Voravut Ratanakommon, from Boston, looks at fried rice with meal worms that he ate at a pop-up ... [+] restaurant. Menu items included grasshopper burger, meal worm fired rice and bbq buffalo worms.

Hungry yet? Researchers at the University of Helsinki in Finland say eating novel and future foods has the potential to sharply cut the environmental impacts of people’s diets. Those include non-traditional foods in Western diets like insects, kelp and other seaweeds. Beyond Meat, indeed.

You may have read that eating meat contributes to climate change. And eating less meat is one the best ways to help the planet.

But are you willing to go as far as eating insects? Or mostly insects, with some meat as a treat?

According to Rachel Mazac, from the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry at the university, “By minimising environmental impact in global warming potential, i.e., carbon emissions, water use, and land use, we found that diets with novel and future foods as well as vegan diets with protein-rich plant-based alternatives could have over 80% less environmental impact than the average current European omnivore diet.”

So-called novel foods include cultured meat, eggs, milk, plants, algae, bacteria and fungi. Future foods include insects and spirulina algae (and fall into the food startup category).

Even cutting animals from most of your diet (by 80%, with some room for indulging), could reduce environmental impacts by more than 70%, the researchers say.

Of course, they note that “there is a long way to go in terms of cultural acceptability, economic and price accessibility, and developing taste, texture, and flavour profiles for full adoption into diets on a large scale.”

That’s one way to say it.

The study, “Incorporation of novel foods in European diets can reduce global warming potential, water use and land use by over 80%,” was published in the journal Nature Food (and shared by researchers as part of a news release).

Researchers write that the acceptance of novel/future foods can increase with positive information highlighting environmental, health (for example, micronutrient supplementation and antioxidant/anti-inflammatory properties) and animal-welfare benefits, though it still depends in large part on taste and price.

“Some claim that (novel/future foods) provide additional possibilities for ‘dietary resilience’ in the face of uncertain future climate change due to their prospect to provide essential nutrition through unforeseen disturbances,” they add.

Deep-fried grasshoppers for sale at a roadside market stall in Thailand. Insects are a popular snack ... [+] food and important source of protein for many cultures in Southeast Asia.

So who out there is working on this issue, to make novel and future foods more available?

When it comes to insects, for example, there are a number of startups working to bring edible bugs to the masses. They include Mighty Cricket out of St. Louis, Missouri, offering ground crickets in plain and flavored protein powders, and more.

The company says cricket protein rivals beef like no plant-based protein can, adding that “crickets contain almost all the nutritional benefits that you get from eating meat, fish, and rye bread – at once!”

As with other meat alternatives (back to the Beyond Meat burgers, for instance), maybe science and technology will help people eat greener and not be grossed out by the thought of consuming bugs.

Edible insects like crickets and mealworms have been part of diets around the world for a long time, according to an article in The Conversation, focusing on Australia.

And yellow mealworm was approved for human consumption in the European Union earlier this year, clearing the way for it to appear on menus and in bars, smoothies and burgers. More insects are likely to gain the same status soon.