Forget the guilt trip: There’s a better way to get people to eat more bugs

Enlarge / We double dog dare you to eat those bugs. (credit: John Tlumacki, Boston Globe/Getty Images)

A few years ago, French chef David Faure traveled to Asia. The many different bugs routinely offered for consumption in that part of the world inspired him to create an insect-based tasting menu at Aphrodite, his Michelin-starred restaurant in Nice. Adventurous diners could sample "crickets in a whiskey bubble with cubes of French toast and pears," or "squares of peas, carrot foam, and mealworms."

According to a new study by Swiss scientists, Faure's marketing strategy to make bugs more palatable to Western diners was a good one: present insects as an exotic delicacy or a luxurious indulgence, rather than a healthy protein source that is more environmentally responsible than consuming meat. These findings have been published in Frontiers in Nutrition.

This is part of a broader push toward accepting insects as an alternative protein source in Western diets, since food production accounts for as much as 25 percent of greenhouse gas emissions-with much of that due to livestock. Farming insects could reduce those emissions significantly. But how to overcome the strong revulsion most Westerners feel upon encountering insects in their food?

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