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Anyone for an insect taco? Mexico's taste for eating creepy crawlies -- originating from the Pre-Columbian era -- could be the answer to ending hunger. United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) is encouraging the production of edible insects to supplement diets in areas where malnutrition is rife and as a measure to combat obesity. Full Story: All things creepy and crawly are enjoying their moment in the culinary spotlight after the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, recently recommended insect consumption as a way of combatting global hunger. Nowhere has the message been more warmly received than in Mexico where insects have been part of the diet for hundreds of years. Pre-Columbian civilizations in the country ate them frequently because meat through cattle raising did not exist. Although conquistadors discouraged insect consumption, ethnic groups in the region continued to eat them. This restaurant called Don Chon, to the west of Mexico City, offers insect-based dishes, presenting them to customers as special treats. [Hugo Gutierrez, Customer, Restaurant Chon]: "Fortunately in Mexico we have a gastronomical tradition. Not only with food but with gastronomy. We know how to eat maguey worms, how to eat ant larvae, how to eat ahuatl, how to eat acocil rolls, the tantarias, all the insects the Aztecs used to eat we now eat out of curiosity but in the future, out of need." Dr. Julieta Ramos Elorduy, an Entomologist and Professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, has been studying edible insects in Mexico and worldwide for more than 40 years. FAO and panel experts including Ramos Elorduy, said last month that encouraging people to eat beetles, caterpillars and ants could help improve food security and counter the world's growing problem of obesity. [Dr. Julieta Ramos Elorduy, Entomologist, Unam Biology Institute]: "They have a lot of vitamins and mineral salts. The fatty acids insects have, are polyunsaturated, which our organism needs. They are not the kind that will make us fat and harm us by going to our arteries, forming cholesterol. On the other hand, the proteins are also very good quality because they are mainly formed by essential amino acids. These are needed by humans because we are unable to form them in our metabolism." According to the UN agency some two billion people, a third of the world's population, already consume edible insects. Globally more than 1,900 species of insects are eaten, including grasshoppers, termites and flies. Apart from Mexico, they are also enjoyed in Africa and Asia. For more news and videos visit ☛ http://ntd.tv Follow us on Twitter ☛ http://twitter.com/NTDTelevision  Add us on Facebook ☛ http://on.fb.me/s5KV2C