Hacker News Reader

Comment by 31reasons | Hacker News Reader

I don't know how common my sentiment is, but I would stay the hell away from anything related to insects for purely psychological reasons.

View on HN

Until maybe a decade ago, the most common source of red food dye was ground up cochineal bugs which look like ticks. Even today, if the food claims to be made from all natural ingredients, any red coloring is bugs rather than something from a lab.

http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/bugjuice.asp

> To prepare carmine, the powdered scale insect bodies are boiled in ammonia or a sodium carbonate solution, the insoluble matter is removed by filtering, and alum is added to the clear salt solution of carminic acid to precipitate the red aluminium salt, called "carmine lake" or "crimson lake."

Seems a stretch of the word 'natural' to me :-)

Ahem: shellac.[1]

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shellac#Current

That's simply because of our culture. Some years ago I was offered fried grasshoppers and ants in Zambia and my initial reation was repulsion. Then a thought similar to the last sentence in the cockroach article went through my mind: »You will regret your whole life not trying them.« Turned out the hoppers and the ants were both delicious.

I think that was the point of the comment: I would stay away from it because of my culture.

Now, technically I wouldn't, but I grew up considering, slugs, frogs, hedgehogs, rabbits and mixed small birds as great food. No bugs.

Yet, even though I tried bugs, I wouldn't want to eat them daily. If you can eat something once, the "cool story bro" mechanics kick in, but it's not the same as accepting something as integral part of your diet.

Ughh, frogs are too bony. Never eaten a rabbit, but would stay off it for cuteness reasons.

I assumed rabbit was as common a food as chicken until I moved to Ireland and realized it was basically impossible to find.

In southern Ontario, rabbit is pretty much a niche food for upscale dining. I must admit my taste for braised rabbit increased quite a bit after I started gardening and had to contend with rabbits clearcutting my greens.

impossible to find in ireland? I have shot and eaten rabbit in ireland.

interesting fact: you can starve if your diet only consists of eating rabbit

I was referring to finding it in supermarkets and the likes. They may be there, I couldn't find them.

In the UK they have seen a resurgence (rabbit) in the supermarket last few months.

Rabbit is good food, though a bit on the expensive side. We're sometimes giving it to kids, as it's supposed to be healthier for very young kids than, say, beef with all the antibiotics and stuff.

And regarding cuteness - around here in farmers markets they are sold with the furry feet attached; It's a tradition so that people know that they're not getting cheated and getting a cat instead, but if cuteness matters then the sight might be a bit harsh :)

Sure, I was just being explicit.

Isn't it healthier/better to eat herbivores?

From my experience you can pretty much teach your pallette to like foods. I didn't like green tea, olives or whisky the first time I tried them. Now I love them.

But anything fried is good. Eating steamed or baked grasshoppers would be the real test.

powder is clever: I know lots of people who don't like eating meat if it looks like an animal.

Yeah or you could always use this as animal feed.

Is the protein part in existing feed the reason why such crap is fed to animals?

I have no idea. But animal feed in the UK used to be poorly regulated until the BSE scandal. Where it transpired that cattle offal was being fed back to cattle. I couldn't quite get why a ruminent herbivore was being fed meat in the first place. But it seems they were being fed loads of crap. I remember reading that even cement dust was being used to give them more weight. There was a recent TV program that was trying to push for waste foods like canteen waste to be fed to pigs - but the regulation was so tight it wasn't possible. Clean regulated insect feeds could help there (maybe..)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com