It might be a while before they appear on the shelf at Tesco. But scientists claim adding insects to our diet would be good for us and the environment. Crunching into crickets or snacking on grilled caterpillar is apparently a means to a nutrient-rich diet that also helps reduce pests and puts less strain on the planet than eating conventional meat. Enlarge  Some insects in their dried form are said to have twice the protein of raw meat and fish, while others are rich in unsaturated fat and contain important vitamins and minerals. Experts believe they could one day be marketed as a healthy alternative to fatty snacks. In most of Europe, bug-eating is largely restricted to the belated realisation that there has been an unwelcome addition to the salad. It is common elsewhere, however, with some 1,700 species of bug eaten in 113 countries. In Taiwan, stir-fried crickets or sauteed caterpillars are delicacies. A plate of maguey worms  -  larvae of a giant butterfly  -  sells for £12.50 in smart Mexican restaurants. Sago grubs wrapped in banana leaves go down well in Papua New Guinea, as does dragonfly in Bali. In many parts of south-east Asia market stalls sell insects by the pound and deep-fried snacks are served up as street food. Insects are arthropods, much like crab, shrimps and lobster which are all accepted by the European palate. In North Africa locusts are sometimes called sky prawns. But Patrick Durst, of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, said that if consumers were to be tempted to broaden their culinary horizons the trick might be to make the bugs look more palatable.

'You need to get the food into a form where someone doesn't have to look the bug in the eye when they eat it,' he said. Earlier this year the Food and Agriculture Organisation held a conference to discuss how entomophagy  -  eating insects as food  -  could contribute to sustainable development. Bug-farming preserves forests  -  which are needed to attract insects  -  and is encouraged in some countries.

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This is definitely not for me. I can see how our ancestors probably ate insects. I think it is an aquired taste. Maybe if we gave it to babies they would grow up to be beetle munchers.

Are insects not full of harmful bacteria?

I'll be willing to eat them if they're being sold. I've had them fried or roasted in the past here and there but they're not very common at all around here. I only got those at a world's food fair.

Id eat bugs if they were cooked, just not raw, moving and still alive.

Eating insects??? Glenn Beck had a great show today starting out with how Liberals want us to Eat Insects. Socialists, I once knew their mindset. I was so dumb to be thinking like that. Now I know why my gasoline is so damn high.

I heard about this yesterday while getting changed. I only heard the last part of it.

There's no way I'm eating insects! I already don't like them. So why would I want to eat them?

This is no worse than eating a pig. They are filthy. Western society is just conditioned to think this is gross. If we were told it was gross to eat pigs at birth, you would all think that as well.

I 'm not sure what part, but I believe there is a passage in the Bible saying no to eating insects. Thou I would have to look for it.

I'd eat them. They'd be seasoned or used as an ingredient in various dishes. I don't see the big deal.

Grasshoppers, crickets and the few grubs I have tried were not all that bad really. I would welcome it actually. A nice bowl of Anyone know of a place to mail order some snacks?

Oh and "Insects are arthropods, much like crab, shrimps and lobster which are all accepted by the European palate. "

I have ruined at least one persons appetite for seafood by comparing shrimp to land insects. Sea roaches (shrimp) is my term for them and I am not sure that one person is back to eating them just yet......

Kevin A.

I agree with you MoonDemon. Its no worse its what you can get use to. If you were truly hungry you would eat them.

If I remember my bible there are only certain kinds of crickets that you can eat and explains which ones are to be eaten.

I believe there was an episode of "Amazing Race" where the contestants had to eat a bowl full of large beetles. Still looked more appetizing than the fish head episode, or the one where they had to eat camel lips!

Way back in the 1960s, my mom was at a party, and there was among the snacks, a big bowl of what looked to her like cashews. A big fan of cashews, Mom digs right in, and soon the host comes up with an odd grin on his face. "Like those?" he asks my mom. She replies, crunching away, "Yeah! Great cashews." Then the host smiles and declares, not unkindly: "Oh, those aren't cashews. They're grasshoppers."

Only if they're dead and covered in thick rich chocolate....yummy.......but I still wouldn't eat them...When I worked in New York there was a small store that carried chocolate covered roaches, (the bug), grasshoppers and other things that were disgusting.....

People eat ****ing cows which are pumped full of steriods and other ****. Pigs are no better (somone already brought up this point... good on you for using your brain!!). I

Western worlders are so square. Accustomed to what they've done all their lives. Personally, I think it's just as sick to eat what you'd pick up at McDonalds/McSh**s any day of the week

Hellooo vegetarianism...