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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...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Cureus
2022
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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 |
author_sort | Illa, Jofre |
collection | PubMed |
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. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9375121 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Cureus |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
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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