Insects Consumption Could Help To Combat Obesity And Curb World Hunger - UN

Just the thoughts of eating animals of class Insecta could give you the creeps, but the author of the United Nation published today proposed the health benefit of consuming nutritious  insects could help to combat obesity and curtail world hunger.

More than 1,900 species of insect are eaten around the world, mainly in Africa and Asia, but people in the West generally turn their Noses at the likes of grasshopper, termite and other crunchy fare.

The author of the study by the forestry Department, part of the UN. Food and Agriculture Organization, said many insects contained the same amount of protein and minerals as meat and more healthy fats doctors recommend for a balance diet.

" In the West we have a cultural bias and think that because insect come from developing countries, they cannot be good enough for food", said scientist Arnold Van Huis from Wageningen Univeristy in the Netherland, one of the authors of the report.

Eva Muller of the FAO said; restaurants in Europe were starting to offer insect-based dishes, presenting them to diners as exotic delicacies

Take for instance, Danish restaurant Noma situated in Denmark, crowned the world best for three years running in one poll, is renowned for ingredients including ants and fermented grasshoppers.

These as well helps in the costly battle against obesity, which the World Health Organization estimate has nearly doubled since 1980 and affects around 500 million people, the report said insect farming was likely to be less-dependent than traditional livestock and produce fewer greenhouse gases

It would also provide business and export opportunity for poor people in developing countries, especially women, who are often responsible for collecting insects in rural communities.

Van Huis said barriers to enjoying dishes such as bee larvae yoghurt were psychological - in a blind test carried out by his team, nine out of 10 people preferred meatballs made from roughly half meat and half mealworms as opposed to those made from meat alone.

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