Humans, in fact most animals, could survive given the bare essentials of nutrition: Some grains, some beans, some earthy greens and maybe a few eggs. Pretty basic, nearly tasteless stuff. So, why do we have such refined sensibilities with regards to taste (and smells)?
There are literally millions of ingredients, spices, recipes, mixtures, and cooking methods all producing exotic, intoxicating, alluring odors and flavors. It seems overkill. Thousands of culinary media stars (over the years) continue to entice us with the promise of just one more umami taste, one more Maillard enhanced sensation. Sheesh! Talk about the absurdity of The Excess.
If I were designing a brand new biological creature I’d focus on a binary eating process:
- Will this kill me (or make me ill), or not?
- Will this enhance my nutritional energy quotient, or not?
There, done.
With such a process, a vast swath of beneficial food stuffs now opens up for such a creature to leverage. Think: super goat. The whole concept of “squeamishness” would vanish.
“Oooh, I can’t eat that.”
“Well, sure you can. It won’t kill you, or make you sick, and it will keep you alive for another day and a half.”
Does today’s food culture seem excessive and absurd to you?
Anonymole - apocryphal agitators 
You know, you go someplace where famine is the rule I’d bet lactose intolerance is unheard of. And “fish sticks make me sick” would never be uttered. On the other hand, a lot of stranded in the snow types wouldn’t have survived without packets of Taco Bell sauce. Powdered coffee creamer is sustenance, I’m living proof.
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I have pondered this whilst preparing my cat’s dinner for him; a simple rotation of 3 different canned meats, along with a few different flavours of biscuits sprinkled on top, all essentially the same, each and every day at the same time. Anything else he eats he finds for himself, I ask no questions. If only I could manage the same simplicity for myself.
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But we could, couldn’t we?
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