Food Detective: In defense of bug-eating

Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, guess I'll go eat worms."

This refrain from a familiar child's song, sung to the tune of "Polly Wolly Doodle," sums up the attitude of many Americans toward eating things that creep and crawl.

Thing is, from the perspective of the rest of the world, we who are repulsed by insect eating, also known as entomophagy, are the odd ones.

Insects are honored and cherished food in such places as Mexico, where I've sampled tacos filled with chapulines (grasshoppers), and in Southeast Asia, where some insects sold as street food are big enough to be eaten with a knife and fork.

In Chicago, eating a bug will attract some attention (though maybe not the kind you want). During the cicada infestation of 2007, I randomly posted on Yelp that a friend and I were thinking of developing recipes for these insects. Within about 48 hours, I was on "Good Morning, America" talking about bug eating. Shortly thereafter, we were on Channel 11's "Chicago Tonight," preparing fried cicadas on celery with jam and on endive with chevre.

In the United States, bug eating seems newsworthy. In other parts of the world, bugs may be nothing more than what's for dinner.

If you're revolted at the thought of scarfing down a beetle or centipede, consider this: The Food and Drug Administration allows a certain quantity of insect parts in our food.

These "food defect action levels" are allowed because, according to the FDA, further reducing the levels would require "increased utilization of chemical substances to control insects." So which would you rather consume: insects or potentially toxic chemicals?

Compared to red meat, insects also might be the most environmentally responsible choice.

At the University of Chicago, students calling themselves Team Entom recently were awarded a $10,000 prize for answering the challenge to develop a business plan for a product that would have "a positive social impact."

The students' plan was to introduce insects as viable menu items because, as they wrote in their proposal, "meat consumption is extremely environmentally costly" and inefficient. It takes 10 grams of feed to produce 1 gram of beef. Those same 10 grams of feed, the students argued, could produce 9 grams of edible insect meat.

The U. of C. team also reported that insect meat might be a little healthier than animal meat, with "the same amount of protein, iron and calcium and calories as beef ... but less saturated fat."

So the next time you step on a worm or swat an insect, consider this: You might be wasting food.