“They want us either dead or sick, a weak people is easily enslaved”. This is what can be read in one of the comments under one of the Facebook posts with which those who share them try to convince other people that insect meal is dangerous, despite the positive opinion expressed by the European Food Safety Agency, which authorized the meal of some insects – cricket, yellow maggot, migratory locust and mealworm – for human consumption within the EU. Specifically, the dietician Giorgio Calabrese is quoted, referring to an intervention by him in the episode of Cartabianca of 28 March 2023.
For those in a hurry:
- An alleged quote from the dietician Giorgio Calabrese is circulating on Facebook.
- According to the shared image, the professor said that “eating insects is bad for your health and you die sooner”.
- In his speech at Cartabianca, Calabrese never declares what users say on Facebook.
- There is no evidence that eating insects is bad for your health or shortens life expectancy.
Analyses
This is the description of one of the posts showing a screenshot of Calabrese’s post to Cartabianca:
«Cricket flour, Professor Calabrese’s alarm. Go and see the statistics of the people who eat this crap! IT HURTS YOUR HEALTH AND YOU DIE EARLIER! Depopulation.”
According to the speakers, the professor declared that “eating insects is bad for your health and you die sooner”. Many of these posts also share a link to an article on the website DC News in which the same alleged quote from the professor is reported.
The crops
To verify the professor’s claims, one can start by catching up on the episode of the show in which he gave his speech. Calabrese touches on the topic when there are 16′ 30” left at the end of the episode, and continues in a heated discussion with the host Bianca Berlinguer and her guests for the next 8 minutes. In no case does he state that “eating insects is bad for your health and you die sooner”.
The allergy
The criticism raised by Calabrese is the presence of “allergenic proteins” in insects. Indeed, many insects contain tropomyosin and arginine kinase, two proteins with a high allergic power, which however are contained in many commonly consumed foods also in the Mediterranean diet, such as shellfish for the former, and dried fruit, white meat as well as various legumes for the second. In short, nothing new, but nobody forbids certain foods for this reason.
Farm safety
Calabrese addresses the producers: «I want to ask the producer. When you will have millions and millions of things… how can you ensure that that farm is perfectly healthy without using conditions of antibiotics and sometimes even hormones to bring back these insects which are small…». There are many health problems detected in traditional farms, just think of the recent investigation by Report on pig farms intended for the production of Parma ham, where the RAI program claims to have found the presence of rodenticide spread throughout the farm.
Conclusions
The alleged quote from dietician Giorgio Calabrese “eating insects is bad for your health and you die sooner” circulates on Facebook. In his speech in Cartabianca, Calabrese never declares what users say on Facebook. There is no evidence that eating insects is bad for your health or shortens life expectancy.
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