Crunchy cricket tacos anyone? If the idea sounds stomach-turning, consider new research that shows humans are meant to eat bugs. Well, insects to be exact.
Rutgers researchers found that insects were the food of choice for our early primate ancestors and that we 21st century humans — among other modern day primates — are still made to eat and digest termites, crickets, beetles, and their ilk.
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“There are a lot of differences in how primates eat. Some eat more insects, some more fruits and leaves. We were interested in what our ancestors were feeding on and seeing how primates have evolved,” study lead author Mareike Janiak, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology at Rutgers University told Men’s Health. She and colleagues from Kent State University recently published their findings in Molecular Biology and Evolution.
The scientists studied the genomes of 34 primates, searching for copies of a gene called CHIA, the stomach enzyme that breaks down chitin, which helps make up the firm outer covering of an insect. Janiak and her colleagues discovered that almost all living primates still have working versions of the gene needed to produce the enzyme.
“We were looking at genes and found early primates had three genes coding for a stomach enzyme that can break down an insect’s exoskeleton after it’s eaten," she says. "That suggests they were focused on insects as food. Most primates alive today have only one copy of the CHIA gene."
Until now, it wasn’t clear if humans made insect-digesting enzymes or not, but the new findings suggest we can spread our wings and expand our culinary options.
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There are 1,900 species of insects considered to be edible, according to the United Nations. And while not super-popular in the U.S., insects are part of the traditional diet of 2 billion people around the world.
They’re nutritious, too, says Janiak, explaining that insects contain carbs, protein, fiber, vitamins, essential minerals, and healthy fats. “In the exoskeleton, there are carbs and protein bound up in it and minerals, but the exact combination of what makes an exoskeleton varies by insect,” she says.
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A 2016 study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition thatcompared the nutritional make-up of insects to meat found that most of the meat people eat is fairly similar in terms of nutritional composition to insects. For example, a 3.5 gram portion of pork and crickets each contains about 20 grams of protein. When it comes to calcium, Mopane caterpillars knock it out of the ballpark. A 3.5 ounce portion contains 10,000 percent more calcium than the same amount of pork. (However, the study authors noted there haven’t been many trials with human subjects showing the effects of insect consumption, and “the results of such trials are inconclusive.")
Other insects that pack protein include locusts, grasshoppers, palm worm beetles, and termites, according to the International Network of Food Data Systems.
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Now that you know you can digest them, if you’re game to try them, you may want to start with a less buggy-looking powdered form that you can add to your pancake batter, smoothies, and other dishes. (You'll unknowingly eat a pound of insects this year anyway, so what's the big deal?)
For an easy grab-and-go, you can buy salt and vinegar crickets from UK edible insect company Crunchy Critters, which sells a variety of bagged insect snacks.
Related: Would You Eat a Cricket? How About a Cricket Cookie?
But if cooking them whole appeals, try a recipe from The Eat-a-Bug Cookbook by David George Gordon, including deep-fried tarantula spiders (coated in a light tempura batter), pear salad with ants, and marinated grasshopper kabobs with red peppers and onions.
A little kitchen tip: Cooking your insects before eating them will make them even more digestible, recommends Janiak, who’s tried crickets.
“A friend brought them back from Japan. They were in a paste and tasted like soy sauce. They didn’t have much flavor," she says. "I’m a vegetarian, so I don’t eat meat — and I’m still debating if insects count or not."