Eating Bugs

I’m tired of the whole “don’t worry, it’s a good source of protein” statement that people give if a bug is inadvertently swallowed. It’s one of those automatic responses that many people say, but I think it’s time for it to be retired, so I did a little pseudo-research (Google) to look into the actual value of eating a bug.

100 grams of small grasshoppers yields 14.3 grams of protein
1 small grasshopper is .3 grams
333 small grasshoppers are needed to equal 100 grams
1 small grasshopper yields .04 grams of protein

100 grams of beef yields 22 grams of protein
100 grams is equal to 3.5 ounces
3.5 ounces is less than ¼ pound or ½ cup

Okay, so it’s not really surprising, 1 small grasshopper doesn’t amount to much protein. I don’t think anybody would really be surprised, and these are grasshoppers we’re talking about, whole grasshoppers, not pesky little flies which are eaten by accident. Comparing the size of just a single, tiny fly (2mm) to a small grasshopper (30mm) still reveals a huge difference. I can only imagine the nutritional value is even more negligible. Length-wise, this would mean something like 5000.

Conclusion?
Certainly bugs can be decent sources of protein, but not when eaten as a single accidental incident. Eating 1 of 5000 flies needed to amount to less than the nutritional value of a ¼ pound beef patty hardly warrants the use of the tired statement about bugs containing protein.