The Meaning of Headlines: 'stomach bugs'

The Meaning of Headlines: 'stomach bugs' - nutrition

The Advertiser published an article on September 30, 2015, with the headline ‘Could you stomach bugs? Our future may depend on it.’ What does ‘stomach bugs’ mean?

Usually when people hear or read about ‘stomach bugs’ they refer to bugs in the stomach – germs and other nasty bugs that make people sick. The medical definition of a ‘stomach bug’ is gastroenteritis or infectious diarrhea – yes, the runs! It’s not pleasant. Gastroenteritis is an inflammation of the small intestine that causes cramps, vomiting, and diarrhea. It’s referred to as ‘stomach bugs’ because the illness is caused by bacteria, bacterial toxins and parasites. Parasites are visible organisms, and include worms, tapeworms, liver flukes, and fleas. Real bugs.

But wait, this article is not about stomach bugs of the gastroenteritis kind. No, it’s about beetle bread and chocolate coated crickets and … the food chain: bugs – insects – that people can eat.

The article mentions the global food crisis – the shortage of food and the problem in feeding the world’s population. The article adds that insects are edible and are natural sources of protein, minerals, and nutrients. Insects could become a lucrative food industry. Because eating insects is not conventional, ’minced bugs may sound icky’ say researchers at the University of Adelaide in South Australia. People think insects – like crickets, grasshoppers, mealworms, ants, beetles, and cockroaches – are awful things to eat. People cannot bear to put insects into their mouths, let alone actually swallow them. The researchers think that people will need to overcome their ‘food prejudices’ if people don’t want to starve.

So the phrase ‘could you stomach bugs?’ is not using the word ‘stomach’ as an adjective (to describe the bugs), but as a verb. In other words, ‘to stomach something.’ What does ‘to stomach’ mean?

‘To stomach’ is defined in the Free Dictionary as ‘to desire’ or ‘to tolerate’ or ‘to bear’ or ‘to eat’ or ‘to digest.’ The headline is asking readers ‘Can you eat bugs?’ or more specifically ‘Can you bear (or dare) to eat bugs?’

The article has an interesting sub-heading, ‘When it Comes to the Crunch’ – meaning two things. ‘Crunch’ is ‘to crush with the teeth making a loud but muffled grinding noise’ according to Oxford Dictionaries. It is just the sound that eating shelled cockroaches and insects would make! ‘When it comes to the crunch’ means ‘a crucial point or situation, typically one at which a decision with important consequences must be made.’ Just like the important decision about global nutrition.

Scorecard for The Advertiser headline is 100%. The headline is interesting, catchy, evocative, emotive, and expressive. It has a relevant double entendre (double interpretation) whereby readers might associate eating bugs (ants and cockroaches) with getting a stomach bug (vomiting and diarrhea). Therefore it is a headline that leads into an article that challenges people’s tastes and thinking.

http://blogs.adelaide.edu.au/research/

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