While we Indians love sticking to our traditional food, there has been an exponential growth in the consumption of Exotic foods in India. Japanese food like Sushi is being consumed a lot in India, so much that Japan has increased its food export to India by 40% in the last year!

A new study shows that people who are okay with eating exotic food like Sushi will be open to eating insects as well. This international study led by Victoria’s La Trobe University and the University of Pennsylvania has found that people who frequently consume sushi are more open to introducing edible insects into their diets.

The interesting part about this study is that there were two groups of participants from two different countries out of which 275 participants were from America and 201 individuals were from India!

While over 80% Americans said that they would be okay with eating insects, Only 34% Indians said that they would consider eating something that contains insect flour. The research says that Americans are more accepting if insects as potential food than Indians and it also shows that more men are accepting than women.

But the main observation that this research made is that just like Sushi, people would take time to get used to insects as a part of their diet. Personally, I’ve been to weird places and I’ve had all sorts of insects. From Tarantula Spiders, candy dipped spiders, maggot cheese and even boiled earthworms! It takes some courage to try and eat creepy crawlies. I had to close my eyes for the first bites but when I actually ate these insects, I realized how delicious they were. 

Not only insects are tasty, but they also have high quantities of protein! Some insects can give you enough protein that is equivalent to Whey protein shakes that most of us consume! So the next time someone says, “Keede Kha” tell them, “I'm thinking about it!"