I tend to go through sample trays like an open-mouthed freight train. You can imagine my delight when I was at a food conference earlier this year and there was a banquet table overflowing with food samples. I ate my way through the entire smorgasbord, but it was cookies from Bitty Foods that called me back. As I stuffed three more cookies into my face I asked, “Guys, what the hell are these? They’re so damn good!” The two people behind the table responded, “Our cookies are made out of crickets.” I suddenly felt nauseous.
Out of politeness, however, I feigned nonchalance and said, “Oh great!” and then scampered away to collect myself. When I went back upstairs and had a few minutes to process, I realized that I felt totally fine up until I was told that I had just consumed bugs, so—clearly—my nausea was not really a physical reaction, but a mental one.
