It has to be said, insects do not really sound like the most appetising of foods. However, research published this year has suggested that crickets, palm weevil larvae and mealworms may all be more nutritious than beef or chicken. Today is World Edible Insect Day (yes, it has its own day!), aiming to increase the prevalence of insect based foods in western cultures by legalising them and publicising the benefits of eating insects, both to the individual and the environment The study mentioned above aimed to compare the nutritional content in 100g portions of various insects in comparison to beef, chicken and pork, using two different methods.
The first, Ofcom, produced a 1-100 score on levels of energy, salt, sugar and saturated fat, and found no significant difference between the various insects and traditionally farmed meats. The second, Nutrient Value Scores, also took vitamins and calcium content into account, and found a significant difference between the nutrient levels in all insects compared to beef and chicken, with only caterpillars and silk worms losing out to pork. From this, it looks like insects could be the next big health food trend, especially when the WHO are likely to declare on Monday that "bacon and other processed meats cause cancer". Insects are also considered a delicacy in many places and their breeding and consumable yield are extremely efficient, meaning they would cause reduced environmental impact in comparison to beef, for example. So eating them would not only be good for us, but for the planet as well. It has also been argued that there are fewer ethical problems with eating insects in comparison to farmed animals such as cows as there is reduced suffering when they are harvested for food. It is worth noting that the carcinogen story is probably scare mongering from the press as the WHO have not confirmed this yet. However, I might think twice before eating a full English again, and maybe try find a good recipe for fried crickets instead.
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2015 is absolutely flying by! A sure sign being that the annual Spanish field course with the University of Southampton is already over and done! I'm a little behind on this, as we landed back in the UK on Saturday night, but I thought a little summary of what we were up to would be quite nice! Each year, Biology and Zoology students in their first year at Southampton descend upon Bolonia on the south coast of Spain for the Experimental and Field Biology module. For the third time, I had the privilege of attending this trip as a Translator and Demonstrator, along with 14 other members of staff and around 90 undergraduates. This field trip is the highlight of first year for many, and is a great chance to get to know everyone on the course. The 10 day trip consisted of learning how to identify various plants and animals by their observable features, learning how to collect data in the field and conducting projects at the end of the week, to be presented to the whole group. Bolonia is a beautiful little town that the University of Southampton has been returning to year after year. Nestled in a bay on the Straight of Gibraltar, the area has very different habitats, ranging from open fields to pine forests and sand dunes. The trip began by exploring the local area and learning about the plant and invertebrate families found in the region, both native, (such as the Rockrose, Cistaceae family) and imported (such as the Agave americana). It wasn't restricted to these though! We found a chameleon, a couple of lizards and some teeny tiny snakes on the first day alone! Students then returned to the hostels to study the distinguishing features and taxonomy of everything they found and create posters on what they had learnt so far. Along with the other demonstrators, we drew up our own posters about the flora and fauna with their distinguishing features (see below) for revision purposes as unfortunately there was a test! But it wasn't all doom and gloom, everyone still found time to have some fun and enjoy the spectacular views of the area. Later on in the week explored the Ojen Valley, a beautiful area surrounded by cork oak, with a huge variety of Coleoptera. The data collected there and on the rock flipping day were used to introduce the first years to statistics so they would not feel as overwhelmed when they came to design their own projects.
Marine day began with a short presentation on marine taxonomy and what was likely to be found on the rocky shore, based on what we had collected last year. However the awkward timing of low tide meant that we did not find such a varied selection of phyla, but at least the sun was shining throughout! The second half of the field course was very much about the student's own research projects. Each demonstrator was assigned groups to supervise. My groups looked at The impact on pollinators after disrupting UV patterns on Cistaceae petals and Woodlouse preference of soil moisture and rock cover. Both worked exceptionally well in the time they were given! Once all the research and background reading had been done, each group did statistical tests on their data sets and created posters and videos showcasing their projects, to be presented to everyone at the hostel. They were seriously impressive, and certainly a lot better than when I did mine as an Undergrad! This marked the end of the assessment for the trip, so we organised some games on the beach, a treasure hunt and a pub quiz to lighten the mood. Our amazing hostel, Rios, brought out bottles of wine and jugs of sangria for everyone on our last night to celebrate, and more importantly, PAELLA. Our flight back to the UK left from Gibraltar in the early evening, so we had a great relaxing morning in the sunshine in Bolonia, then a little wander around Gibraltar itself before checking in - didn't see any Barbary macaques though! Parting ways at Heathrow was very strange, especially after spending every waking moment in each other's company, but that's what reunions are for! All in all, another brilliant trip! Had an amazing time and I hope that everyone else did too! If you'd like to find out more about the module (in a LOT more detail than I've gone into here) please follow this link: Biol1001 For more photos and tweets from this year's trip, follow this link: #SotonBiol1001 |
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