Insects Aren’t Just Icky, Studies Suggest They Are Nutritious

Studies suggest that most primates including humans are capable of digesting insects, yuck. Almost all primates, including humans, still maintain the working versions of the genes required in the stomach to produce an enzyme that will break down the exoskeletons, oh goody for us. This means that the only thing stopping us from eating insects is totally down to the yuck factor, which is not surprising at all, and it has nothing to do with digestion, nutrition, or evolution, just simple insect yucks and icky cringe worthy big bag of nopes.

Just the thought of consuming an insect can make most people cringe and their skin crawl. The icky factor has nothing at all to do with any nutritional value, evolution, or digestion. Rutgers studies suggest that insects which once were the food choice for our early ancestors could still be eaten today and digested by almost all primates including human. Yummy for us.

The prevailing thought that mammals don’t produce an enzyme to break down the exoskeletons of insects making them to be very difficult to digest is now known not to be true according to the study as published in Molecular Biology and Evolution. The researchers say that they discovered that almost all living primates still have working version of the gene that is required to produce the enzyme in the stomach that will break down the exoskeletons.

The study analyzed the genomes of 34 primates looking for copies of the gene CHIA which is the enzyme in the stomach that will break down chitin that is the part of the outer coverings of an insect. Findings show that most living primates have one copy of CHIA, earlier primates had at least 3, showing how important a food source insects once were for early ancestors. Some living primates have 5 copies of CHIA such as the tarsier only found in Southeast Asia islands in which CHIA has duplicated specifically in its lineage. Primates evolved in size to become larger and more active in the day rather than night, shifting their diets to things like leaves and fruit, making insects become less important and the digestive system enzymes change. Just how effectively humans can digest insects is still be debated in scientific literature with some studies finding that the stomach enzyme can digest the hard outer covering of an insect and others finding none. Most research so far has been conducted using western culture participants rather than comparing people from cultures that actually consume insects on a regular basis.

Insects are part of the traditional diet of close to 2 billion people worldwide, with 1900 species of insects being considered to be not only edible but also a nutritious food source with fiber, healthy fats, protein, vitamins, and essential minerals according to the United Nations.

In Japan tiny crickets are marinated in a salty paste and served as snacks. In Uganda cooked grasshoppers are served and said to taste like chicken. New food ventures such as Bitty Foods use sustainably raised crickets to make cricket flour with hope to make western culture more willing to consider looking at insect use which has a smaller carbon footprint than those of beef and other livestock as a protein and food source. Which is a great alternative and good idea, and all fine and dandy provided one can get over the ick big bag of nope factor. Many people like shrimp and lobster, some see those as the insects of underwater, interesting concept.