Should we eat more insects?!#$@

My mother was a "mother's helper" to more than two dozen new mothers and infants. After rearing six of her own children she observed a wide variety of behaviors in children and a few of her observations left an indelible impression on me because they were so unusual in my modern worldview.

One: Children who eat dirt need those minerals...
Two: We can be TOO clean...

I've watched over the years as we learn intriguing secrets of living in harmony with nature. Things like: animals self-medicate when they are sick with herbs and unusual foods. Most wild (and healthy) animals eat a variety of raw foods. etc.

Today as I read the following science research report, it occurred to me that maybe our food supply is TOO pure. We have developed a cultural revulsion to eating insects...but maybe nature's not-so-pure food supply is part of a healthy way of living close to nature. Can we reclaim nature's system of human health rather than something we pick apart one tiny sliver at a time?

How would we reclaim our natural heritage of eating and self-care? What steps should we take? Hmmm....


Insect Protein Effective for Treating Heart Ailments Identified

November 21, 2006

Compounds known to play an important role in how insects develop from larvae to adults have been shown in mice to be effective in preventing and reducing cardiac cell overgrowth and irregular heart rhythms, according to researchers at the University of California, Davis.

Cardiologist and cell biologist Nipavan Chiamvimonvat and entomology professor Bruce Hammock led a 16-member team that identified epoxide hydrolase inhibitors as novel and powerful chemical compounds that block an immune system protein known to play a role in cardiac cell overgrowth and arrhythmias. The findings are published this week in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.A.

The work is important because it could lead to important new medications for treating enlargement of the heart and heart arrhythmias -- conditions that have few treatment options and ultimately progress to heart failure and sudden cardiac death.