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An Analysis of the Ethical, Economic, and Environmental Aspects of Entomophagy

Population growth is causing a high demand for meat products, which, coupled with the current climate crisis, has fueled research into alternative protein sources. This review discusses the role of edible insects as an alternative protein source to complement our diet. We compare nutritional, enviro...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Illa, Jofre, Yuguero, Oriol
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cureus 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9375121/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35974846
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.26863
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author Illa, Jofre
Yuguero, Oriol
author_facet Illa, Jofre
Yuguero, Oriol
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description Population growth is causing a high demand for meat products, which, coupled with the current climate crisis, has fueled research into alternative protein sources. This review discusses the role of edible insects as an alternative protein source to complement our diet. We compare nutritional, environmental, economic, and food safety aspects between edible insects and current protein sources and conclude with a discussion on ethical considerations. Edible insects are a good protein source, with a higher average protein content than most protein-rich products we consume today. In addition, they provide fiber, fats such as monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), and essential amino acids and are also rich in some minerals and vitamins. Product safety is yet to be studied; however, they have a much lower environmental impact than other intensive livestock products. Moreover, the production of edible insects is not expected to be expensive. The consumption of edible insects is a good alternative to conventional animal foods in modern times: a major climate crisis accompanied by numerous societal inequalities due to population growth.
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spelling pubmed-93751212022-08-15 An Analysis of the Ethical, Economic, and Environmental Aspects of Entomophagy Illa, Jofre Yuguero, Oriol Cureus Public Health Population growth is causing a high demand for meat products, which, coupled with the current climate crisis, has fueled research into alternative protein sources. This review discusses the role of edible insects as an alternative protein source to complement our diet. We compare nutritional, environmental, economic, and food safety aspects between edible insects and current protein sources and conclude with a discussion on ethical considerations. Edible insects are a good protein source, with a higher average protein content than most protein-rich products we consume today. In addition, they provide fiber, fats such as monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), and essential amino acids and are also rich in some minerals and vitamins. Product safety is yet to be studied; however, they have a much lower environmental impact than other intensive livestock products. Moreover, the production of edible insects is not expected to be expensive. The consumption of edible insects is a good alternative to conventional animal foods in modern times: a major climate crisis accompanied by numerous societal inequalities due to population growth. Cureus 2022-07-14 /pmc/articles/PMC9375121/ /pubmed/35974846 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.26863 Text en Copyright © 2022, Illa et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Public Health
Illa, Jofre
Yuguero, Oriol
An Analysis of the Ethical, Economic, and Environmental Aspects of Entomophagy
title An Analysis of the Ethical, Economic, and Environmental Aspects of Entomophagy
title_full An Analysis of the Ethical, Economic, and Environmental Aspects of Entomophagy
title_fullStr An Analysis of the Ethical, Economic, and Environmental Aspects of Entomophagy
title_full_unstemmed An Analysis of the Ethical, Economic, and Environmental Aspects of Entomophagy
title_short An Analysis of the Ethical, Economic, and Environmental Aspects of Entomophagy
title_sort analysis of the ethical, economic, and environmental aspects of entomophagy
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9375121/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35974846
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.26863
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