How many insects you go need to eat to replace chicken, pork or beef?
Dem call am entomophagy wey be di practice of eating insects, either by humans or oda animals.
E fit dey unusual for some kontris, but dis nutritional option dey gain popularity.
Certain eating traditions, such as dose from Thailand, China and Mexico, don incorporate dem into dia recipes for centuries.
Helping to fight hunger
Since 2014, wen di Food and Agriculture Organization of di United Nations (FAO) publish di book "Edible insects, future prospects for food and feed security", discussion of to dey chop insect don wake again.
Various studies don contribute to di debate, wey indicate say insect farming get a lower environmental impact dan di production of cow, pig and chicken meat.
For example, for 1 kilo of edible chicken meat, 4.5 kilos of CO₂ equivalent dey emitted (dis na measure wey dem dey use to compare di emissions of several greenhouse gases, wey go convert dem to dia carbon dioxide equivalent), while 1 kilo of edible mealworm generates 2.8 kilos of CO₂ equivalent.
Added to dis na di low water consumption and land use.
Wit regard to di use of land, 1 kilo of chicken meat use 12.48 square meters of soil, compared to di 3.07 square meters needed to produce 1 kilo of darkling beetle.
Using data from 2021, e dey estimated say a healthy diet cost 3.66 US dollars (around 2,100 CFA francs) per person per day wey mean say 42.2% of di world population fit no get access to am.
For dis context, di consumption of edible insects fit become a solution and reduce hunger through self-consumption systems wia infrastructure and production costs dey easier to cover.
Howeva, to dey use insects as an ingredient remain a challenge for many crops.
High protein content
Worldwide, dem dey chop around 2,250 species of insects and spiders including beetles, butterflies, wasps and bees.
For Europe, legislation allow di production of four species for human consumption: mealworm larvae (Tenebrio molitor), migratory grasshopper (Locusta migratoria), house cricket (Acheta domesticus) and dung beetle larvae (Alphitobius diaperinus), wey contain 53.2%, 56.8%, 62.6% and 50.79% protein by dry weight respectively.
Sake of comparison, di protein content of beef, pork and chicken na 24.1%, 22.2% and 21% respectively.
So how many insects you go need to replace meat? Although e no dey not easy to calculate, make we use simple terms explain am.
Di Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) suggest 0.83 grams of protein per kilo of body weight per day. In oda words, a 70-kg pesin go need to consume 58.1 grams of protein per day.
If we do di math, a pesin wey get a body mass index between 18.5 and 24.9 and weighing 70 kilos go need to eat 277 grams of beef against 93 grams of dried cricket, if na dia only sources of protein.
Anoda example na for a pesin wey weigh 80 kilos, di recommended daily intake go be 276 grams of chicken versus 131 grams of dried lobster.
If oda protein sources dey available, such as milk, eggs, fish and legumes, to dey chop insect go need adjustment.
And here, e dey needed to rememba di need to combine various food groups (fruit, vegetables, cereals, fish, etc.) and nutrients (healthy fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, etc.) to achieve healthy diet.
Healthy and sustainable food
To conclude, to meet protein needs requires less food if we get am from insects.
Micro-farming get environmental benefits and lower investment compared to industrial farming.
E dey important to point out say animal exploitation dey higher for di case of insects (from 70% to 100%), compared to fish (65%), chicken and pork (55%), and cattle (between 40% and 50%).
In addition, insects contain about 60% monounsaturated fatty acids, wey make am cardio-healthy eating option.
If we focus on di sensory aspect, e dey possible to combine di flavors wit many well-known and accepted Western ingredients, such as pumpkin seeds, pine nuts, chicken, shrimp powder, caviar, and avocado, among odas.
Foods wit edible insects not only provide a sense of belonging to dose wey dey eat am in di traditional way, dem also get di capacity to provide a unique eating experience and a nutritious one.
* Edgar Pulido Chávez is a research professor for di Center for Agriculture, Food and Climate Crisis Studies, University of Guadalajara; Alejandro Corona Mariscal na doctoral student for di Polytechnic University of València.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
9 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Scientists reveal 'death date' of the universe is sooner than previously believed
The universe will not last forever. In fact, scientists have revealed that its lifespan is almost half over already. A team from the US and China have discovered that our universe will reach its 'death date' and stop expanding when it turns 33.3 billion years old. Since the universe is estimated to be roughly 13.8 billion years old right now, that leaves just over 19 billion years to go before everything ends in what scientists call a 'Big Crunch.' While the universe has been expanding outward since the Big Bang, the massive explosion believed to have kickstarted everything in existence, the big crunch would be the reverse - where all matter collapses back into a single point of energy. Researchers from New York's Cornell University and China's Shanghai Jiao Tong University created a new cosmic model that suggests dark energy, the force believed to be driving the universe's expansion, will weaken over time and succumb to gravity. Scientists are still trying to prove that dark energy actually exists, but they believe it acts like a repulsive force, counteracting gravity's desire to pull everything together. If dark energy finally fades after 33.3 billion years, as proposed in the new study, gravity from all the stars, galaxies, and black holes would essentially force the universe to cave in under its own weight. This updated model of the universe now provides a much shorter timeline for our existence, which previous theories suggested might keep going without any limitations. While dark matter is a type of matter which can't be observed or seen, dark energy is a type of energy which doesn't interact in a normal way with matter. Scientists have proposed that these two things might make up the vast majority of the universe NASA's Chelsea Gohd explained in a statement: 'What exactly is dark energy? The short answer is: We don't know. But we do know that it exists, it's making the universe expand at an accelerating rate, and approximately 68.3 to 70 percent of the universe is dark energy.' In the new study, scientists focused on the role of dark energy in this process, using a model called the axion Dark Energy (aDE) model to interpret recent data suggesting that dark energy behaves differently than previously thought. Scientists believed dark energy was a cosmological constant, a fixed, unchanging energy density driving the universe's accelerated expansion indefinitely. This includes a recent study from 2020 in Astronomy & Astrophysics which concluded that the universe's dark energy has a positive cosmological constant, meaning its value never drops off and keeps allowing the universe to grow. However, the new aDE model found dark energy may actually have a negative cosmological constant of around -1.61, which suggests the universe could eventually reach a maximum size and then collapse in a Big Crunch. 