Cicadas: A Food Source?

Recent News Headline: Cicadas Coming to U.S. East Coast This Spring From North Carolina on up. (see link below)

 

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/03/130329-cicadas-coming-sky-locust-swarm-animal-science/

 

Every 17 years, millions of cicadas fill the sky ... this will be that year.

 

This got me thinking about them, as well as looking things up about them. Cicadas are so noisy and troublesome, yet some cultures make use of this by eating them, and have for a long time.

 

Why not? Cicadas are known to be high in protein, low in fat, and low in carbohydrates (based on scientific studies). If anyone has ever tried them, please comment.

 

See! Good and bad sides again. :-)

 

However would I want to eat them? My dad said, once when I was a teen, that I would eat a roach if I was hungry enough. My reply was: I hope I never get that hungry.

 

Yet, I do see things on TV that make me wonder why people eat the things they do ... and survive it. Maybe our genetic system can handle more then we give it credit.

 

Or, maybe some cultures have built up a tolerance to their environment as we have here in the USA; which means, we still shouldn't drink the water elsewhere due to not having the possible immunities they have and we don't.

 

Sound reasoning.

 

So ... what's all this about eating or not eating bugs?

 

Maybe we developed so many other food sources we don't need to, so we just leave the bugs to the birds, etc., to eat them.

 

Below are a couple of quotes I found about eating them; which I thought I'd share too.

 

"Despite the warning, there is no evidence to suggest that cicadas are unsafe to eat. The only concern was with cicadas that emerge in areas heavily treated with pesticides and herbicides, as the insects could have absorbed the chemicals into their bodies.” (John Roach - National Geographics)

 

My thinking is: what else is new?! We have been ingesting small amounts of chemicals, from many sources, for a very, very long time. Knowing the chemicals and side effects would be just as important as anything we eat. There are plants that are naturally harmful if eaten wrong or eaten at all.

 

"Whether people are curious or doing it for the shock value, they are eating cicadas. Asian peoples have eaten cicadas for centuries, and there are records of Native Americans eating cicadas. Some who eat them say they taste like asparagus, popcorn, minty shrimp, and piney shrimp. A man in Bloomington Indiana had an allergic reaction to cicadas after eating 30. He was also allergic to seafood -- both cicadas and shrimps are arthropods so this makes sense."  (Dan Mozgai - cicadamania.com)

 

Again, it's important to know what foods we eat and what's in them, to the best of our ability. I even discovered that FDA has a list of things that we eat that can have a certain level of bugs in them. When I heard about it, my first reaction was ... GROSS! 

 

However, after careful contemplation, I realized that I had already possibly done it and - yes, I was still around. I had survived over 65 years of ingesting what some may say I shouldn't have ... even while living in or visiting foreign countries.

 

Maybe I have a strong genetic constitution.

 

Maybe it's due to the programming that I got as a kid, when my mom told me to live in my environment so I could build up my immunities to it.

 

Maybe it was the Grace from God.

 

Whatever it was that got me this far, in life, I am thankful.

 

This website, below, has more information regarding Cicadas as a food source.

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/cicada-cooking-pizza-tacos-jello-article-1.1314334

 

Now, after reading about "consciously" eating bugs, will I try it?

 

Hmmm ... maybe ... but you can go first.

 ;-)