Insects, the best thing that happened to veganism?

Insects, the best thing that happened to veganism?

Aug 09, 2016SENSinternational Admin

Vegans don’t eat animals; insects are animals; vegans, therefore, don’t eat insects. Simple, right? But wait. Did you know that insects don’t feel pain and cannot suffer? Did you know that insects provide all the nutrients that are hard to get on a vegan diet? Did you know that insects require less feed, less land, and less water than any other animal by far? Did you know that substituting some plants for insects can actually reduce animal suffering? No? Then it’s time you took a closer look, because insects are the best thing that happened to veganism.

Even in a well-formulated real foods vegan diet, nutrient deficiencies are unavoidable

Several studies have shown that vegans are prone to deficiencies in B12, calcium, iron, zinc and long-chain fatty acids EPA & DHA. Vegan diets are also lacking in well-absorbable complete proteins. Insects, especially crickets, are a great source of all of these nutrients and provide a highly absorbable complete protein.

Killing insects is morally ok

Insects don’t feel pain and therefore cannot suffer. When there is no suffering there is no harm to be done. Insects thrive in densely packed conditions, ideal for farming. They have a natural ability to slow down their metabolism and go into hibernation when their environment becomes inhospitable; reducing temperature and freezing them is a humane and painless method of killing.

Eating insects means harming fewer animals

Sentient animals are killed as a side effect of growing and harvesting plants. We now have a choice between killing animals that do not suffer (insects) and those that very clearly do (rodents, birds, etc.) when plants are grown. Vegans that want to reduce the suffering of animals should replace a significant part of their calories from plants by calories from insects.

Insects are the kings of sustainability

To produce the same amount of protein as other commonly farmed animals, they require significantly less feed, land, and water, not to mention they can be fed with plant-based food production byproducts that would normally be wasted. Their farming also creates less waste, pollution, and greenhouse gasses.

To sum it all up

Insects are a solution for all the nutritional issues vegan diets suffer from, a very sustainable option, and a great weapon in the fight against animal cruelty. So, isn't it the right time to include insects in your daily diet?

You can start by trying our insect-based bars

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