eli5 If eating rotten food is bad, why maggots and insects can and eat them?

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eli5 If eating rotten food is bad, why maggots and insects can and eat them?

In: Biology

3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

In a sense this is like asking, “If we can’t breathe carbon dioxide, why is it essential for plants?” Different forms of life have completely different metabolic capabilities. Things that we can eat are toxic and potentially deadly for cats, and cats are a lot closer to us biologically than insects. I’m not sure if this clears it up sufficiently, but the bottom line is that maggots are capable of making use of organic matter that’s in a chemical state that ranges from gross to deadly for humans to try to process.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Because they have stomachs that are able to safely process the rotten food. Humans have a different stomach system than, say, a housefly.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Whats bad for humans isnt bad for all species. Thats kinda like asking ‘if humams cant breath underwater why do fish live in the ocean?’

Rotting food isnt inherently bad, its just bad for humans and some other animals.