These animals are nectarivorous in nature, eating sap, nectar, and honey (Though they are not bees, they are vertebrates.), but as they became more intelligent and advanced, they also incorporated foods like candy and vegan pastries into their diets. Their blood is based on hemerythrin also. If you ate one though, would their meat and/or blood taste sweet?
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asked Feb 15, 2022 at 0:28
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29$\begingroup$ As someone who once chewed on some ants by accident, I can tell you that the answer is no. $\endgroup$– The Square-Cube LawCommented Feb 15, 2022 at 0:33
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4$\begingroup$ Carbs are carbs, whether its is bread, veg or sugary sweets, they will be processed and used as glucose by cells for energy or stored as fat it wont change the meat too much. On a side note if you water a plant with a sugary drink, it will taste of sugar, Well, if u feed a plant fruit juice and smoke it, it will taste like the fruit in a cheap way, don't ask me why I know that. $\endgroup$– Alan DaviesCommented Feb 15, 2022 at 1:19
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4$\begingroup$ Try eating a bee or a hummingbird and let us know how that works out for you. :) $\endgroup$– Mike SerfasCommented Feb 15, 2022 at 2:01
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3$\begingroup$ @TheSquare-CubeLaw "Accident" $\endgroup$– DKNguyenCommented Feb 15, 2022 at 4:21
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2$\begingroup$ Fruit bats eat fruit, yet taste like bat. This is silly. $\endgroup$– DragongeekCommented Feb 15, 2022 at 15:39
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5 Answers
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Possibly, but you aren’t what you eat.
Well, you are what you eat, but let me finish.
Let’s say you only eat plants. Plants don’t have muscles, but you can incorporate a plant’s proteins into yourself and build muscles with it. Carbohydrates are great for making energy, but if you don’t use that energy, it gets stored as fats. Therefore, to make your creature taste good, you need to find ways to incorporate sugars and fats into the creature’s natural state without harming its overall effectiveness.
However, eating sweet things is neither a guarantee or a prerequisite to being sweet.
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3$\begingroup$ Which makes shrimp delicious even though they're bottom feeders. $\endgroup$– DKNguyenCommented Feb 15, 2022 at 4:29
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$\begingroup$ Building on this (although "what conditions would cause an animal to incorporate sugars into its natural state?" would be a nice question here) perhaps one way to go would be to imagine a creature which sometimes has a need for a surge of energy, so can trigger a sugar rush when stressed or aroused or whatever. $\endgroup$– dbmag9Commented Feb 15, 2022 at 22:31
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Even Hyperglycemia does not make blood sweet
In humans, normal blood sugar levels are less than 100 mg/dL after not eating (fasting) for at least 8 hours. And they're less than 140 mg/dL 2 hours after eating. But normally blood doesn't taste sweet.
If sugar levels are more than 200 mg/dl, it is called Hyperglycemia. This is as if you dissolve 2 grams of sugar in one liter of water. I don't think it is sweet.
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2$\begingroup$ It IS sweet. All the way to the point where hyperglycemic patient fell sweet taste in mouth. $\endgroup$– fraxinusCommented Feb 15, 2022 at 13:33
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2$\begingroup$ @fraxinus That sweet taste is usually ketones (relatives of acetone) due to ketosis -- patients with this are often described as having "fruity" breath odor as well. Diabetics with very high sugar also secrete sugars in their urine; this is where diabetes gets its name: diabetes "melitus" is derived from "excess urine" and a root for honey. $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 15, 2022 at 14:00
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2$\begingroup$ Bonus info - doctors used to test for Type 1 diabetes by tasting a patient's urine. If it was sweet --> boom, diabetes. $\endgroup$– Ed HPCommented Feb 15, 2022 at 15:39
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1$\begingroup$ Hyperglycemic patients feel sweet taste in mouth and their urine is sweet but if you cook a Hyperglycemic animal, it will not be a sweet dish or dessert (that is the question). A cannibal tribe can be asked if they have ever tasted a hyperglycemic patient. $\endgroup$– imtaarCommented Feb 16, 2022 at 7:13
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Though not a given, it can be that the type of diet influences the resulting taste.
Galleria mellonella is a moth whose larvae parasitize honey bees
G. mellonella larvae parasitize the honeybee. Eggs are laid in the cracks and crevices inside the hive, which minimizes egg detection. Once eggs hatch, they feed on the midrib of the wax comb, the cast skins of bee larvae, pollen, and small quantities of propolis and honey.
Because of their diet, many animals are fond of the larvae, which seem to have a sweet taste. The dried larvae are also sold as human food, and I have seen them in the local supermarket.
Additionally I know that when harvesting snails an essential steps before cooking them is to let them purge, that is having them feed on bran for few days, in order for their body to expel all bitter molecules which they have absorbed upon feeding in the wild.
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Bees are sweet. I think this is why dogs like them.
On the other hand, they are sweet because of the honey they carry, not the one they already metabolized.
One cannot be too much sweet as a whole without inviting microorganisms and bigger parasites. Diabetic patients learn this the hard way.
Fruits spend limited time being sweet and then they either get eaten, or dry out, or rot.
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There is NO biological reason why eating (almost only) sugars you should become sweet.
Notice poultry and certain kind of fish (notably catfish) have high carbohydrate diets (and are very efficient in converting it into protein), but they are not sweet.
Assuming chemistry compatible with earthly one (as suggested by OP) digestion will break down protein and sugars in the simplest components (aminoacids and monosaccarides) even before they actually get into the blood stream. This means eating starchy foods (seeds, bread, pasta, etc.) and even raw grass (if you have a stomach able to digest it) is not different (after digestion, of course) from eating sugar; you just sidestep a digestion phase so sugars are adsorbed faster.
The amount of sugars actually remaining in the blood stream is extremely limited and mainly dependent on insulin levels.
Sugars in the blood stream are either used for energy (Krebs cycle) or stored. There are three main storage mechanisms:
- store in muscle tissue (as glycogen)
- store in the liver (also as glycogen)
- convert to fat for "long-term storage" (when the other two "stores" are full).
Neither glycogen nor fat is "sweet".
