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Prediction: we will evolve to find tasty what we formerly found disgusting. Actually, I wonder why we find bugs disgusting (from an evolutionary perspective).

Prediction: we will evolve to find tasty what we formerly found disgusting. Actually, I wonder why we find bugs disgusting (from an evolutionary perspective). I mean, presumably they're "dirty", but isn't that why we invented cooking?

Qwertystop 7y ago
An evolutionary perspective is the wrong perspective; there exist plenty of cultures where bugs are not considered disgusting.
- benj111 7y ago
  Cochineal is generally acceptable in western cultures, so there are obviously certain insects acceptable to otherwise non insect eating cultures. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochineal https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochineal
  - Falling3 7y ago
    It's not acceptable in my experience. People are just ignorant to the fact that this is an ingredient.
    - benj111 7y ago
      I think it occupies the same sort of place as factory farming and Turkey Twizzlers. People know about it but prefer not to think about it. You don't get the tabloids announcing the 'hidden insects in our food' either. I suppose you could argue the acceptability of it? people get on with their lives and diets though, it doesn't occupy the same space as eating maggots, can we agree on that.
      - astura 7y ago
        Turkey Twizzlers?
        benj111 7y ago
        Highly processed, contain just 34% turkey, rose to (in)fame on the back of Jamie Oliver's series on school dinners in the UK. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_Twizzlers https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_Twizzlers
      - Falling3 7y ago
        I talk to a lot of people about animal products in our food and the treatment of those animals. In my experience, I really disagree that we're talking about the same phenomenon.
- nickserv 7y ago
  I find it odd that some people will eat snails (culturally acceptable) but are disgusted by crickets.
- astura 7y ago
  Yeah, like... Seattle? Toasted grasshoppers are fairly popular at Mariners games. https://www.si.com/eats/2017/07/06/seattle-mariners-grasshoppers-ballpark-food-safeco-field https://www.si.com/eats/2017/07/06/seattle-mariners-grasshop...
mcbuilder 7y ago
Maybe we will not have to go such extreme lengths on the ick factor scale if we just ate significantly less farmed meat. I'm a life long Caucasian vegetarian in my mid thirties (raised that way by my parents). Many people have tried to convince me how it will negatively effect my health, trying to scare me basically. I'm not exactly the model of perfect health, but you would think I'd be showing signs by this time in lack of energy, ect. I certainly don't feel disadvantaged in energy compared to my meat eating friends. Just have to wait another 50 years to declare my experiment a success.
- nickserv 7y ago
  Hindus (and related religions) have been vegetarians for thousands of years, and they're fine. It's veganism that is untested.
  - earth_walker 7y ago
    Though not a strict requirement of the religion, veganism has been common practice in the Jains of India for thousands of years. Some Jain monks even sweep the floor as they walk to avoid killing bugs. Not to mention Buddhist monks in some Asian countries were effectively vegan because dairy was just not part of their diet. Besides that, though low in numbers, veganism has been active in the West for several generations. So veganism has been tested alot more than, for example, the relatively new practice of eating meat and dairy contaminated with antibiotics and HGH.
TopRattata 7y ago
Maggots indicate meat (and other organic matter) that's been dead and/or decaying long enough not to be safe to eat anymore.
- omarhaneef 7y ago
  Probably right. The same is true of roaches and flies.
bluedino 7y ago
Young children find bugs fascinating, until someone tells them not to touch them. Cooked maggots would seem like something adaptable to food, they have the appearance of rice after all. It's just the fact that when you encounter maggots in a trash can or something, whatever they are eating is rotten and smells so putrid you associate them with that smell.
Maximus9000 7y ago
> "Some think Americans will develop a taste for creepy-crawlies, just as we learned to enjoy other foods we once scorned. In 1876, the lobsters that were abundant along the coastlines of North America were still being used as fertiliser for farmland; in Eastern Canada, "they boil them for their pigs, but are ashamed to be seen eating lobster themselves," wrote the essayist John Rowan at the time. Lobster shells inside a house would be seen as evidence of "poverty and degradation," he said." https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/2008077/are-crickets-new-lobster-case-eating-insects https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/2008077/ar...

