Eat Worms To Look Pretty

This is the No. 5 most searched keyword on Yahoo China today, 2,374,530 searches in one day.

(http://www.hinews.cn/news/system/2007/10/31/010162923.shtml)

Recently some "OLs" (office ladies) in Beijing have got themselves into a habit of eating worms.

Worms are a legitimate dish in many of the less mainstream cuisines such as Yunnan food. Dishes such as deep fried locus and sweet and sour butterfly cocoons are common dinner table items for the Gelao people in Yunnan. Thanks to this new trend, some of the Yunnanese restaurants in Beijing are packed on the weekends with young OLs and models who are hoping that the nutrients in the worms can bring them beauty. One restaurant manager said: "we consume hundreds of kilos of worms per week now, and we have to have the worms shipped over from Yunnan almost every two days to meet the demand."

According to a report produced by a research institute in Yunnan, these worms do contain high levels of amino acids, fatty acids, trace minerals and vitamins. However, because they get deep fried in the restaurants, they may still not be too good for your health.

Source:

http://www.hinews.cn/news/system/2007/10/31/010162923.shtml