Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
Cogito Ergo Nom
raoullefere:
No, and I fear to ask now. But I need to avoid it anyway, so enlighten us.
Surgoshan:
A whole mess of crap. Truly, it's mostly sugar, but there are other things there to give it flavor the cat can detect. To the cat, the syrup will taste a little bitter, a little sour, and have a nice texture.
pointy sextant:
--- Quote from: LegendaryPancake on 11 Nov 2008, 13:11 ---
--- Quote from: Vendetagainst on 05 Nov 2008, 21:41 ---Chocolate is quite toxic to almost all animals, including the closely-related great apes.
--- End quote ---
What's wrong with us then?
--- End quote ---
Technically speaking in biological sciences we are dealing with three different concepts. Poison, Toxins, and Venoms.
Poisons are those chemicals that trigger biological reactions in the body of an organism that result in the production of a toxin when dosed in the proper amount, or by there very presence in sufficient amount muck up the works to a fatal degree. Usually however that process is described as a toxic one.
A Toxin is an organic chemical that can cause disease, impede biological processes, and generally muck things up, but is produced by the body itself in response to the presence of a poisonous level of a chemical.
Venom is a chemical entered into a biological system from the outside that produces the same general and deleterious effects of a Toxin, but requires no local accomplice in the organic systems processes.
Chocolate, like alcohol, and every single other element, chemical, and material in existence, is poisonous to any organic system in sufficient quantity. The advantage, as well developed wide ranging omnivores, that humans posses is that we can process, with a wide variety of enzymes and proteins and so on, what would be lethal doses of these chemicals in any other animal. We can eat everything because we are so bad at surviving on any one source of nutrients, unlike most animals that depend on a primary source of nutrients rather than eat anything that stops moving long enough to stick a fork in it like we do because of our many physical failings.
Alex C:
Yep, it's amazing how much a body can specialize towards functioning with a particular diet. It's even possible for a species to never develop the ability to synthesize essential compounds; after all, if their standard diet always supplies the necessary amount of a compound, then there's no real evolutionary pressure forcing the species to develop the capacity. Cats are yet again an obvious example of this; beyond even the sharp teeth and short intestines, cats cannot synthesize taurine. They typically don't need to since it is present in the flesh of animals who can synthesize it, particularly within the intestines.
raoullefere:
Intestines! Oh, Yum! Maybe Jeph should put those on the T-shirt instead of the cookie.
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