The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization released a report Tuesday urging people to eat insects as they are beneficial for health and even help fight obesity.
Just touching an insect gives most people the creeps; eating one is way out of the question. However, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has released a report suggesting supplementing some regular foods with insects can actually prove to be beneficial to a person's health.
Some cultures have a regular diet of insects and it is believed that they help in fighting obesity.
The UN reveals that over 2 million people worldwide already consume insects on a daily basis but in most western countries it is still termed as "disgusting."
"In the West we have a cultural bias, and think that because insects come from developing countries, they cannot be good," said scientist Arnold van Huis from Wageningen University in the Netherlands, one of the authors of the report.
More than 1,900 species of insects are consumed worldwide and some of them are said to contain as much protein as there is in meat. Most doctors also recommend these insects as part of a balanced diet, reports Reuters.
According to a BBC report, eating insects is particularly good for undernourished children as it has very high protein, fat and mineral content. The UN report also urges restaurants to add insect based dishes to their menus and promote them as delicacies. Some regions already offer the same. For example, in Southern Africa, caterpillars are considered a delicacy and related dishes are priced very high.
Insect eating also has some environmental benefits. Firstly it helps curb pollution. Also insects are "extremely efficient" in changing feed into edible meat. They also produce fewer greenhouse gases that damage the environment.
According to the report, "The ammonia emissions associated with insect-rearing are far lower than those linked to conventional livestock such as pigs."
