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Nutritional Powerhouse: Can Logic Overcome Our Racist Cultural Fears?
A bio-available protein source packed with vitamins and minerals, available to almost anyone anywhere, is being maligned as the food of the poor.
Working with small companies in China, Thailand, and Mexico, I found a disturbing trend. Young people are moving away from certain traditional foods because we look down on them.
From an early age, we’re taught that this food is disgusting and we’re afraid to even try it. These unwarranted cultural fears are keeping us from an entire food group simply because we’re conditioned to be scared to try it. Logic is on its side, but emotion makes us recoil at the thought.
Odds are, you’re afraid to eat insects. This fear of an entire food group affects the world in ways you may not imagine.
You look at insects as survival food, or worse, food of the poor.
Your revolt at the thought of eating this food shames people worldwide into giving up traditional foods. Your reaction of disgust is keeping people from a sustainable food source that’s available to almost anyone anywhere.
The downward trend is happening because people around the world follow our lead. They’re influenced by our poor attitude toward insects as food because of what they see online, on TV, and in the movies. Simply put, in countries were insects are food, their popularity is in decline due to our perceived view of insects as the food of the poor. We need to reverse this and help promote insects as a valuable food source.
Here in North America, it was the early European settlers defending their belief in their perceived superiority by describing natives as barbarians because they eat six-legged animals that’s responsible for this attitude. The message was so strong that, still today, we revile insects as food.
Look at the places where people eat insects and where they do not. It’s Europe and North America where people are disgusted at the thought of eating insects. Much of the world considers insects as food. We do not.
Lobster and sushi were once considered gross, and we overcame those fears. Now lobster and…
