Following on from the 'I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here' reality show, the following article has appeared on the BBC news:


The bushtucker diet - the new Atkins?

By Caroline Ryan
BBC News Online's health staff

It was never like this in the BBC canteen - or when she was round at Liz and Phil's.

But former BBC Royal correspondent Jennie Bond's bushtucker diet was actually a very healthy - if bizarre - form of the Atkins diet.

The food she ate had loads of protein and no carbs - just what Atkins devotees are looking for.

The diet isn't dangerous - and you don't even have to eat the grubs live. So forget Atkins - the bushtucker diet could catch on.

But what exactly did Jennie eat in her I'm a Celebrity trial?

The bushtucker menu

She started with her "greens" - a leaf mimic, a flat green insect which, astoundingly, looks like a leaf.

Stuart Hine, an entomologist at the Natural History Museum, told BBC News Online: "These insects have a horrible stench. And those secretions are there for a reason - to put other creatures off eating them."


Next on the menu was a yabby, a type of crayfish which is native to Australia.

It is said to have very sweet meat and particularly succulent claws - when cooked. Raw, it would have been a little more slimy.

Next, Jennie ate a stick insect as a "palate cleanser" before moving on to the main course, the witchety grub, said to be an Aboriginal delicacy and rich in proteins and fats.

When cooked, witcheties are said to taste like almonds. Ten large grubs would provide the daily nutritional needs of an adult.

Dessert was a fish eye - something Jordan and Kerry McFadden had balked at even though it is considered a delicacy in countries including Japan.

Squeamish

Stuart Hine says: "There is a lot of protein in this food. It could be considered as a kind of 'Atkins diet'."

Eating insects is not dangerous - and it is only our Western squeamishness that puts us off. People regularly eat insects in many parts of the world. And, many years ago, so did we.

"In the late 1700s and early 1800s in the UK, slugs and caterpillars were an immediately available food for poor people," says Stuart. "They were probably quite a common thing to eat."

So, if you fancy the Bushtucker diet and can't make it to the outback, how about slugs for tea?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3475543.stm