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Why You Need To Eat Bugs (And Get Over The 'Ick' Factor)

Flickr Creative Commons, Tim Brown Architecture

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John the Baptist, we are told, subsisted on locusts and honey. I used to think that John the Baptist's would be a great name for a chain of fast food edible insect restaurants, if that trend ever took off.

Come to find out, there's some disagreement, especially online, about whether he really ate locusts or whether that's a reference to the fruit of the locust tree. Maybe people just don't like to think about John the Baptist eating bugs.

 
But most of the world eats bugs. Europe and North America are kind of unusual in having no real bug eating tradition, although if you go far back enough, Native American people did. Of course, you do eat bugs. The FDA standard for the amount of insects and insect parts that can be in your packaged food is never zero. There are indeed some persuasive arguments for making insects a bigger part of our diet.

 
We'll unpack some of those arguments today. And tell you why eating insects needn't be as gross as you think.

 
You can join the conversation. E-mail colin@wnpr.org or Tweet us @wnprcolin.

Colin McEnroe is a radio host, newspaper columnist, magazine writer, author, playwright, lecturer, moderator, college instructor and occasional singer. Colin can be reached at colin@ctpublic.org.

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