7 ms·

I don't know how common my sentiment is, but I'd be far more inclined to eat crickets than cockroaches. I psychologically associate roaches with disease. Cricke

by rob05c 13y ago

I don't know how common my sentiment is, but I'd be far more inclined to eat crickets than cockroaches. I psychologically associate roaches with disease. Crickets are just another insect. I realize this is irrational, and that fauna which feed on garbage like rats and roaches can be farm-raised in sanitary conditions. I'm still not going to eat a roach.

31reasons 13y ago
I don't know how common my sentiment is, but I would stay the hell away from anything related to insects for purely psychological reasons.
- kseistrup 13y ago
  That's simply because of our culture. Some years ago I was offered fried grasshoppers and ants in Zambia and my initial reation was repulsion. Then a thought similar to the last sentence in the cockroach article went through my mind: »You will regret your whole life not trying them.« Turned out the hoppers and the ants were both delicious.
  - riffraff 13y ago
    I think that was the point of the comment: I would stay away from it because of my culture. Now, technically I wouldn't, but I grew up considering, slugs, frogs, hedgehogs, rabbits and mixed small birds as great food. No bugs. Yet, even though I tried bugs, I wouldn't want to eat them daily. If you can eat something once, the "cool story bro" mechanics kick in, but it's not the same as accepting something as integral part of your diet.
    - Ygg2 13y ago
      Ughh, frogs are too bony. Never eaten a rabbit, but would stay off it for cuteness reasons.
      - riffraff 13y ago
        I assumed rabbit was as common a food as chicken until I moved to Ireland and realized it was basically impossible to find.
        RyanMcGreal 13y ago
        In southern Ontario, rabbit is pretty much a niche food for upscale dining. I must admit my taste for braised rabbit increased quite a bit after I started gardening and had to contend with rabbits clearcutting my greens.
        celticninja 13y ago
        impossible to find in ireland? I have shot and eaten rabbit in ireland. interesting fact: you can starve if your diet only consists of eating rabbit
        riffraff 13y ago
        I was referring to finding it in supermarkets and the likes. They may be there, I couldn't find them.
        inthewind 13y ago
        In the UK they have seen a resurgence (rabbit) in the supermarket last few months.
      - PeterisP 13y ago
        Rabbit is good food, though a bit on the expensive side. We're sometimes giving it to kids, as it's supposed to be healthier for very young kids than, say, beef with all the antibiotics and stuff. And regarding cuteness - around here in farmers markets they are sold with the furry feet attached; It's a tradition so that people know that they're not getting cheated and getting a cat instead, but if cuteness matters then the sight might be a bit harsh :)
    - kseistrup 13y ago
      Sure, I was just being explicit.
    - inthewind 13y ago
      Isn't it healthier/better to eat herbivores? From my experience you can pretty much teach your pallette to like foods. I didn't like green tea, olives or whisky the first time I tried them. Now I love them.
  - rthomas6 13y ago
    But anything fried is good. Eating steamed or baked grasshoppers would be the real test.
- Amadou 13y ago
  Until maybe a decade ago, the most common source of red food dye was ground up cochineal bugs which look like ticks. Even today, if the food claims to be made from all natural ingredients, any red coloring is bugs rather than something from a lab. http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/bugjuice.asp http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/bugjuice.asp
