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New research has shown that edible insects are rich in antioxidants – and whether or not you buy the health benefits of eating antioxidants, this is an important finding from a nutritional perspective .
About a third of the world eats insects. It is a high protein and potentially environmentally friendly alternative to chicken, pork and beef. But a team of researchers at the University of Teramo in Italy hopes to open a new perspective: it deserves to be studied and consumed as a source of other potentially important molecules.
"Insects could be a source of antioxidants with low ecological input," said Mauro Serafini, professor at the University of Teramo and corresponding author of the study, in Gizmodo.
Before we tackle insects, we should probably talk about antioxidants. Scientists have known for a long time that the body uses certain molecules, called antioxidants, to counter the effects of free radicals that can cause damaging chemical reactions for cells. According to Jessica Cooperstone, an badistant professor at Ohio State University and not involved in this research, who studies bioactive plant compounds, "the jury is still undetermined" about whether the consumption of antioxidants in the food will actually have an antioxidant effect on humans. . There is still a lot of work to do to better understand this.
We know that foods we consider "healthy", such as fruits and vegetables, are often rich in antioxidants, but it's hard to say what specific chemicals in our foods induce which effects on the body, because of the complexity of the effects of diet and lifestyle. our health.
Now, about insects. The authors crushed commercially available insects, including silkworms, grbadhoppers and tarantulas, and tested them to determine the extent to which fat-soluble and water-soluble insects acted on a sample of free radicals. Some insects, such as crickets and silkworms, had more antioxidant activity than orange juice. The giant cicadas seemed to have more antioxidant activity than olive oil.
Please note that this says nothing about the health benefits of these insects, but simply that they have behaved in a certain way in the laboratory. I contacted several researchers who almost all agreed that the research itself was good, but reiterated that we did not know if high antioxidant activity meant that a substance would be beneficial to our health.
But the work shows that insects may be worth more than their most basic proteins, lipids and vitamins: they may contain beneficial chemicals that deserve to be studied. More research is needed to see if they can play an important role in our diet.
If you have read so far and you think "ew, I do not eat bugs," then let me resolve. First of all, many insects have good taste: black ants have a slightly acidic flavor and the texture of caviar, the chapulines are Mexican grbadhoppers with a nice crunch and savory flavors close to salted goji berries, and tarantulas ( if properly prepared) taste fluffy. crab shell. But more importantly, livestock requires tons of land and produces a significant amount of greenhouse gases and the seas are overexploited. Although I personally believe that the fight against climate change requires a revolutionary dismantling of capitalism and a large-scale switch to sources of green energy such as wind, solar and nuclear, change our protein diet lower emission could at least help, according to a 2013 UN report. report.
If people are really willing to try another source of protein, such as insects, Teramo researchers see it as an opportunity. Insect breeders may be able to adjust the diet of an insect to optimize its nutritional content, for example, according to the paper published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition.
Clearly, further research is needed to determine whether antioxidants are important. But insects can be an intriguing new source of nutrients and flavors as chefs continue to experiment with innovative methods to prepare them.
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