Liberation Wellness

In the vast new world of nutrition misinformation, Americans are authorized by public officials like the USDA and medical professionals like the AMA to eat many small meals a day.

I believe this directive to be one of the biggest reasons for the obesity crisis in our modern culture, it has a devastating negative effect on health, and promotes only the enormous profits of the Fake-Food Industry and Big Pharma!

But that is another story,

I would like to talk about small meals and fast food, but what I mean is some the smallest and the fastest of the animal foods – BUGS!

Entomophagy (from [Greek ἔντομος éntomos, "insect(ed)", and φᾰγεῖν phăgein, "to eat", which together means "insect eating") is the practice of eating insects as food.

"every creeping thing that is alive, to you it is for food"; Genesis 9:3 Young's Translation

The Bible points out that all animal food is authorized by God to be eaten for food. In fact, God particularly mentions the bugs, lizards and snakes (called creeping things) as to let us know that they are allowed and would be appropriate for human consumption.

Dr. Weston Price, known as the Father of clinical nutrition, reported that the some of the healthiest people groups in the world, were eating bugs and the eggs of bugs at certain times of the year for the nutritional value. In fact millions of people for thousands of years have been and continue to eat insects as part of a very healthy diet.

Insects often contain the fat soluble activators A,D and K2 and some have B12 as well as other important nutrients.

Here is the nutritional profile of 100 grams of crickets:

121 calories,
12.9 grams of protein,
5.5 g. of fat,
5.1 g. of carbohydrates,
75.8 mg. calcium,
185.3 mg. of phosphorous,
9.5 mg. of iron,
0.36 mg. of thiamin,
1.09 mg. of riboflavin,
3.10 mg. of niacin

This little bugger is nutrient dense!

Tastes Like Crab! According to this Epicurean

Bizarre Foods

Recently there has been a very interesting TV show airing nationally hosted by food explorer Andrew Zimmern. The show is called Bizarre Foods.

Andrew travels the world and has a meal with local people who’s culinary practices are very different from modern America, but I have noticed they are not so different from each other.

I enjoy the show very much and secretly wish I could taste at least some of the these exotic recipes from around the world.

I do think that the chemical compounds and artificial fake foods that make up much of our modern American so-called food choices, it is we who are eating the Bizarre Foods, and it is they that are eating more like a human being!

Fast Food

Although I am not a proponent of snacking or fast food, it seems if there was every a healthy, convenient, inexpensive snack food, insects are it. An entire industry of McDonald’s, Burger King, etc as well as the convenience stores like 7-11 would be in a very different environment if Americans were eating bugs.

You know, seeing how clever and entrepreneurial they are, I could foresee French Fries being replaced with French Fried Bugs!

Now that I think about it, we could call them McBugs or McFrogs!

The Importance of Vitamins A, D, K2

The foundation of human health is FAT. and many cultures get the all-important nutrients found exclusively in saturated animal fat from livestock and fish.

If however a people group do not have access to fish or cannot afford livestock, God’s exquisite design is that bugs are very readily available almost anywhere and loaded with the nutrition people need the most!

So How Do They TASTE?

That is a good question. I have a saying concerning food taste, which is, follow the law of the jungle. The law of the jungle says “eat what’s best for you, not what tastes the best!.”

If you have a plate of liver and onions, and a plate of ice cream, and you have a taste test, the ice cream will win almost every time. BUT- the liver is much better for you. We should not always make taste the decider in our food choices, as this leads to sweeter and more flavor enhanced foods getting eaten more often.

I must admit however, I have never eaten bugs! According to many, they taste great, but I cannot speak from experience.

Here is a recipe for insects

Ant Brood Tacos

2 tablespoons butter or lard
1/2 pound ant larvae and pupae
3 Serrano chilies, raw, finely chopped
1 tomato, finely chopped
Pepper and Cumin, to taste
Oregano, to taste
1 handful cilantro, chopped
Taco shells, to serve(you can pass on the shells)

Heat the butter or lard in a frying pan and fry the larvae or pupae. Add the chopped onions, chilies, and tomato, and season with salt. Sprinkle with ground pepper, cumin, and oregano, to taste. Serve in tacos and garnish with cilantro. (Not living in an area exceptionally prolific with ants, I have never been able to try this recipe. But it sounds perfectly delicious! I found it in ‘Creepy Crawly Cuisine’, an excellent recipe book.)

Kevin Brown is President of Liberation Wellness and co-author of the Liberation Diet. He serves as a Fellow on the National Board of Fitness Examiners, and is president of Visionary Trainers. Kevin and his wife Tracy are Chapter leaders for the Weston A. Price foundation, a non-profit organization that is helping restore real food to its rightful place in the American diet.