Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Cats Cannot Taste Sweets (2007)

scientificamerican.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 167 posts

Re: Cats Cannot Taste Sweets (2007)

#141

Post by kjs3 »

mark-r wrote: post #103
MisterTea wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a cat who loves to lick crinkly plastic wrappers and bags. I use shopping bags for my bedroom trash can and I'll wake up to him just sitting there licking the folded over edge for upwards of 10 minutes. Two theories I've heard are that beef tallow is sometimes used in the manufacture of such bags so they might be smelling that. Or it could be as simple as they enjoy the sensation and/or sound of licking the ba…

Cats can be motivated by texture, so that may be part of it.

That's my theory. Every cat I've had had some level of addiction to licking/chomping plastic. All kinds of plastic, so I don't buy the made-with-tallow theory. Grocery bags, cling wrap, rubber bands, 6-pack rings. One of the current ones likes to chew holes in the plastic shower curtains. Little freak. :-)

Re: Cats Cannot Taste Sweets (2007)

#142

Post by kjs3 »

pcwalton wrote: post #4

Evolutionarily, this makes sense. All felids are obligate carnivores that rely on meat for nutrients—for example, they need taurine for vision, which they can't synthesize and is only found in meat. So there's an evolutionary advantage for cats to not want to eat anything else.

Spoken like someone who has never had a cat. Cat's do not only eat meat, anyone who's had one knows this, and it's apparently important for their health (see https://www.petmd.com/cat/wellness/evr_ct_eating_grass for example). Evolution is slightly more complicated than you understand.

Re: Cats Cannot Taste Sweets (2007)

#143

Post by chmod775 »

the_af wrote: post #96
andrewla wrote: post #58

I found this out when asking myself the question "are animals fooled by artificial sweeteners". The rabbit hole that that led into is not only do we not know the answer to that question, many animals don't even taste "sweetness" (or if they taste it they don't like it or don't prefer it). Not even all primates, if I recall correctly. And we've seen drift -- apparently we used to be able to bait cockroaches with sweet…

> Dealing with smells was so hard that brains evolved to deal with the problem, and then it was just evolution asking the question "what else can we do with this giant block of computational power -- what about ... memory? vision? hearing?" Hmm, interesting. If I remember correctly, Stephen Jay Gould argued something similar about the human brain, except it wasn't about smell , it was about walking upright. He argued…

> He argued -- or quoted people who argued this -- that it's likely human intelligence arose as a side-effect from the brain structures needed for an upright stance.

As stated this doesn't pass the smell test because a long list of animals are able to "stand" and walk upright (cats, primates, bears, what have you...) if they so chose. Not to mention kangaroos, birds (who are also capable of things like flight with generally much smaller brains), etc.

On top of that we have taught neural nets to control a humanoid body doing plenty of things, even parkour, but we didn't manage to teach them human levels of intelligence yet. Even non-neural-network solutions do pretty well here with just old-school algorithms.

Walking upright really seems like something you don't need "much of a brain" for. You don't even need to teach a monkey to do it.

Re: Cats Cannot Taste Sweets (2007)

#144

Post by stevula »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #97
cmiller1 wrote: post #53

Fun fact: the sodium lauryl sulfate in toothpaste dulls the sweetness receptors on your tongue. The taste of orange juice after brushing your teeth is what it would ALWAYS taste like to cats.

> The taste of orange juice after brushing your teeth I'm always wondering how so many people know of this first-hand. Why are you drinking OJ, something extremely high in sugar, so soon after brushing your teeth?

This is the first time I’ve heard about this phenomenon.

Re: Cats Cannot Taste Sweets (2007)

#145

Post by freeflight »

MisterTea wrote: post #42
mattkevan wrote: post #31

Some of the stuff I've seen our cat eating, it's both obvious and a blessing that he doesn't have much of a sense of taste. Goes nuts for the plastic wrappers you get around Pepsi cans and won't stop licking them. Little weirdo.