'The age of our universe is of foundational importance in cosmology. Since the establishment of the Big Bang Theory, we know it is finite,' the researchers wrote on the pre-print server Arxiv. 'Using the best-fit values of the model as a benchmark, we find the lifespan of our universe to be 33 billion years,' they added in the study submitted for publication in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. The researchers analyzed recent data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). These projects studied how fast the universe is expanding by looking at things like exploding stars (supernovae) and the way galaxies are spread out. The data revealed that dark energy might not be as steady as several previous studies previously concluded. Study authors used the aDE model, which includes a cosmological constant (a value that affects how the universe expands or contracts) and an ultra-light particle called an axion. By fitting this model to the data, they estimated key values, like the cosmological constant and the equation of state (a measure of dark energy's behavior). They then used these values to predict the universe's future, calculating when it might stop expanding and collapse. Unlike standard models which assumed that dark energy is fixed, this model allowed dark energy to weaken over time as the axion field evolves. An axion field is like an invisible, super-light energy wave that spreads throughout the entire universe, kind of like ripples on a pond but existing everywhere in space. Allowing dark energy to be flexible in this way revealed that this repulsive force could have a 'best-fit value' which is negative, meaning it'll fade away as more time since the Big Bang passes. There's still a lot of uncertainty concerning the end of the universe as we know it. For one, scientists still don't even know what dark energy really is. NASA has come up with four theories about this invisible force that could be holding back the end of time. One possibility is that it's vacuum energy, a constant background energy in space tied to Albert Einstein's cosmological constant. The theory pushes the universe to expand faster but has created a puzzle for modern scientists because its predicted strength doesn't match newer observations. Dark energy could be a changing energy field or fluid, nicknamed quintessence, that fills space and acts opposite to normal matter, varying across time and space to drive the universe's accelerated expansion. NASA has also speculated that dark energy might come from defects in the universe's fabric, like hypothetical one-dimensional 'wrinkles' called cosmic strings, formed when the universe was young, pushing space outward. However, researchers suggest it could be explained by a flaw in Einstein's theory of gravity, meaning the universe's expansion does not rely on dark energy at all.
The Independent
13 hours ago
- The Independent
How mice are helping detect early signs of Parkinson's
Chinese scientists have identified subtle new early signs of Parkinson's disease in mice, potentially enabling much earlier diagnosis in humans. Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences found that behaviours such as rearing, walking, and hunching in mice are linked to Parkinson's and the loss of specific midbrain dopamine neurons. The study revealed that reductions in rearing and hunching correlate directly with the loss of dopamine neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc), a midbrain region. An advanced artificial intelligence behaviour analysis system was employed to meticulously examine the movements of mouse models with dopamine neuron depletion. These findings underscore the potential for monitoring such subtle behaviours as early markers to track Parkinson's progression and improve treatment strategies.
The Independent
14 hours ago
- The Independent
Breakthrough study finds subtle new early symptoms of Parkinson's to watch out for
Chinese scientists have discovered subtle new earlier signs of Parkinson's in mice, an advance that may help diagnose the debilitating condition much sooner in humans. Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences found that behaviours such as rearing, walking, and hunching in mice, associated with the loss of a specific type of midbrain dopamine (DA) neurons, are linked to Parkinson's disease. The earliest known signs of Parkinson's can include pain, anxiety, balance issues, stiffness, loss of smell, sleep problems and depression. Other signs like tremors, handwriting changes, and diminished facial expressions, appear later as the disease progresses. Gradually, patients may experience severe movement issues, highlighting the importance of early diagnosis and treatment for the condition. Until now, research has mostly focused on the functions of the DA neurons in mood regulation and reward mechanisms. These nerve cells are located in the midbrain regions substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) and the ventral tegmental area (VTA), are essential for regulating movement, emotion, and reward processing But the roles of the DA neurons in more subtle and spontaneous behaviours remain poorly understood, scientists say. In the latest study, researchers discovered that behaviours like rearing and hunching are associated with the loss of one type of SNc DA neurons, but not those in VTA. These subtle behaviours could serve as key markers of SNc DA neuron loss, and enhance our understanding of Parkinson's, the study found. Scientists used an advanced artificial intelligence behaviour analysis system to examine the movement of two mouse models with a dopamine neuron depletion. Using this approach, researchers could capture detailed and nuanced behavioural features that traditional methods may overlook. The study found reductions in rearing and hunching behaviour in the PD model, which correlates directly with the loss of DA neurons in the SNc but not the VTA. Another behaviour in the mouse models called climbing, which is similar to rearing, was also found to be strongly linked to the loss of DA neurons in the midbrain's SNc area. The findings underscore the need for monitoring rearing behaviour as potential behavioural markers in tracking the progression of Parkinson's disease, scientists say. "Connecting behavioural changes with targeted neural damage advances the understanding of PD progression and offers valuable insights into improving treatment strategies," said Xuemei Liu, an author of the study from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
