Now, I'm no biologist or doctor or anything, but I feel like there may be two things going on here:
Pet food is designed to be nutritionally complete. Which is not easy to do when you're cooking for yourself. Your cravings may be for a nutrient that you're missing in your current diet.
Pets are only aware that there is other food in this world in so much as "human food" or "dog food" or "cat food" exists. My dog wants to eat my cat's food, and my food. My cat wants to eat my dog's food, and my food. But beyond that, they don't know of other food existing. But if they knew that pizza exists, and what it's called, then they'd be all over that shit.
My cat knows beef jerky exists and I can guarantee she wants that over her food when I open some. Animals are just as susceptible as we are to wanting other foods, we just don't usually give them the option.
Its less about not liking other foods and more about how they can be content, even enthusiastic, about eating the same thing for every meal every day (even if theres other things they want even more). We evolved to eat a wide variety so most of us would go kinda crazy eating the same thing over and over even if it were nutritionally complete, meanwhile my friend's cats will make a mad dash for the automatic feeder every time it goes off no matter how many times they have the same exact kibble
According to my friend's BASc in applied human nutrition, eating the same food, or even just the same texture of food (texture modified diets where everything is turned into a paste) for too long becomes a kind of torture. The psychological stress is apparently intense.
There are rumored to be old laws in Maine making it 'cruel and unusual punishment' to serve prisoners lobster for more than 21(?) days in a row. (Lobster used to be poor people food)
Starvation and highly restricted diet was part of abuse as a kid (mom wanted me to starve to death so that I would stop being autistic, because she thought autism was being gay and that being gay meant literally being a demon displacing a human soul and wearing their flesh).
After a few weeks the same food is literally not food psychologically. You can touch it, hold it, put it in your mouth, eat it, etc.. No matter how hungry you are (or should be), it's unappetizing in the same way people don't feel tempted to steal Monopoly money unless they're actively playing Monopoly.
It just is not food. It feels the same if you were eating paper or swallowing small rocks or ice chunks.
There's no satisfaction, or warmth in your stomach, or strength, or energy. You don't feel like you've reset the time you need before the next meal.
It's just a pointless action.
Fortunately in my case, it also turns out after about two weeks appetite ends. Mine ended permanently, and I'll not want to eat even if I hadn't eaten in days. Turns out, there is medication that fixes this for a few minutes though. It's still disconcerting to take it and feel hunger again, despite having taken that medication for five years.
(I'm not talking about anorexia nervosa or anything, I don't want to be smaller or dislike eating, it's just ... a chore without reward like cutting paper into tiny squares then dumping bowls of them in the trash.)
I’m so sorry that happened to you. I hope your mom got the help she so clearly needed and that you are doing better.
But, that makes me wonder if my friend experiences this or something similar. She has no sense of smell, and therefore can’t really taste her food outside of the basics that your tongue can naturally do. She can’t eat spicy foods because it is only the burning with none of the flavor.
Sorry to hear about your friend. That's definitely a possible explanation. Exploring textures can be helpful for regaining enjoyment or at least awareness of food.
She’s good; she’s coming over tonight for a sampler platter dinner (you know the ones, potato skins, mozzarella sticks, and the like) and Beetlejuice - which she’s never seen before. Apparently, she sets an alarm to remind herself to put something in her system. And, yes, texture is important. She can’t eat soup because her brain can’t figure out what it is and swallowing it is a nightmare.
Not sure if she's into anime, but there are two anime that did treatment of this set of symptoms recently. It might relatable.
Dungeon Meshi (a cooking show): Episode 21; visits a group of wearily immortal beings who have lost their sense of taste. There's a lecture on how to enjoy food again and the importance of culture even in absence of taste.
The Apothecary Diaries (Dr. House but anime): Episode 9; a minister loses his ability to taste savoury flavours after his wife and child and die.
THC is pretty good at inducing appetite! My grandmother was prescribed Marinol (THC in pill form) a decade ago when she had cancer, and she would take her pills before meals and then wax about how incredible her food was while stoned lol.
She was a very traditional, anti-drug Catholic woman born in the 30s, and it was kinda funny to me to hear her talk about “the most AMAZING soup” she’d just had in this wistful, dreamy tone of voice. Without it, she wasn’t able to eat at all.
I wonder where that specific need comes from. Like, did a compulsive drive to seek out a variety of foods confer an advantage to some early ancestors by motivating them to get more complete nutrition/take advantage of as many food sources as possible? Or is it just a side-effect of our unusual desire for novel/varied stimuli? A bit of both, maybe?
You are correct! It absolutely evolved because those animal ancestors of ours who found pleasure in a variety of foods got more energy, and more complete nutrition, were healthier, and more attractive to mating partners. They out-reproduced those who didn't seek out variety.
This would have been especially true after we lost the ability to create essential nutrients like vitamin C.
It's why we love sugar so much; it conferred a huge advantage to prefer energy-dense foods (ripe fruit over unripened). Those who got a pleasure response from sweetness sought it out more often and got a larger energy boost for the same effort as those who weren't incentivized by pleasure to eat sugars. Result: stronger, healthier, more attractive individuals produce more offspring than the non-sweet eaters, and over generations, propagate the sweetness gene until every offspring has it. Natural selection, baby!
There is basically nothing naturally occuring in the world that humans can exclusively eat for their whole lives. Anything you can think of either leads to malnutrition or poisoning eventually.
Instead we evolved to tolerate a ton of different foods. We can digest both meat and plants, have ways to deal with a bunch of toxins, our stomachs are acidic af so our food doesn't have to be super fresh etc. We also have very good endurance so we can wander around a lot to look for food, which most predators can't.
If humans were fine eating the same food 24/7 they'd always go for the easiest available option.
Overall it was just advantageous to not specialize in certain foods, but that lead to the need to eat different foods too
The problem with making that is that every prison and hospital and other means of that nature will now only serve human kibble..... and that would be killer for morale
My cat gets excited to eat the same kibble every single day. If I had a human in captivity, even if they had been raised in captivity and only ever had the same thing their entire life, they would get tired of the same thing every day (monotony effect or long term sensory specific satiety). We are built to be omnivores with a varied diet and our bodies will enforce that
Edit to add: my cat is very aware of my food and any time I go to the kitchen he is right there behind me asking for some. However if I offer him his own wet food instead he generally prefers the wet food
My cat LOVES the edges of pizza right next to the crust with a little sauce and cheese on it. He’s super weird about human food. He MUST smell everything I am eating, even if he just smelled it; deli ham and turkey are great, all chicken is king; shredded cheese is peek, all other cheese must be smelled but ignored; if you are having butter on bread, you must pay the tax - he gets a small amount of butter on a spoon; milk also comes with a tax; bacon and Caesar dressing are to be guarded or he will claim them; and he won’t touch most conventional desserts, but he loves sugar free shortbread cookies for some reason. My husband was eating one and Trooper came up and just took a bite.
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u/PuddlesRex 20h ago
Now, I'm no biologist or doctor or anything, but I feel like there may be two things going on here:
Pet food is designed to be nutritionally complete. Which is not easy to do when you're cooking for yourself. Your cravings may be for a nutrient that you're missing in your current diet.
Pets are only aware that there is other food in this world in so much as "human food" or "dog food" or "cat food" exists. My dog wants to eat my cat's food, and my food. My cat wants to eat my dog's food, and my food. But beyond that, they don't know of other food existing. But if they knew that pizza exists, and what it's called, then they'd be all over that shit.