Qwertystop 7y ago

An evolutionary perspective is the wrong perspective; there exist plenty of cultures where bugs are not considered disgusting.

benj111 7y ago
Cochineal is generally acceptable in western cultures, so there are obviously certain insects acceptable to otherwise non insect eating cultures. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochineal https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochineal
- Falling3 7y ago
  It's not acceptable in my experience. People are just ignorant to the fact that this is an ingredient.
  - benj111 7y ago
    I think it occupies the same sort of place as factory farming and Turkey Twizzlers. People know about it but prefer not to think about it. You don't get the tabloids announcing the 'hidden insects in our food' either. I suppose you could argue the acceptability of it? people get on with their lives and diets though, it doesn't occupy the same space as eating maggots, can we agree on that.
    - astura 7y ago
      Turkey Twizzlers?
      - benj111 7y ago
        Highly processed, contain just 34% turkey, rose to (in)fame on the back of Jamie Oliver's series on school dinners in the UK. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_Twizzlers https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_Twizzlers
    - Falling3 7y ago
      I talk to a lot of people about animal products in our food and the treatment of those animals. In my experience, I really disagree that we're talking about the same phenomenon.
nickserv 7y ago
I find it odd that some people will eat snails (culturally acceptable) but are disgusted by crickets.
astura 7y ago
Yeah, like... Seattle? Toasted grasshoppers are fairly popular at Mariners games. https://www.si.com/eats/2017/07/06/seattle-mariners-grasshoppers-ballpark-food-safeco-field https://www.si.com/eats/2017/07/06/seattle-mariners-grasshop...

mcbuilder 7y ago

Maybe we will not have to go such extreme lengths on the ick factor scale if we just ate significantly less farmed meat. I'm a life long Caucasian vegetarian in my mid thirties (raised that way by my parents). Many people have tried to convince me how it will negatively effect my health, trying to scare me basically. I'm not exactly the model of perfect health, but you would think I'd be showing signs by this time in lack of energy, ect. I certainly don't feel disadvantaged in energy compared to my meat eating friends. Just have to wait another 50 years to declare my experiment a success.

nickserv 7y ago
Hindus (and related religions) have been vegetarians for thousands of years, and they're fine. It's veganism that is untested.
- earth_walker 7y ago
  Though not a strict requirement of the religion, veganism has been common practice in the Jains of India for thousands of years. Some Jain monks even sweep the floor as they walk to avoid killing bugs. Not to mention Buddhist monks in some Asian countries were effectively vegan because dairy was just not part of their diet. Besides that, though low in numbers, veganism has been active in the West for several generations. So veganism has been tested alot more than, for example, the relatively new practice of eating meat and dairy contaminated with antibiotics and HGH.

TopRattata 7y ago

Maggots indicate meat (and other organic matter) that's been dead and/or decaying long enough not to be safe to eat anymore.

omarhaneef 7y ago
Probably right. The same is true of roaches and flies.

bluedino 7y ago

Young children find bugs fascinating, until someone tells them not to touch them. Cooked maggots would seem like something adaptable to food, they have the appearance of rice after all. It's just the fact that when you encounter maggots in a trash can or something, whatever they are eating is rotten and smells so putrid you associate them with that smell.

Maximus9000 7y ago

> "Some think Americans will develop a taste for creepy-crawlies, just as we learned to enjoy other foods we once scorned. In 1876, the lobsters that were abundant along the coastlines of North America were still being used as fertiliser for farmland; in Eastern Canada, "they boil them for their pigs, but are ashamed to be seen eating lobster themselves," wrote the essayist John Rowan at the time. Lobster shells inside a house would be seen as evidence of "poverty and degradation," he said." https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/2008077/are-crickets-new-lobster-case-eating-insects https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/2008077/ar...