In order to solve the food crisis and save limited natural resources, many experts are studying the use of nutritious insects as the source of human food in the future. FAO is also studying the feasibility of using insects as an alternative food source.
It is estimated that the number of insects on the earth is ten thousand times that of human beings. Humans eat more than 1400 kinds of insects, including ants, crickets, caterpillars, locusts, moths, cockroaches and so on. In some remote areas of Africa and Asia, insects are also the main food source for local villagers.
Insects can provide people with high protein, low fat, low cholesterol and advanced nutrients rich in vitamins and certain minerals. Moreover, the unique nutrients of many insects are easily digested and absorbed by the human body. For example, termites are rich in protein and fat, and also contain 8 kinds of amino acids, trace elements, vitamins and physiologically active substances necessary for human body; Earthworms contain 72% crude protein besides amino acids, which is higher than fish, soybean and meat and bone meal. Its superoxide dismutase (SOD) substance can remove the free radicals produced in the aging process of human cells, prevent and treat cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, and make contributions to human beauty.
A research report published by the Institute of Biology of National Autonomous University of Mexico also shows that adding edible insects to the daily diet can not only make up for the malnutrition of ordinary food, avoid malnutrition, but also prevent gastrointestinal diseases.
Fuentes, a senior chef who is interested in cooking insect dishes, points out that insect food is more easily digested and absorbed by human body than meat. It takes 3-4 hours for human body to digest 1 pound of tenderloin, but it takes less than 1 hour to digest 1 pound of locusts.
Glasser, an American who actively advocates eating insect food, said that at present, the world is facing a shortage of drinking water and other resources, and it takes a lot of resources to raise cattle, pigs and other livestock. Therefore, people should realize that this way of producing food is unsustainable. Using insects to produce 1kg animal protein saves a lot of resources, space and time compared with beef.
The development of insect food has attracted people's attention. Some countries are studying, screening and cultivating some insect foods with high nutritional value as supplementary sources of human food. It is said that insect food has formed a huge industrial scale in some countries and regions such as the United States, Japan and Western Europe. American biologists are developing thousands of insect extracts to treat AIDS, cancer and various chronic, difficult and infectious diseases.
The way people eat insects has also changed greatly: from protozoan cooked food to making insect nutrition products, and then to extracting beneficial ingredients from insects through scientific and technological means and processing them into insect health care products and medicines. No matter how to change the way, people's purpose is to find ways to fully obtain the nutritional value of insects.
In addition, it is worth pointing out that protecting insect diversity is an important part of protecting biodiversity. Insects are food provided by nature to human beings, but people should constantly study and understand insects in order to make full use of this green, environmentally friendly, safe, nutritious and inexhaustible resource. In addition, aquatic insects also plays an important role in water environment monitoring, water environment protection and biological control, so we should redouble our efforts to protect and make good use of insect resources so that they can be used permanently.