  - AlisdairO 13y ago
    > To prepare carmine, the powdered scale insect bodies are boiled in ammonia or a sodium carbonate solution, the insoluble matter is removed by filtering, and alum is added to the clear salt solution of carminic acid to precipitate the red aluminium salt, called "carmine lake" or "crimson lake." Seems a stretch of the word 'natural' to me :-)
  - mcguire 13y ago
    Ahem: shellac.[1] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shellac#Current http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shellac#Current
- nodata 13y ago
  powder is clever: I know lots of people who don't like eating meat if it looks like an animal.
  - inthewind 13y ago
    Yeah or you could always use this as animal feed.
    - nodata 13y ago
      Is the protein part in existing feed the reason why such crap is fed to animals?
      - inthewind 13y ago
        I have no idea. But animal feed in the UK used to be poorly regulated until the BSE scandal. Where it transpired that cattle offal was being fed back to cattle. I couldn't quite get why a ruminent herbivore was being fed meat in the first place. But it seems they were being fed loads of crap. I remember reading that even cement dust was being used to give them more weight. There was a recent TV program that was trying to push for waste foods like canteen waste to be fed to pigs - but the regulation was so tight it wasn't possible. Clean regulated insect feeds could help there (maybe..)
sliverstorm 13y ago
I also wonder if crickets or grasshoppers wouldn't be more efficient, being less chitinous?
- shubb 13y ago
  If this takes off, it will be interesting to see what the shells are used for. Could they become a fuel, building material, or fertilizer? Food production is pretty good at avoiding waste.
ekianjo 13y ago
Would you feel the same if they make "insect butter" instead of selling fried roaches ? I guess most of the psychological repulsion comes from the appearance...
- MarkTee 13y ago
  For me it was the texture; I've tried chocolate covered crickets and they were like nothing I've ever ate before. I have no problem with eating insects as long as the finished product doesn't leave insect grits in my teeth for hours after a meal.
  - ekianjo 13y ago
    > I've tried chocolate covered crickets and they were like nothing I've ever ate before. Can you describe what it was like ? By the way, I wonder if there are people who feel the same level of disgust when eating shrimps. Shrimps are not insects per se, but it's not very far from that either, and most people consider them to be a delicacy and have no problem eating them... Related XKCD : http://xkcd.com/1268/ http://xkcd.com/1268/
    - TeMPOraL 13y ago
      RE shrimps, that's how I feel. I never ate them, and I feel a strong repulsion towards even trying.
    - viraptor 13y ago
      > who feel the same level of disgust when eating shrimps Yes. I forced myself to try and they don't taste bad at all, but I will not get close to them again. They'd be quite close to spiders if I had to order potential food by how repulsive it looks.
      - JoeAltmaier 13y ago
        All belong to the family of 'things with way more legs than necessary' to quote Dave Barry.
stcredzero 13y ago
> I psychologically associate roaches with disease. Crickets are just another insect. To my generation, not just another insect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cricket_in_Times_Square http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cricket_in_Times_Square

