Insects are extremely nasty looking creatures. However, the repulsive appearance does not prevent millions of people around the world from eating them. Dishes from ants, bugs and larvae are popular in Thailand, Mexico and Japan, and all because they are excellent sources of protein and vitamins. Perhaps, after research by Italian scientists, the number of people willing to try fried insects will increase dramatically - they proved that a handful of edible insects are much more beneficial than a glass of orange juice.
The researchers found that edible insects,in addition to proteins and all sorts of vitamins, rich in antioxidants. We are talking about molecules that prevent the occurrence in the human body of chain reactions caused by the so-called free radicals. These radicals are produced by man himself, and if there are too many of them, living cells begin to break down. This causes premature aging and the occurrence of diseases.
What are useful insects?
Antioxidants that don't allow a person tooget old quickly, get into his body with air and food. The most affordable antioxidant is vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid. It is contained in a rather large amount in orange juice, but the results of a new study say that in order to get more useful substances, you can try to eat some dish of beetles.
This is interesting: the Earth can completely lose insects over the next hundred years.
Scientists have figured this out by cleaning edible insects.from the wings, and dissolving their crushed bodies in water and fat. The substance obtained in the laboratory was tested for the amount of antioxidants, and the results were surprising. It turned out that insects contain two times more nutrients than the same amount of orange juice.
Insect Dishes
It turns out that dishes from ants, grasshoppers andother pretty nasty creatures are quite beneficial to the human body. At the moment, people know more than 1000 species of edible insects, of which sometimes they prepare quite tasty, but unpleasant-looking dishes. For example, in Mexico, grasshoppers are particularly popular - according to travelers, they feel like potato chips in the mouth, and taste almost the same as the spices in which they were fried.
Fried Grasshoppers
Residents of some countries, in addition to insects, eat andspiders with scorpions. Italian scientists at the same time appreciated their benefit, but the antioxidants in them turned out to be much less than expected. On the table below you can see that black scorpions contain the very minimum of nutrients, but in the silkworm larvae, crickets and grasshoppers, their concentration exceeds the limit.
Most likely, in the future, insects are reallywill be much more often eaten. At least crickets and grasshoppers will make flour. Dinner from jellyfish and milk made from algae can become a familiar food.
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