Eating Insects
A man eats a cocoon of an insect at a park during an ethnic Hani minority event on the day before the summer solstice, in Mojiang, Yunnan province, China, June 21, 2015. Reuters/Wong Campion

Blackburn, UK resident Peter Bickerton loves dining on crickets, worms and locusts as he believes these protect his health. He started eating crawling insects and worms five years ago and has already relished over 1,000 waxworms, 5,000 locusts and over 10,000 crickets. Waxworms are caterpillar larvae of wax moths.

Thus, spaghetti bug Bolognese, mealworm pizzas and locust burgers do not seem horrible to Bickerton. In fact, he just loves them and even craves for them. Bickerton has freeze-dried locust oatmeal for breakfast, cricket butty for lunch and waxworm tacos for dinner. His family has a history of heart disease and these insects are the most effective way of preventing high cholesterol.

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According to Bickerton, he totally transformed his diet after a series of health scares among his relatives. His uncle died at the age of 45 and a few months later another one of his uncles had to undergo a triple bypass surgery. Soon after, his aunt suffered a stroke. This led his family to see the doctors and tests revealed that his mum and her seven siblings all had dangerously high levels of cholesterol.

According to Mirror, this forced Bickerton to take up a diet to avoid meeting the same fate as the rest of his family. Bickerton is a public engagement officer by profession. He soon learned that insects, worms and locusts are packed with fibre, protein, vitamins, healthy fats and minerals. Consuming the insects is one of the best ways to protect one’s heart.

He found out that saturated fats are the only source of cholesterol and insects have far less saturated fats than meat. Moreover, they have far more omega-3 fatty acids than fish and twice as much protein than beef. The information led Bickerton insects on a field trip to Ecuador in 2009.

“A native tribe brought some three-inch-long, barbecued beetle larvae for us to try. It was just an incredible explosion of taste in my mouth – I’d never eaten anything like it,” said Bickerton.

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