaten deep fried crickets. They were very nice, they tasted like crispy chicken skin.
Would definitely eat them as a snack if they were available. Also had meal worms that came with my chocolate and my gf wouldnโt kiss me for the rest of the day until I cleaned my teeth. They were yummy too but not as nice as the crickets.
Iโm still kind of puzzled about why youโd want to use something like this, instead of plant-based ingredients.
Though obviously it doesnโt make sense to completely outlaw it, either.
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apparently extremely nutritious and high in protein
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But obviously creepy & disgusting and many people are NOT willing to intentionally eat this.
Guess what else is nutritious and high in protein, but not creepy? Beans.
Iโd rather just eat more beans than crickets.
The whole eating insects idea is motivated by carbon emissions and similar concerns: insect meal is around 60-70% protein (beans are around 30%, maybe bean meal is more but I have never seen it anywhere), and its cost in terms of emissions and land use is much smaller than either meat or plants (especially stuff like soy). Nobody is arguing that it should replace beans. Rather, it could help diminish meat consumption.
I know of no flour replacements that have literally zero carbs. Even whey protein which is a fitness supplement has more carbs. Iโm sure the keto community would be super into this.
Eating insects is not weird in many cultures, and a product existing does not mean you have to eat it. Plenty of people hate tomatoes, should that be banned too? Donโt like it? Donโt eat it. You can be happy for the people that do want this.
true but I think the-powers-that-be are trying to promote crickets as mainstream human food because crickets are less expensive and more effortlessly bio-available than beans are.
But donโt get me wrong, Iโm totally on team โCrickets-Yuck!โ
Eating insects is normal in many cultures. Calling it obviously creepy and disgusting is imposing your own narrow value system on others. The world is a big and diverse place. If it isnโt hurting anyone (well, other than the crickets), why should it matter? Nobody is going to be forced to eat this if they donโt want to.
There are so many non Western foods that most westerners arenโt into, should they all be banned? And who knows? Maybe adventurous eaters will try it and like it. Sushi used to be viewed as โobjectively creepy and disgustingโ by many westerners for decades.
I havenโt figured this out either, but my wild guess is the greater protein content over carbs in regular flour. Iโm thinking of things like keto meal bars, or something.
Everyone here saying how awful this sounds, and Iโm just sitting here excited to try a new food. I ate mealworms before and they were pretty good, so why not?
Itโs certainly not what Iโm used to but itโs definitely less weird than some common foods we typically eat like cheese (which I fucking love, but if you think about it its weird as shit!)
the ideas that:
no one should have to eat bugs if they donโt want to
and
people who want to eat bugs should be able to get bugs easily
arenโt mutually exclusive.
