Pest-O Pizza: The Benefits of Eating Insects

In our recent Pest of the Month post, we talked about how some folks in China eat cockroaches as well as using them for medicinal uses. It sounds like a scene from an Indiana Jones movie, but in other parts of the world, insects are often eaten – even considered a delicacy. We shouldn’t be surprised. Here in the United States, we eat snails (escargot), pig intestines (pork rinds or chitlins), crawfish (gumbo), Rocky Mountain Oysters (Google it), Scrapple, and pickled pigs feet. And that’s not even counting the foods we’re not even sure are foods, like Twinkies. Believe it or not, Entomophagists (people who regularly eat bugs) say that ants, termites, and wasps have a particularly tasty flavor...who knew? One of the biggest arguments for coordinating your own bug buffet is that they’re packed with protein, not to mention healthy fats, vitamins, and minerals. Sure you have to eat a lot more, but as you can see on the graphic to the left, insects have two to four times as much protein per 100 grams. And there are 1900 varieties of edible insects, so there are plenty of flavors to choose from.   They’re also a healthy and eco-friendly option – cultivating and harvesting insects for food requires less land, water and plants for food. They also release less greenhouse gasses, lower levels of ammonia, and are, well, fully biodegradable. And with a worldwide protein shortage looming, the US might soon be forced to join the nearly 2-billion other people in the world eating insects on a regular basis. In fact, there are already restaurants where you can grab literal grub in – you guessed it, New York and LA. But since you’re on the Gulf Coast of Florida, we thought we’d share some great recipes that utilize insect as ingredients, including our favorite (by name anyway): Pest-O Pizza. Don’t miss out, you could be the first family on your block to start the Entomophagic revolution! Of course, we wouldn’t blame you if you don’t want to be that family. If you’d rather us just keep the insects, dead and alive, out of your house and you live somewhere between Apollo Beach and Punta Gorda, give us a call!