Wood pecker

A 26-year-old Japanese man became fond of eating insects after trying an exotic delicacy called “inago no tsukudani” (grasshoppers simmered in soy sauce and sweet mirin sake) offered by his science teacher when he was a senior high school student.

Finding it tender and salty-sweet, with a taste like shrimp or sand lance fish, Kazuki Shimizu of Ikaruga in Nara Prefecture bought mealworms (beetle larva) at a tropical fish store, deep-fried them in a pot at his home, seasoned them with salt, and ate it, the Asahi Shimbun (AS) reported.

There were no side effects, and he let some of his classmates try it, telling them they were “sweets.”

Next, the now graduate student at Kindai University trekked in the mountains to look for — and eat — insects, including grasshoppers, cicadas, dragonflies, and praying mantises, according to AS. Then he started sharing videos of himself cooking and eating insects.

In his third year at the university, Shimizu developed his first commercial product: coffee mixed with powdered crickets. He also developed gyoza dumplings made with powdered crickets and silk bread, which is made of protein contained in silk threads from silkworms.

In 2023, Shimizu formed his startup, POI, which creates insect-based foods, with production outsourced to a manufacturer.

Meanwhile, the 21-month-old son of mother-of-two Jess Harry, from the village of Brymbo in Wrexham County, Wales, United Kingdom, has an unusual appetite.

The toddler ate sand, chewed rugs, and gnawed on the furniture all over their home, including their own cot. When Harry put him in a metal toddler bed, he could get out in the night and chew on the door frame, the BBC said.

“He cannot be left alone. If I leave him in the living room, which is a junior-safe zone apart from the walls, there’s still something that he does, or goes for,” Harry told BBC, referring to the child’s favorite: anything cardboard and wood.

Harry had her son examined. The toddler was diagnosed as suffering from pica, or craving for and eating non-edible items with no nutritional value.

There is no specific cure for pica, but steps to manage it include redirecting attention, managing anxieties, and replacing pica items with similar, but safe, alternatives, the BBC added.