Biro: Fear Factor and Food- Where Do We Draw the Line?

Fear Factor and Food

Where Do we Draw the Line?

Introduction:

In my Food and Communication class, we discussed how various cultures define what is "edible." In the U.S., we think lobsters and crabs are edible but spiders sure as heck are not, even though they all come from the arachnid family and are close cousins. Spiders and crabs aren't all that different, and yet one is a fine cuisine and the other is seen as the nastiest of nasty. In this post, I would like to explore the idea of "edible" vs. "inedible," particularly from the perspective of U.S. citizens, and look into why we have such strong aversions to foods that are commonly ate in other cultures. To illustrate some of the extreme aversions we have in the U.S., I will use the T.V. show Fear Factor. 

Our Aversions, As Expressed in Fear Factor:

Iraqi Camel Spider. This GIF was found in the BuzzFeed article.

In Fear Factor, contestants are forced to do things that either terrify or disgust them in order to prove that they are not afraid. They are pushed to the limits with every challenge, as can be seen in this BuzzFeed article. From donkey sperm to Iraqi camel spiders (pictured to the left), the contestants have to try to stomach the most disgusting dishes we can imagine. Sometimes, though, they eat dishes as mundane as grasshoppers or ants. Viewers of the show still cringe when the girl forces down a beetle, and yet there are people in the world who actually eat beetles regularly. According to an article in National Geographic titled "U.N. Urges Eating Insects; 8 Popular Bugs to Try," 36 countries in Africa, 23 in the Americas, 29 in Asia, and 11 in Europe are entomophagous, meaning they eat insects. And yet, we think of insects as nothing more than pests to swat away.

At my sister's "Grad Night," which is the party the school throws for graduates, one of the events was a game of Fear Factor. My sister, Salena, and her partner made it to the final rounds. They ate worms with their Lucky Charms, touched spiders, ate beetles, and more. For my sister, who has never been very "grossed out" by bugs, that part was easy. When Salena and her partner made it to the finals, though, her partner finally found something he was absolutely not willing to do: carry a donkey's tongue around in his mouth. I, too, feel slightly nauseated at the thought of this. Can you imagine having a raw, slimy, heavy, disgusting donkey tongue in your mouth? He did not even have to eat the tongue, and yet he could not complete the challenge. In the end, my sister and her partner lost because the idea of a donkey tongue was too much for her partner. 

We in the U.S. tend to only like eating the "traditional" parts of an animal- the muscles and fat. We avoid their organs, brain, tongue, feet, and other parts of the animal because they disgust us. Many other cultures do not have this issue, though. When I was in France, I ate goose liver. In Spain, I was offered the hoof of a cow. When I visited the Asian grocery store Pal-Do World, I saw everything from cow tongue to spleen on display. Now that I have experienced different cultures and how they are willing to eat foods that we would never even try, I am interested to know why we have such strong aversions to insects and organs of animals.

Where Do These Aversions Come From?

Insects:

When it comes to insects, Dr. Julie Lesnik, a Biological Anthropologist, gives three main reasons in an interview as to why people in the U.S. as well as people in many parts of Europe do not eat insects. Those reasons are: 

1. Taboo. Insects are seen as pests. We don't eat pests, do we? Pests transmit disease.
2. We have this separation between nature and humanity in the northern areas. Dr. Lesnik describes it beautifully when she says, "I also think a lot of how we live is people try and remove themselves from their natural environment as much as possible. So an insect that comes into your house in an invader, and they’re breaking our boundaries between us and them." She also describes how the cold is a factor when she says, "In the tropics, windows are just like windows and they don’t have screens, and you learn to live *with* the insects not against them... insects become much more of a pest and invasive in our homes when we need to have a temperature inside that’s different than the outside in order to survive. When you have an open seal, not only are you letting the cold in, but then insects are coming in."
3. The third reason that Dr. Lesnik gives is evolution- in northern areas, it was never common for humans to eat bugs. Between snow, rain, and other weather concerns, it just wasn't feasible for our ancestors to eat insects. Not only that, but insects are smaller further north and hide when it is cold, so they could never become a staple in our diets. 

Organs

Image above found at The Washington City Paper

People in the U.S. generally do not eat offal, which is the entrails and organs of meat, and in an article in Washington City Paper titled "Why Don't Americans Eat More Offal?" we are given some background into why we avoid these parts of animals that we eat regularly. When looking into why people do not eat the organs of an animal, they found that "lots of people simply thought of organ meat as scraps and had no idea how to cook it—the average American didn't eat offal, in other words, because the average American had never eaten offal." I think this could also be tied into one of the reasons we do not eat insects. We have no idea how to prepare them in a way that makes them less "nasty." 

Another reason mentioned in the article said, "Many Americans, it appeared, thought organ meats were what poor country folks ate, and with good reason—organ meats were what poor country folks ate. This being the U.S., said stigma likely had a racial component too. Chitlins, for example, made from pork intestines, first became a staple of African-American diets in colonial times, when prosperous whites dined on the choice hog meat and left their slaves to make do with the guts." An article by ABC Australia goes so far as to say "The Macquarie dictionary defines it as "the inedible parts of a meat carcass after slaughter", and goes further: "anything worthless or discarded; rubbish". There are likely quite a few other reasons why we do not choose to eat organs in the U.S.A., but these are what researchers found to be the top two reasons. 


