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Edible insects role in transmission of parasitic diseases to humans (2019)

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61–70 of 495 posts

Re: Edible insects role in transmission of parasitic diseases to humans (2019)

#61

They probably contain toxins that can't be cooked away either. Ask yourself why humans refrained from eating them unless near starvation and death for the recorded history of humanity.

People eat them, not out of desperation, now and in history.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entomophagy_in_humans

I'm going to say you probably haven't traveled much to be drawing such conclusions. Eating bugs is a big tourist shtick in Mexico for example. And you can go to markets with heaps of them on display.

Re: Edible insects role in transmission of parasitic diseases to humans (2019)

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> both seem to carry plenty of baggage Salads can literally kill you via the listeria they bring.

I’ll pick the salad over the steak any day, though. Above all I’d love to see better technology and attention for food safety, though. It’s stunning to see how many people suffer from food born illness today — something I’d thought was far more under control up until my mid 30s. It’s better under many circumstances and I’m not going to pretend it’s anything like it has been in the past. However, we could do much, muc…

Why, for example over say grass fed, organic steak?

Re: Edible insects role in transmission of parasitic diseases to humans (2019)

#63
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The majority of foodborne illness and death in the US is due to animal products. [1] [1] https://www.cdc.gov/foodborneburden/attribution-image.html#f...

Isn’t it also the case that a lot of these contaminations in produce (like leafy greens) are caused by animal manure being used to fertilize the produce? Without manure being used the risk is diminished by orders of magnitude.

Only little backyard operations use animal manure. No large food chain will carry greens grown in animal manure.

Re: Edible insects role in transmission of parasitic diseases to humans (2019)

#65

They probably contain toxins that can't be cooked away either. Ask yourself why humans refrained from eating them unless near starvation and death for the recorded history of humanity.

> Ask yourself why humans refrained from eating them Plenty of humans don't eat plenty of meats and sea animals either. Traditions don't necessarily contain good wisdom. I think seeing a bug feast on feces and then having it sneak up on your food stashes might trigger an obvious reaction (similar to pigs and the reason why some don't eat them)

> Traditions don't necessarily contain good wisdom.

What is the bad wisdom here, that eating insects, rats, various other disease harbouring vertebrates is actually misplaced medieval health & safety?

Re: Edible insects role in transmission of parasitic diseases to humans (2019)

#66

They probably contain toxins that can't be cooked away either. Ask yourself why humans refrained from eating them unless near starvation and death for the recorded history of humanity.

> Ask yourself why humans refrained from eating them Plenty of humans don't eat plenty of meats and sea animals either. Traditions don't necessarily contain good wisdom. I think seeing a bug feast on feces and then having it sneak up on your food stashes might trigger an obvious reaction (similar to pigs and the reason why some don't eat them)

Eating pigs are much more likely to transfer parasites/diseases if prepared improperly. So in this case traditions do contain good wisdom.

Re: Edible insects role in transmission of parasitic diseases to humans (2019)

#67
post #50

I don’t get why it’s so hard for people to just stop eating animals.

Over the years I've seen several female friends try to stay vegan. One managed a decade before she couldn't put up with the anemia any more. The others quit sooner, because of weight loss, malnutrition, and other issues. It seems humans were evolved to scavenge animals as well as eating plants. It's not just protein, it's iron and fats, and a few other things.

Maybe it was challenging before, but honestly, getting enough iron and protein in a vegan diet today is pretty trivial. There are plant based alternatives to more or less everything these days.

I'm vegetarian,, and only for 3 or 4 years, but honestly there's nothing really missing at all for me.

Re: Edible insects role in transmission of parasitic diseases to humans (2019)

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t it also the case that a lot of these contaminations in produce (like leafy greens) are caused by animal manure being used to fertilize the produce? Without manure being used the risk is diminished by orders of magnitude.

Only little backyard operations use animal manure. No large food chain will carry greens grown in animal manure.

Have you heard of a small movement called organic farming? https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2F...

Re: Edible insects role in transmission of parasitic diseases to humans (2019)

#69

They probably contain toxins that can't be cooked away either. Ask yourself why humans refrained from eating them unless near starvation and death for the recorded history of humanity.

> Ask yourself why humans refrained from eating them Plenty of humans don't eat plenty of meats and sea animals either. Traditions don't necessarily contain good wisdom. I think seeing a bug feast on feces and then having it sneak up on your food stashes might trigger an obvious reaction (similar to pigs and the reason why some don't eat them)

Compared with cows or sheep pigs eat what humans can eat, so growing pigs means wasting a lot of food that could be fed to people. Many historians argue that this was the primary reason why pork was banned in Islam and Judaism, not because pigs were considered unclean.

Re: Edible insects role in transmission of parasitic diseases to humans (2019)

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> both seem to carry plenty of baggage Salads can literally kill you via the listeria they bring.

I’ll pick the salad over the steak any day, though. Above all I’d love to see better technology and attention for food safety, though. It’s stunning to see how many people suffer from food born illness today — something I’d thought was far more under control up until my mid 30s. It’s better under many circumstances and I’m not going to pretend it’s anything like it has been in the past. However, we could do much, muc…

"I’ll pick the salad over the steak any day, though."

In terms of food safety and risk of pathogens, salad is far, far more dangerous than steak.

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