Earlier this week I decided to have a can of green beans for the hell of it. While they were cooking I started thinking about if there was a bug in my can and other nice things like that. By the time they finished I didn’t even want them but I made myself have a few bites. I got stems in two bites and tossed them-now the thought of eating anything out of a can makes me sick to my stomach. I almost always eat fresh veggies so I don’t know what possessed me to buy these abominations. I need my own garden and food mill!
Have you ever had a Cricket Lickit? It’s a creme de menthe-flavored lollypop with a toasted cricket embedded in the center. Sort of like a tootsie pop, but with the center crunchy instead of chewy. They’re pretty good.
What you have to tell yourself is that human beings can pretty much eat anything that isn’t actually toxic (and some things that aretoxic.). Many cultures eat bugs willingly and consider them a delicacy. So … trace amounts of bug parts and other stuff (which I won’t detail because it will just gross you out of existence) aren’t going to hurt you as long as the canning process is performed correctly. When food is canned, it is heated long enough to sterilize the contents. I’d worry more about bugs and stuff in uncanned foods.
Still, the best thing to do is not to think about it. Like Dad said, “What you don’t know won’t hurt you.”
I once opened a can of peaches (national brand, too, not the store brands I usually buy) and found one of those little white grub things floating on top. I looked for the peach half with the hole bored in it, threw that one out, and ate the rest of the can. I’ve found much uglier creatures in fresh produce, and most of them were still moving; at least a canned insect is not only dead, but sterilized.
Did she ever eat it? I still have one can of greens beans in the pantry and I have a feeling next time my mom stops over for a visit Ill be slipping it in her purse.