More "Inedible" Foods Not Covered in Fear Factor:

Although Fear Factor uses our strong food aversions to disgust contestants, there are other foods that we deem "inedible" that have not been used in Fear Factor. In the U.S.A., most foods that are considered "inedible" are called that because they are "not worthy" of being eaten by us. Just like how we see offal as "poor people food," we often assume that certain foods are not for us just because they do not fit our standards. This can be seen in the foods we waste every day just because they are not perfect. Strawberries that are not perfectly heart-shaped are often thrown out, even if they would be just as juicy and delicious as more aesthetically pleasing berries. Lumpy potatoes also do not make the cut. If you ever go to a farmers market or even have your own garden, you will know that fruits and vegetables come in all shapes and forms and can be just as tasty even if they don't look "perfect," but still when we go to the grocery store shopping for these same foods, we choose the most beautiful and avoid the ugly foods. Foods not being "worthy" is not the only thing that stops us from eating them, though. Sometimes, it is quite the opposite. 

In Western countries, cats and dogs are companion animals rather than food.
This image was found online.

We in the U.S. do not eat animals that we consider pets. For example, in various countries in Asia, cats and dogs are common in the cuisine, but in the U.S. we find that idea appalling. To flip this concept around, we eat cow meat all the time but many people in India believe the cow is sacred and cannot be eaten. Certain animals are just off limits in various cultures not because they are "not worthy" of being eaten, but because they are more valuable than just as food. Cats and dogs comfort us with their affection and companionship, and we value that more than we value the potential meat on their bones. The same can be said about how we do not eat whales but certain Native America groups and Asian groups hunt whales regularly- to us, they are endangered and wonderful animals of the sea that are valued because they are endangered and rare. In India, cows are valuable for their sacredness, which is seen as more important than their meat content. The fact that we do not eat certain animals that we value makes us feel less barbaric in a different way than our aversion to insects and offal does- we feel like we are more civilized because we do not eat pets.

Why Should We Eat Bugs and Guts?

I will never be able to condone eating cats or dogs since I am not only a vegetarian but I also love cats more than anything, but I can see the value in eating insects and offal as well as in eating the ugly foods that usually don't make the cut. And so I would like to answer the question: why should we in the U.S. consider eating insects and offal?

Insects:

Above we can see an *appetizing* variety of grasshopper kebabs
 found on the Tree Hugger website.

The U.N. beat me to it in 2013 in a statement about why we should eat bugs, but there are so many benefits to adding insects to your diet. For one thing, insects can help improve food security and combat world hunger. According to the report issued by the U.N., "Insects are everywhere and they reproduce quickly, and they have high growth and feed conversion rates and a low environmental footprint." Not only are insects easier to come by, they will never have the same impact on the environment that raising cattle for beef would. Not only that, but they produce fewer greenhouse gases than other livestock would. Eating insects is also very nutritional, as covered in an article by the BBC titled "UN Urges People to Eat Insects to Fight World Hunger." "Insects are also "extremely efficient" in converting feed into edible meat. Crickets, for example, need 12 times less feed than cattle to produce the same amount of protein." While these statements may not speak to the hearts of middle class or upper class Americans, insects could provide a great amount of nutrition for malnourished children and adults across America. 

Offal:

When it comes to eating offal, it really depends on what kind of offal it is. Some people may be more inclined to eat a cow's intestine or liver than its tongue or brain. Still, there are benefits to eating more offal. For one thing, by eating the organs and other extra parts of meat, there is less waste. The ABC Australia article I mentioned earlier states "Another is that eating offal uses the parts of the beast that might otherwise be wasted. As it takes 10 kilos of cereal to produce one kilo of beef, then we should not be wasting any part of the carcass. Unless you deliberately avoid meat, eating offal should be regarded as "green"." Just as with insects, eating offal will actually help us to be "greener" by wasting less potential food. Also, as with insects, offal is extremely nutritious. The Paleo Plan website has an article about offal that highlights what offal has to offer us in terms of nutrition. "The main reason we should eat organ meats is that they’re rich in the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K." They even give a chart comparing beef sirloin and beef liver:

Nutrient	Beef Sirloin (100 g)	Beef Liver (100 g)	RDI*
Calories (kcal)	211	175
Protein (g)	26	27
Iron (mg)	1.7	6	18
Vit B1 (Thiamin) (mg)	.07	.2	1.5
Vit B2 (Riboflavin) (mg)	.1	3	1.7
Vit B3 (Niacin) (mg)	7	17	20
Folate (mcg)	8	260	400
Choline (mg)	99	418	n/a
Vitamin B-12 (mcg)	1.5	83	6
Vitamin A (IU)	0	26,088	5000
Vitamin K (mcg)	1.4	3.9	80
Vitamin E (mg)	0	.46	10
*Recommended Daily Intake based on a 2000 calorie diet

As can be seen above, the liver has a significant amount more iron, vitamin B (2 and 3 especially), folate, choline, vitamin B-12, and vitamin A. If we were willing to eat the offal as well as the muscles, we could have more balanced diets with vitamins and minerals galore. 


Closing Thoughts:

See? Offal doesn't always look disgusting! (Image found online)

Although I am a vegetarian myself, it is not because I dislike meat. Mostly, it is for health reasons. That being said, if I did eat meat, I am not sure I could force myself to eat offal and insects on the daily, and I definitely could not eat them live like they do on Fear Factor. Maybe if I couldn't tell there were insects and brains in my meal, I would be able to stomach them. And so, even though I feel that we should as a country be more willing to try these cuisines, I know it would take a lot of convincing to make me eat them. With that in mind, I would feel like a hypocrite if I ended this post saying that "everyone should eat bugs and guts or you're an awful human being." Instead, I would like to say that if you have the opportunity to try a meal with insects or organs in it, maybe question why your stomach is turning and, if you can get past that, give it a try. It might not be as nasty as Fear Factor makes it out to be, and it's darn good for you, too. 


But if you are offered an Iraqi camel spider or donkey sperm, as contestants on Fear Factor are, then I suggest you run away as fast as you can. Sometimes, things are called "inedible" for a very good reason. 




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