Insects: the healthy low fat alternative, apparently

Insects could soon be on your shopping list as Brussels invests €3million into investigating the nutritional value of creepy crawlies.

Experts in Brussels believe they could help relieve food shortages and save the environment by proving we can happily eat insects and get the same nutritional value from them as we can from meat.

Entomophagists’, or people who eat insects, argue that bugs are a low-cholesterol, low-fat protein food source, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Well, they do have a point, sort of. Studies have shown that small grasshoppers offer 20 per cent protein with just six per cent fat, compared to lean ground beef's 24pc protein and 18pc fat.

Jiminy Cricket better watch his ass as the little fellow is supposedly high in calcium, while termites are rich in iron and a silkworm moth larvae holds all of your daily copper needs and is rich in riboflavin.

Professor Marcel Dicke, leading a team at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, said, "By 2020, you will be buying insects in supermarkets.

"We will be amazed that in 2011 people didn't think it was going to happen.

"We have already seen the introduction of eggplants, sushi and things people never ate here. I think it will start with ground-up insects in sauces and burgers. Grinding them up will make them look more palatable."

We’ll reserve judgement for now. Although, a toasted cheese and ladybird does sound good right now.

[Image via David Orban - Flicker Creative Commons]