Eat Zee Bugs

[vickieito]

4 hours ago, meldawn9 said:

Yes, I know I may inadvertently be eating bugs in fruit or veggies.

@meldawn9 - I'm pretty sure I eat a lot of bugs in my sleep!

Here are fun FAQs (with sources) from Calendar Canada!

How many bugs do you eat when sleeping?

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There is no question that we eat several bugs a year in our sleep--millions if you include bugs that are smaller than 20 microns (such as dust mites). The good news is that spiders are too smart to crawl into your mouth and get eaten.

How many bugs does the average person eat accidentally each year?

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You eat an average of one to two pounds of flies, maggots, and other bugs each year without even knowing it, according to the Scientific American blog. But don't panic—they are perfectly safe to consume.

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A new study from an insect control company estimated that we eat, on average, 140,000 'bug bits' every year. Mealworm, maggot, and roach pieces are found in everyday foods like chocolate, coffee, and wheat flour.

Fortunately those bugs don't suffer when we inadvertently consume them!

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As far as entomologists are concerned, insects do not have pain receptors the way vertebrates do. They don't feel 'pain,' but may feel irritation and probably can sense if they are damaged. Even so, they certainly cannot suffer because they don't have emotions.

https://www.calendar-canada.ca/faq/how-many-bugs-do-you-eat-while-sleeping

[mandyzines]

On 1/30/2023 at 11:32 AM, vickieito said:

Not exactly. In studies taken on plants grown in uncontaminated soils, levels of toxic heavy metals were found to exceed the allowable limits of Prop 65 by roughly 10 times. Most people won't be doing heavy metal testing on the soil that they use for gardening (or study the environmental factors that may affect the composition of their soils).

Here's what I had to include on the labels for the dietary supplement products that I was developing:

I'm all for growing your own foods. But if you really want to know what's in your food, you'd have to test it.

My parents own an organic aquaponics farm, which is even better because the plants aren't grown in soil that's affected by a number of environmental factors. They have a lot of control over what the plants are grown in and the nutritional composition of the water because they control the feed of the fish in that system.

However, it is extremely expensive to maintain with all the testing, monitoring, and systems needed to run the farm and maintain the organic certification. It's only a a small backyard farm. Even selling lettuce for $16/lb didn't cover all the costs for maintaining the farm.  They will be shutting down the farm this year, which is sad because their lettuce always sold out within a few hours of being on the shelf and nothing compares to the taste of that lettuce!

Personally (not as a food scientist), I really don't care too much about what I'm eating as long as it tastes good. Once I was fed Rocky Mountain Oysters without knowing what it was. I just thought it was really chewy pieces of fried chicken. 😊 Traditional Eskimo ice cream (akutaq) is really just fat and berries ...I think it was seal fat in the olden days, but they use a tub of shortening now.

I think bugs are a great source of protein and silkworm pupae look like they would be great to add in stir fry because there's less prep involved (like when you have to cut up chicken)!

Komohana will test soil for a nominal fee. They have a lot of free documentation for all things ag in the state, including plants used for phytoremediation. 

[vickieito]

10 minutes ago, mandyzines said:

Komohana will test soil for a nominal fee. They have a lot of free documentation for all things ag in the state, including plants used for phytoremediation. 

That's good to know! Thanks, @mandyzines! Are you currently running tests on your plants or soils? It sounds like you are more of a food scientist than I am. I mostly eat. 😂

[vickieito]

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[mandyzines]

10 minutes ago, vickieito said:

That's good to know! Thanks, @mandyzines! Are you currently running tests on your plants or soils? It sounds like you are more of a food scientist than I am. I mostly eat. 😂

 

My degree is in ag and forest conservation and even though I haven't done much ag related in a while there are things that I still remember. I have a container garden. :)

[breals]

19 hours ago, kendal1747 said:

I like chicken liver, especially fried with onion and breaded. 

It sounds like something like Hannibal Lecter said to Clarice! in the prison cellar   🙂

I'm sure it tastes lovely though

[kendal1747]

1 hour ago, breals said:

It sounds like something like Hannibal Lecter said to Clarice! in the prison cellar   🙂

I'm sure it tastes lovely though

Yes, they are good even though a lot of people snub their noses at them. Liver is very healthy. As far a Hannibal goes, he said that a census taker once tried to test me." I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti". This guy is so gruesome. 

[catwriter]

2 minutes ago, kendal1747 said:

Liver is very healthy

It's super-healthy...and I've never been able to stand it. I hate both the taste and the smell.

[kendal1747]

15 hours ago, vickieito said:

Quote

A new study from an insect control company estimated that we eat, on average, 140,000 'bug bits' every year. Mealworm, maggot, and roach pieces are found in everyday foods like chocolate, coffee, and wheat flour.

 

Yes, the FDA in the US allows somewhere around 12% bugs for every 50 pounds of wheat flour. Not sure if that is exactly right, but should be close. It has been awhile since I have been on my farm. If you think about it, you can't stop a lot bugs from flying into the combine that is harvesting the wheat or corn or whatever. So they have to allow for this. My farm in Tennessee was organic. It took 3 years of no spraying or any kind of chemical usage. You have to feed all your animals organic feed and it is very expensive. 

[kendal1747]

4 minutes ago, catwriter said:

It's super-healthy...and I've never been able to stand it. I hate both the taste and the smell.

I use to be the same way. Until my mother fried it with onions. She cut it up into very small bits and rolled it in flour. I got over the taste and love it now. 

[newsmike]

20 hours ago, meldawn9 said:

(Yes, I know I may inadvertently be eating bugs in fruit or veggies.)

Even worse is "natural flavors"  Some awful stuff is allowed under that term, but my favorite is:

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/disgusting-natural-ingredients-food-2017-2?op=1#an-essence-derived-from-beaver-anal-glands-is-responsible-for-some-sweet-flavours-in-foods-like-ice-cream-3

[kendal1747]

Funny that you should mention beavers. It seems that the farmers are in an all out war against beavers in this area that I live. When they build their dams, it causes flooding in the cultivated areas. Instead of killing them, I think they should relocate them in a different area of the country. This seems so harsh.