by rob05c 13y ago

31reasons 13y ago

I don't know how common my sentiment is, but I would stay the hell away from anything related to insects for purely psychological reasons.

kseistrup 13y ago
That's simply because of our culture. Some years ago I was offered fried grasshoppers and ants in Zambia and my initial reation was repulsion. Then a thought similar to the last sentence in the cockroach article went through my mind: »You will regret your whole life not trying them.« Turned out the hoppers and the ants were both delicious.
- riffraff 13y ago
  I think that was the point of the comment: I would stay away from it because of my culture. Now, technically I wouldn't, but I grew up considering, slugs, frogs, hedgehogs, rabbits and mixed small birds as great food. No bugs. Yet, even though I tried bugs, I wouldn't want to eat them daily. If you can eat something once, the "cool story bro" mechanics kick in, but it's not the same as accepting something as integral part of your diet.
  - Ygg2 13y ago
    Ughh, frogs are too bony. Never eaten a rabbit, but would stay off it for cuteness reasons.
    - riffraff 13y ago
      I assumed rabbit was as common a food as chicken until I moved to Ireland and realized it was basically impossible to find.
      - RyanMcGreal 13y ago
        In southern Ontario, rabbit is pretty much a niche food for upscale dining. I must admit my taste for braised rabbit increased quite a bit after I started gardening and had to contend with rabbits clearcutting my greens.
      - celticninja 13y ago
        impossible to find in ireland? I have shot and eaten rabbit in ireland. interesting fact: you can starve if your diet only consists of eating rabbit
        riffraff 13y ago
        I was referring to finding it in supermarkets and the likes. They may be there, I couldn't find them.
        inthewind 13y ago
        In the UK they have seen a resurgence (rabbit) in the supermarket last few months.
    - PeterisP 13y ago
      Rabbit is good food, though a bit on the expensive side. We're sometimes giving it to kids, as it's supposed to be healthier for very young kids than, say, beef with all the antibiotics and stuff. And regarding cuteness - around here in farmers markets they are sold with the furry feet attached; It's a tradition so that people know that they're not getting cheated and getting a cat instead, but if cuteness matters then the sight might be a bit harsh :)
  - kseistrup 13y ago
    Sure, I was just being explicit.
  - inthewind 13y ago
    Isn't it healthier/better to eat herbivores? From my experience you can pretty much teach your pallette to like foods. I didn't like green tea, olives or whisky the first time I tried them. Now I love them.
- rthomas6 13y ago
  But anything fried is good. Eating steamed or baked grasshoppers would be the real test.
Amadou 13y ago
Until maybe a decade ago, the most common source of red food dye was ground up cochineal bugs which look like ticks. Even today, if the food claims to be made from all natural ingredients, any red coloring is bugs rather than something from a lab. http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/bugjuice.asp http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/bugjuice.asp
- AlisdairO 13y ago
  > To prepare carmine, the powdered scale insect bodies are boiled in ammonia or a sodium carbonate solution, the insoluble matter is removed by filtering, and alum is added to the clear salt solution of carminic acid to precipitate the red aluminium salt, called "carmine lake" or "crimson lake." Seems a stretch of the word 'natural' to me :-)
- mcguire 13y ago
  Ahem: shellac.[1] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shellac#Current http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shellac#Current
nodata 13y ago
powder is clever: I know lots of people who don't like eating meat if it looks like an animal.
- inthewind 13y ago
  Yeah or you could always use this as animal feed.
  - nodata 13y ago
    Is the protein part in existing feed the reason why such crap is fed to animals?
    - inthewind 13y ago
      I have no idea. But animal feed in the UK used to be poorly regulated until the BSE scandal. Where it transpired that cattle offal was being fed back to cattle. I couldn't quite get why a ruminent herbivore was being fed meat in the first place. But it seems they were being fed loads of crap. I remember reading that even cement dust was being used to give them more weight. There was a recent TV program that was trying to push for waste foods like canteen waste to be fed to pigs - but the regulation was so tight it wasn't possible. Clean regulated insect feeds could help there (maybe..)

sliverstorm 13y ago

I also wonder if crickets or grasshoppers wouldn't be more efficient, being less chitinous?

shubb 13y ago
If this takes off, it will be interesting to see what the shells are used for. Could they become a fuel, building material, or fertilizer? Food production is pretty good at avoiding waste.

ekianjo 13y ago

Would you feel the same if they make "insect butter" instead of selling fried roaches ? I guess most of the psychological repulsion comes from the appearance...

MarkTee 13y ago
For me it was the texture; I've tried chocolate covered crickets and they were like nothing I've ever ate before. I have no problem with eating insects as long as the finished product doesn't leave insect grits in my teeth for hours after a meal.
- ekianjo 13y ago
  > I've tried chocolate covered crickets and they were like nothing I've ever ate before. Can you describe what it was like ? By the way, I wonder if there are people who feel the same level of disgust when eating shrimps. Shrimps are not insects per se, but it's not very far from that either, and most people consider them to be a delicacy and have no problem eating them... Related XKCD : http://xkcd.com/1268/ http://xkcd.com/1268/
  - TeMPOraL 13y ago
    RE shrimps, that's how I feel. I never ate them, and I feel a strong repulsion towards even trying.
  - viraptor 13y ago
    > who feel the same level of disgust when eating shrimps Yes. I forced myself to try and they don't taste bad at all, but I will not get close to them again. They'd be quite close to spiders if I had to order potential food by how repulsive it looks.
    - JoeAltmaier 13y ago
      All belong to the family of 'things with way more legs than necessary' to quote Dave Barry.

stcredzero 13y ago

> I psychologically associate roaches with disease. Crickets are just another insect. To my generation, not just another insect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cricket_in_Times_Square http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cricket_in_Times_Square