I have a cat who loves to lick crinkly plastic wrappers and bags. I use shopping bags for my bedroom trash can and I'll wake up to him just sitting there licking the folded over edge for upwards of 10 minutes. Two theories I've heard are that beef tallow is sometimes used in the manufacture of such bags so they might be smelling that. Or it could be as simple as they enjoy the sensation and/or sound of licking the ba…

I remember reading that it's the chemical used as a softener for plastic products, at least for cables, wouldn't be surprised if the same stuff is used with other plastic products.

Re: Cats Cannot Taste Sweets (2007)

#146

Post by freeflight »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #97
cmiller1 wrote: post #53

Fun fact: the sodium lauryl sulfate in toothpaste dulls the sweetness receptors on your tongue. The taste of orange juice after brushing your teeth is what it would ALWAYS taste like to cats.

> The taste of orange juice after brushing your teeth I'm always wondering how so many people know of this first-hand. Why are you drinking OJ, something extremely high in sugar, so soon after brushing your teeth?

It depends on the morning routine.

When I'm in a hurry I just get all done in the bathroom, including brushing teeth, and grab a quick breakfast on my way out, which usually involves half a glass orange juice.

Those are the situations where the toothpaste aftertaste can sometimes collide with orange juice, making it super bitter.

Re: Cats Cannot Taste Sweets (2007)

#147

Post by pcwalton »

kjs3 wrote: post #142
pcwalton wrote: post #4

Evolutionarily, this makes sense. All felids are obligate carnivores that rely on meat for nutrients—for example, they need taurine for vision, which they can't synthesize and is only found in meat. So there's an evolutionary advantage for cats to not want to eat anything else.

Spoken like someone who has never had a cat. Cat's do not only eat meat, anyone who's had one knows this, and it's apparently important for their health (see https://www.petmd.com/cat/wellness/evr_ct_eating_grass for example). Evolution is slightly more complicated than you understand.

I've been a cat dad for over a decade. Mine loves to chew on plastic, in particular :)

Re: Cats Cannot Taste Sweets (2007)

#148

Post by [deleted] »

pcwalton wrote: post #147
kjs3 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spoken like someone who has never had a cat. Cat's do not only eat meat, anyone who's had one knows this, and it's apparently important for their health (see https://www.petmd.com/cat/wellness/evr_ct_eating_grass for example). Evolution is slightly more complicated than you understand.

I've been a cat dad for over a decade. Mine loves to chew on plastic, in particular :)

[deleted]

Re: Cats Cannot Taste Sweets (2007)

#149

Post by dredmorbius »

Chinjut wrote: post #110
andrewla wrote: post #58

I found this out when asking myself the question "are animals fooled by artificial sweeteners". The rabbit hole that that led into is not only do we not know the answer to that question, many animals don't even taste "sweetness" (or if they taste it they don't like it or don't prefer it). Not even all primates, if I recall correctly. And we've seen drift -- apparently we used to be able to bait cockroaches with sweet…

Whoa. Smell was more important than sight for brain evolution? Is there somewhere I can read more about this?

There are animals whose signalling mechanisms are very nearly fully scent/chemical based, ants particularly.

Lower order than mammals, admittedly.

Re: Cats Cannot Taste Sweets (2007)

#150

Post by pgt »

JimiofEden wrote: post #126
cmiller1 wrote: post #53

Fun fact: the sodium lauryl sulfate in toothpaste dulls the sweetness receptors on your tongue. The taste of orange juice after brushing your teeth is what it would ALWAYS taste like to cats.

This is interesting. I've never experienced the absolute aversion that other people seem to have to drinking when Orange Juice after brushing my teeth (though I'll admit that I won't willingly combine mint and citrus.) But I also specifically use toothpaste that doesn't has sodium lauryl sulfate because it aggravates canker sores in my mouth. I wonder if this is why.

You might have a sulfite allergy that’s triggering an immune response. Do you have any other skin conditions triggered by consuming food or drink preserved with sulphites or sulfides, e.g. red wine, dried fruits?
Post reply on HN