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The opposite is actually true. Insects only eat dead, dying plants and low quality plants. Its an indicator of crops that are lacking in nutrition. For example,

by Lutger 3y ago

The opposite is actually true. Insects only eat dead, dying plants and low quality plants. Its an indicator of crops that are lacking in nutrition. For example, once a plant reaches a certain level of photosynthesis, it produces so much sugars that aphids can't digest it. I've seen it myself, its fun they just fall of the plant and die. You can measure this with a 20 dollar device. There's research being done, for example by the bionutrient institute, that tells us nutritional values vary a lot. The exact same crop can have a 5 to 300 times difference in some nutrients (like vitamines) between lowest and highest performing crop. The chemicals plants use specifically to repel insects, (secondary metabolites), are especially important and healthy for us to consume.

aszantu 3y ago
sure, when your gut is intact and you've got a diverse microbiome. here's a list of stuff that's in/on food nowadays, you're probably an outlier if your gut is undamaged at 40 Herbicides https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/high-rates-of-suicide-depression-linked-to-farmers-use-of-pesticides/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/high-rates-of-sui... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39383739 Chlormequat in food and urine from adults in the United States from 2017 to 2023 Rodenticides Fungicides Insecticides https://usrtk.org/pesticides/chlorpyrifos/ - Chlorpyrifos: Pesticide tied to brain damage in children - banned in EU in 2020, the EU imports from countries that use it, some in some US-states it's still legal, in some it's banned. nematicides Ripening agents https://extension.umd.edu/resource/ethylene-and-regulation-fruit-ripening https://extension.umd.edu/resource/ethylene-and-regulation-f... https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/ethylene-propylene-glycol/toxicological_effects.html from the atsdr article: ethylene glycol can be converted into oxolate, which is an Anti Nutrient that binds to calcium Mould in rice an peanuts, see Page9 of this PDF, it's from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations homepage https://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/agns/pdf/CXS_193e.pdf https://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/agns/pdf/CXS_193e....

by Lutger 3y ago

aszantu 3y ago

sure, when your gut is intact and you've got a diverse microbiome. here's a list of stuff that's in/on food nowadays, you're probably an outlier if your gut is undamaged at 40 Herbicides https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/high-rates-of-suicide-depression-linked-to-farmers-use-of-pesticides/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/high-rates-of-sui... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39383739 Chlormequat in food and urine from adults in the United States from 2017 to 2023 Rodenticides Fungicides Insecticides https://usrtk.org/pesticides/chlorpyrifos/ - Chlorpyrifos: Pesticide tied to brain damage in children - banned in EU in 2020, the EU imports from countries that use it, some in some US-states it's still legal, in some it's banned. nematicides Ripening agents https://extension.umd.edu/resource/ethylene-and-regulation-fruit-ripening https://extension.umd.edu/resource/ethylene-and-regulation-f... https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/ethylene-propylene-glycol/toxicological_effects.html from the atsdr article: ethylene glycol can be converted into oxolate, which is an Anti Nutrient that binds to calcium Mould in rice an peanuts, see Page9 of this PDF, it's from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations homepage https://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/agns/pdf/CXS_193e.pdf https://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/agns/pdf/CXS_193e....