We all know what our body seeks in food: carbohydrates, protein, fat, minerals and vitamins. The good news is that edible insects have them all!
So all insects are good?
Well, the answer is no.
There are more than 900 thousand species of insects, but this doesn’t mean we can eat them all, like we wouldn’t eat all the kinds of mushrooms or all the types of berries: some are edible, some are not, some taste good, some don’t.
At least 2000 species of insects have been proven to be edible and extremely nutrient; this is not a surprise as they have been traditionally consumed in many parts of the world.
Insects are all different and so it’s their taste and their nutritional value, in the same way in which beef and pork are similar but not identical.
So it’s not possible to speak about the nutritional value of THE insects: every insect species will have its own, which will change according to the life stage and the diet of the animal.
Anyway we can say that in general insects have a high percentage of protein, followed by a variable amount of fat, carbohydrates and fibers. Insects provide also vitamins and minerals.
Due to their high quantity of protein, they are considered a protein food, and thus they are usually compared with meat, fish, dairy, eggs, pulses.
As you can see on the table, the composition of insects is as good as, if not better than, the other protein food.
In the following weeks we are going to speak about every single nutrient; guess which one will be the first?
