Nutrition News: Insects and Aspartame
Let’s check out the latest hot topics in nutrition! 🙂
Insects on a plate
Despite the problem of food waste, we will need efficient and environmentally friendly protein sources in the future. The global population continues to grow, and protein is an essential nutrient for human survival. If we want to save the environment and health, we need to find alternatives to pork, beef, and poultry meat. Fortunately, we already have one good idea – insects!
Maybe you’re not surprised. In some regions (Asia, Africa, and South America) insects are part of a traditional diet. But for Europeans it’s not so obvious. However, even today, European food producers can use 3 species of insects in the form of flour.
It is certain that insects can be a really valuable product: they have a lot of protein, iron, and their production is not so harmful to the environment. Are you ready to have insects on your plate…? Who knows, perhaps in a few years you will see them in the recipes in our apps!
Aspartame leads to cancer…?!
Aspartame is an artificial sweetener that has been in use for years, especially in beverages. It’s much sweeter than sugar and has a very low calorie value. Not long ago, the world was abuzz with World Health Organization (WHO) information that aspartame may be carcinogenic.
According to the WHO’s official position, current scientific evidence provides grounds to classify aspartame as a potential human carcinogen. Experts emphasize that further long-term studies are needed to determine unequivocally the mechanism of aspartame’s effects on the human body. Currently, the acceptable daily intake of aspartame has not been changed and is still 40 mg/kg of body weight.
Will future research result in aspartame being banned? We’ll see!
Bibliography:
- https://www.who.int/news/item/14-07-2023-aspartame-hazard-and-risk-assessment-results-released
- Nowakowski AC, Miller AC, Miller EM, et al. Potential health benefits of edible insects. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2022;62(13):3499-3508. doi: 10.1080/10408398.2020.1867053.