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this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
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It’s bonkers to me that people who eat “normal” meat are so opposed to eating insects. Without exception, it basically comes down to not wanting to try new things, which is often tied to conservatism and being scared of change in general.
It shouldn’t be surprising that the politicians fighting this are right wingers who are against this on a cultural level - aka being afraid of change.
It's simply disgusting, it's not political, it's gag inducing.
Disgust at eating bugs isn't political, but it's cultural. It's far from universal.
I grew up eating seafood but I still hate dealing with it if I have to remove shells and clean it. Telling people to suck it up and eat something they don't want to eat makes no sense to me.
Nobody is being forced to eat anything. The point is that people have an irrational revultion at the thought of eating insects.
Humans being irrational? Well I would never...
Because insects are disgusting pests.
Most crustaceans are the same. Disgusting water bugs.
Well, that's just like, your opinion, man.
Do you like lobster or shrimp? They're basically bugs.
I like crab, bit I can't stand soft shell crab. It's a mouthfeel thing, and I expect a lot of insect food preparations are similar
No, insects are ground into a powder and essentially used like flour. You probably wouldn't even know you're eating it if someone didn't tell you. No mouth feel to speak of.
Yeah in some cases. In others they are served whole, like fried crickets, beetles, etc.
Yeah, some people eat them that way, but when people talk about some vague conspiracy to get people to eat insects, they're referring to the flour and being "forced" to eat things made with that instead of wheat flour.
I actually can't eat lobster either, the giant sea bugs creep me out. Shrimp I'll eat but not if I have to remove the shells and such. Obviously people are different and my disgust sensitivity might be higher than normal. I grew up in a household that ate a lot of seafood so it's not due to lack of trying.
I'm pretty sure everybody removes the shells from shrimp before eating. It's called a carapace, and roaches have them too.
Also, whether or not you specifically eat lobster or shrimp is only somewhat relevant. The point is that people in general eat those things. Lots of people. In fact, lobster is considered a delicacy.
These are essentially insects, and they've been a popular part of human cuisine for a very long time. It is hypocritical. Any difference between the two are entirely mental.
Having a preference is not hypocritical. What the fuck are you saying LOL
"hypocritical" may not be the best word for it but the point that there isn't much of a difference between some of the foods we already eat (shrimp, lobster, crayfish) and insects and that the primary block to eating insects is a mental one seems pretty inarguable. (it's honestly also likely people do eat insects and just don't know they are--they're everywhere, unintentionally, in the foods we eat.)
Also other than the inherent disgust to bug there is also the fact that since bugs are so small animals they can't be cleaned and separeted to different parts of the animal. This means that part of what you eat is the intestines of the animal with all the fecal matter in it.
I simply don't want shit (or processed shit) in my food. Is that too big of an ask?
Like a lot of seafood then.
Large fishes are able to be cleaned so you can choose those.
Oh absolutely. That’s why I said “a lot of seafood” and not all seafood.
As a kid I was grossed out by ‘the black line’ on shrimp/prawns but these days I don’t care.
I guess wiping baby butts and picking up my dog’s crap has made me a bit more tolerant of these things. :D
Haha. Well I guess the silver lining is that so long it is not proven to be harmfull healthwise it should be ok. It still grosses me out though. Maybe one day I will be brave enought to accept 2% shit in my food so long it is well cooked.
Most fish, shrimp, lobster are prepared so that you aren't eating the intestines. The closest seafood-with-intact-intestines I can think of off the top of my head that makes it to the table is crawfish, and de-veining them is a part of the eating process
Honestly I think every time I’ve had shrimp, the vast majority have still had the vein.
King prawns are a bit different - at least they’re large enough for deveining to be practical.
The industrial beef slaughterhouses don't exactly have a pristine track record of keeping shit out of the market either.
Still by the nature o these animals being bigger it is practicality easier to separate the different parts. With everithing else being equal. No matter how bad it is, it is going to be less than 100% of the initial shit ammount unlike with the bugs wich I'll imagine are being crushed whole.
You ever eat a sausage? The casing is made out of intestine. Before it was used as a sausage casing, it was used as a shit container, and it probably still contains traces of shit.
It also probably contains a few radioactive atoms, a bit of mercury here and there, maybe some arsenic…
Until and unless food is synthesized from atoms by a Star Trek replicator, it's going to contain things you don't want to eat. The best we can do is remove most of those things, but try as we might, we can't remove them all.
Like I said
Nothing about it is inherently icky. You’re just not used to the idea and therefore don’t want to try it.
Also, you’ve most likely consumed insects before, because they are also used in food colouring.
I'm not necessarily accustomed to eating insects... but even the packaged/processed foods we have today are allowed to be a certain percentage of hair/bug/mouse-poop so that it doesn't become impossible to produce legal food :)
I have tried it for the novelty but I see no reason to make it part of my diet. It is disgusting to me and getting used to it would take a lot of time and suffering, for what reason? I've been a vegetarian before, I'd rather eat peas than insects.
for you and me perhaps, not all feel the same
Would you eat cat, dog, or horse meat?
The only reason you don't eat those meats is because you are not used to it. People ate horse meat in Europe regularly until WW2 and cats and dogs are eaten in other part of the world.
Cats and dogs are no more intelligent than cows but we have emotional attachment and historical use (herding and killing rats) for them so in the Western world we prefer to have them as pets.
Horse meat is not rare here in Sweden. Nor is moose or reindeer.
If it tastes nice, sure.
I eat horse. I would not eat cat or dog because I've don't see them as food but I'm still more disgusted by insect meat.