I’m imagining that no one showed the first humans (or other animals) what was edible and what wasn’t. So how did we discover that the things that we consider food are indeed food and not end up munching on random things and wondering why it wasn’t satisfying? Was it trial and error or do we have something built in us that helps us recognize things as food?
In: Biology
With your senses. Visually, for humans, Red is appetizing, green is the opposite. Taste is the most important, Bitter food is toxic (try eating a random flower). And obviously smell. Feeling helps a bit. Also if you eat a random berry and it happens to be toxic you won’t die. Almost nothing will just kill you after 1 try. Your body will probably vomit if you ate something bad anyway, and in the future if you sense that food again your body will be less encouraging to eat that food since it knows its bad, and as a human you can obviously learn not to eat it as well.
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