Camren Brantley-Rios, senior in public relations, said he made tacos Jan. 30 slightly different from how most people do it. He took taco shells, added taco seasoning, lime, grilled onions, avocado queso fresco, refried beans, salsa and wax worms.
"It didn't taste bad at all," Brantley-Rios said. "It was just the fact that I was eating worms was a little weird."
Jaimen Perez, one of Brantley-Rios' friends and senior in economics, said he tried the same tacos and was surprised by them.
"I couldn't even really taste the worms," Perez said.
Brantley-Rios said his whole diet for the next 30 days will be a little weird. He's challenged himself to eat every meal with some kind of bug or insect-based additive to raise awareness about bugs as a food source.
Brantley-Rios said he researched cultures that consume bugs before starting his challenge. He said his findings challenged some of his previous beliefs about bugs.
"I've always associated them with vermin for so long and being pests," Brantley-Rios said. "I was never an outdoorsy kid who played with bugs and ate worms because I was dared to, so I think I'm just trying to get out of that."
According to Brantley-Rios, his challenge began Jan. 30 with an omelette seasoned with mealworms. Although he said he was nervous, he managed to eat the worm omelette.
"I ate it, and then I started jumping up and down because I was so delighted," Brantley-Rios said. "It was a big relief because it tasted like popcorn and had a buttery taste, so it wasn't that weird."
Not all of his meals have been as easy to eat, Brantley-Rios said.
"I'm not gonna claim to be used to it," Brantley-Rios said. "I start off and think, 'Oh, this is fine.' I start off and I try to gauge the flavor and the flavor's never bad. Halfway through the meal I start thinking about it. 'Yep, these are bugs. You're eating bugs.' I kind of get grossed out, and I slow down. It's a work in progress right now for sure."
Brantley-Rios said he's found it easier to eat Exo protein bars, made with cricket flour, because they taste similar to regular protein bars.
He said he also plans to make his breakfasts by blending bug-based ingredients into smoothies.
For now, Brantley-Rios said he has to order bug foods from online stores. Food made from insects is more of a specialty item, something he said he hasn't been able to find locally.
Two people interested in his challenge, Brantley-Rios said, were Scott Clem, second-year master's student in entomology; and Simon Gregg, senior in biosystems engineering, who talked to him about buying locally grown bugs.
Clem and Gregg said they were thinking about raising insects locally before reading Brantley-Rios' blog announcing his challenge.
"(The blog has) really given us more motivation to make something happen," Gregg said.
According to Gregg and Clem, bugs are an untapped market of food creation, something people will eat in the future if they can get over what Clem calls "the ick factor."
Clem said eating grasshoppers, which consume grass, is no more "gross" than eating shellfish, which feed at the bottom of oceans or rivers.
"For thousands of years, humans have been eating insects," Clem said. "They're loaded with protein, they have calcium, they have good nutrients."
Clem said most people already eat insects without realizing.
"The USDA allows a certain amount of insect matter into our food," Clem said. "It's a very minute amount, but it's impossible to (make) things like grain and avoid having insects mixed in somewhere. It's there, we're already eating [it] and it doesn't harm us at all."
Brantley-Rios, who is mixing more than minute amounts of bugs into his food, said he hopes to change people's minds about bugs' potential as food.
"You gotta just look at it and say, 'This is just food,'" Brantley-Rios said.
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