By: Iris Xu
During a June concert in Chicago, one stop in the Eras tour, Taylor Swift went into a coughing fit, announcing to the audience that she had just eaten a bug.
After the coughing subsided, she said that the snack tasted “delicious”. She acted like she was embarrassed, asking, “Is there any chance that none of you saw that?” Then saying, “It’s fine, it’s all, its- I’ve swallowed it.”
Most people don’t get to go to concerts for free. Especially not one of Taylor Swift’s concerts, where average ticket prices are $700. A Swiftie even wrote, “Can you believe A BUG went to the eras tour AND met Taylor Swift and I DIDN’T?”
Eating bugs by accident is how we are all the same. Even the same as the one and only Taylor Swift. We either breathe bugs in, or consume them in our food- it’s common for humans to eat insects.
Jerome Grant, an entomology professor at the University of Tennessee states, “Bugs are everywhere. They’re part of our lives. They’re not going anywhere, so we have to learn to live with them, even if it means swallowing them sometimes.”
Most of the bugs that we inhale are completely harmless. However, some people might have allergies to cockroaches or to the scales of moths. You’d have to consume them in large quantities though, says Grant. People with shellfish allergies could also have reactions to some insects because some bugs have jointed appendages, which makes them similar to shrimp, lobsters, and crayfish.
But for most people? It’s just a bit of extra protein.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has said that the rumored estimate of 1 or 2 pounds of insects annually is far too much. “It’s predicted that you’ll eat as much as 1 pound of insects in your lifetime- by accident, of course.”
The FDA’s “Food Defect Levels Handbook,” which may just contain the scariest government information outlines how much of disgusting things, like pieces of insects to rodent hair, are allowed in food. In cornmeal, for example, it’s perfectly okay to have a whole insect or 25 insect fragments per every 50 grams. Citrus juice can have five fly eggs or one maggot per cup. Wheat flour can have more than 75 insect fragments in about every half cup. How disgusting is that? Very.
All of that doesn’t add up to one pound. There are also the rare occasions when you inhale a bug, like Taylor Swift. According to The Washington Post, you might inhale more bugs if you are outside a lot, running, biking, or anywhere with light, where bugs are attracted to.
Grant says that Taylor Swift reacted perfectly. Not overreacting and laughing it off without missing a beat.
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