Why Humans Have Always Eaten Insects (Yes… Really)

Why it’s not insects or meat - but insects AND meat.

A recent Science article caught my attention: “Neanderthals, hypercarnivores, and maggots: Insights from stable nitrogen isotopes,” co-authored by Julie Lesnik and others. It proposes something remarkable - that Neanderthals’ unusually high nitrogen isotope values might not only reflect their meat consumption, but also the regular inclusion of fly larvae (maggots) from putrefying meat.

In other words, our ancient relatives weren’t just eating meat - they were also eating the insects that came with it.

The idea may sound shocking to our modern sensibilities, but it shouldn’t. It’s a reminder that insects have always been part of the human diet - long before scavenging, through our hunting periods, and even today in many traditional foodways around the world.

Bill and Cat on the Great Human Race eating termites in Africa

---

The Deep Roots of Entomophagy

Doing cricket research in Thailand

Archaeological and ethnographic evidence shows that hominins were eating insects millions of years before we ever struck two stones together to butcher meat. Termites, ants, grubs, and larvae were nutrient-dense, easily accessible, and required no tools or fire.

Later, as we scavenged and hunted, insects remained an essential complement - rich in fat, protein, and micronutrients - and often came along naturally with the foods we stored, fermented, or aged.

Even today, more than two billion people across at least 80 countries regularly consume insects. They’re roasted, ground into flours, fermented, candied, or added to stews. In each case, insects provide an efficient and sustainable source of nutrition - one that demands almost no land or water and emits a fraction of the greenhouse gases produced by modern livestock.

Yet in much of the Western world, insect eating is often dismissed as primitive or repulsive, despite the fact that it represents one of the oldest and most successful food strategies humans have ever practiced.

---

What the Science Really Reveals

For decades, stable nitrogen isotope studies of Neanderthal bones have puzzled researchers. The results consistently show very high levels of nitrogen-15 (¹⁵N) - so high, in fact, that Neanderthals appeared to sit a full step higher on the trophic ladder than expected.

In simple terms, a trophic level refers to an organism’s position in the food chain - plants sit at the base, herbivores eat the plants, carnivores eat the herbivores, and so on. Neanderthals’ nitrogen values suggested they were not just top-level carnivores, but somehow eating above other predators - as if they were consuming animals that had already eaten meat themselves.

The new Science Advances study by Julie Lesnik and colleagues offers a fascinating explanation. Those elevated nitrogen signatures may not reflect extreme meat consumption, but rather the regular inclusion of insects - particularly maggots and larvae - in aged or stored meat.

As meat decomposes, insects like flies lay eggs that hatch into larvae, which feed on the proteins and fats of that meat. When Neanderthals ate those maggot-rich portions, they were consuming organisms that had already metabolized animal tissue - effectively eating one trophic step higher. This would naturally elevate their nitrogen levels, making them appear more “hyper-carnivorous” than they actually were.

Ethnohistoric accounts from Arctic and sub-Arctic groups lend credibility to this idea. In these cultures, putrefied, insect-infested meat was not only eaten but often preferred - valued for its softened texture, complex flavor, and easier digestibility. Maggots are rich in protein and fat, and their enzymatic activity begins breaking down the meat long before it’s consumed, turning it into a kind of naturally fermented, pre-digested food.

The takeaway isn’t that Neanderthals were careless scavengers, but that they, like all humans, used biology to process food - relying on microbes and insects as essential partners to transform, preserve, and enhance nutrition.

In this light, maggot-eating wasn’t primitive. It was smart, efficient, and deeply human - another reminder that processing food, in all its forms, has always been at the heart of what we eat.

---

Why the Modern Debate Misses the Point

Today, the conversation around insects has become polarized. On one side, advocates promote insects as the future of sustainable protein. On the other, some meat-eaters see this as a threat - a cultural or political statement implying that they must abandon animal foods altogether.

This false dichotomy - insects or meat - ignores the entire human story. Our ancestors thrived not by choosing between insects and animals, but by eating both, and doing so with a remarkable diversity and respect for the resources available to them.

Insects were never a replacement for meat; they were a complement to it - part of a whole-animal, nose-to-tail approach that left little to waste.

Viewed through an ancestral lens, the healthiest and most sustainable diets include animal fat, meat, offal, and insects - all processed through traditional methods that make them safe, digestible, and deeply nourishing.

---

Rethinking What “Ancestral” Really Means

If we’re going to adopt an ancestral dietary approach, we can’t selectively filter history through our modern preferences. Our ancestors didn’t have the luxury of avoiding foods that made them uncomfortable. Insects weren’t a novelty or a sustainability gimmick; they were part of the essential biological and cultural technology that made us human.

The modern question isn’t whether we should eat insects instead of meat - it’s whether we can rediscover the same ingenuity and respect that allowed our ancestors to eat both. For those striving to reconnect with food in its fullest sense, that means opening our minds as well as our stomachs.

---

Final Thought

Our MSAK Cricket Bombs

An ancestral diet isn’t built on nostalgia or ideology - it’s built on biology, ecology, and culture. And those three things all agree: insects have always belonged on the human table.

Whether or not you choose to eat them is a personal decision, but understanding their role in our past can help us make more grounded choices for our future. True nourishment isn’t about purity or exclusion - it’s about embracing the full, sometimes uncomfortable, diversity of what it means to be human.

This post isn’t to suggest that eating insects is required to follow a truly human-appropriate diet, but rather to push the limits of our modern thinking about food - to bring us a little closer to the reality of how humans have always eaten. Our ancestral diets didn’t just include ribeyes and eggs, but also organs, blood, and yes, insects.

Insect curious? Try our Modern Stone Age Cricket Bombs - an easy, delicious way to tap into the nutritional power of insects while enjoying a familiar taste and texture that fits beautifully into a modern diet.