On Tue, 18 Feb 2003 08:56,
sean mcbride <[log in to unmask]>
wrote on the subject of sweetness:

> I don't know if you are familiar with Aboriginal
> wild foods but not too many of them are sweet
> as we are used to.  I think we developed a taste
> for sweetness due to the lack of sweet things
> in the environment.

I don't think that being attracted to sweetness would be explained by a
lack of sweet foods, unless sweetness was associated with some
physiological or survival benefit.  Aboriginals would, I guess, out of
habit, have generally associated energy replenishment with their animal
food intake.

> Occasionally there were
> very sweet things eg bush honey but on the whole
> not many.  Also it seems rare to find l
arge sweet
> fruits (I'm talking about Australia here) although
> there are a few small sweet ones eg native cherry.

Grass stems in spring and early summer are very sweet

> The pigmy have a lower sensitivity to sugar compared
> to surrounding populations outside the rainforest.
> When one considers that fruits in savanna environments
> are lower in sugars than rainforest fruits,
> heightened taste sensitivity makes sense in terms
> of finding high energy resources.

I have started growing Aztec Sweet Herb in my garden.  Said to be 1,000
sweeter than sugar, and I can believe it.  But it has no energy content to
match the sugar - sweetness - energy content profile you describe.  Mind
you, they usually DO go together.

> IIRC there is a fruit in the pigmy rainforest
> that weighs 5 kg which is fairly unusual.

I have started eating Jackfruit lately.  These are the
 largest fruit going
and reach 35 kg.  They are sweet and delicious - a poor man's durian!  See
http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/jackfruit.html

Keith

-----------------------------------------------------------------
The FAQ for Evolutionary Fitness is at http://www.evfit.com/faq.htm
To unsubscribe from the list send an e-mail to [log in to unmask]
with the words SIGNOFF EVOLUTIONARY-FITNESS in the _body_ of the e-mail.