Post prepared by Erin Landauer, Family & Consumer Sciences Agent

Have you ever thought about exploring a whole new culinary delight to add a little extra protein to your diet? The thought of eating insects might be something that doesn’t quite sit well in your stomach but eating insects can add quite the punch of nutrition to your diet. There might be other benefits to eating bugs. Eating bugs might be the wave of the future because of the economic and environmental sustainability of “farming” bugs for human consumption. Bugs might just be the key to increase food security due to increases in population. People around the world already add a little extra crunch into their diet, is it something you might want to try?

Nutrition Facts:
100 grams of crickets= 12.9g of protein
100 grams of grasshoppers= 20.6g of protein
1 Giant water beetle =20g of protein
100 grams of mealworms=23.7g of protein
100 grams of red ants 100g = 13.9g of protein

BUG RECIPE: Banana Worm Bread
(Source: www.insectsarefood.com)

½ cup shortening
¾ cup sugar
2 bananas, mashed
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup chopped nuts
2 eggs
¼ cup dry-roasted mealworms
Mix together all ingredients. Bake in greased loaf pan at 350° F for about one hour.

Photo Credits: Napat_Polchoke/iStock/Thinkstock

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