You're a bug eater!

To keep me hydrated and looking good, (ha!) I drink lots of water during the day. Today a little fly landed in my cup-o-refreshment. It got me thinking about that study that says we eat so many bugs a year without knowing it?? So I hunted it down for the blog today.

From WikiAnswers.com

"On a yearly basis the average person in Europe and North America eats about: 

602 pounds of sugar

133 pounds of vegetable oil

96 pounds of protein

40 pounds of fiber

This totals about  880 lb each year, with water in the food this comes to almost 1500 lb/year. However some foods are not likely to contain insects or insect bits (sugar, protein, vegetable oil) so you are left with on the 40 lb of fiber to contain all the "bug bits"

From the Wikipedia article on Entomophagy (eating insects) it would appear that at most there would be a couple of milligrams of insect fragments in any given food per 10 gram sample - say 5mg/10g or 1part bugs to 2000 parts food.

So, if you live mainly on cereals, breads, candy, penut butte, and canned friuits and veggies you may get up to 1 lb/yr. A healthier diet will see a lot less.

An aside: Bugs aren't all that bad for you. They are a good source of protein. Many countries have a "bug enhanced" diet. In Europe and North America we happily eat bug derived products like honey.

Studies indicate that on average people eat between 8-12 insects a year in their sleep. In these cases the insects simply end up in the mohth at the wrong time and are swallowed. This can increase if you ride motorcycles or biks with no facial protection."

Mmmmm.... Tasty!