I’m sure most humans have at some point or another wished they had no innate taste for carbohydrates or sweets. It would make the summer months less stressful on our waistlines. Cats lucked out in this one seeing they simply cannot taste sweets.
In 2005 researchers at Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia found that cats are missing the Tas1R2 protein which is a part of the Tas1R3 sweet receptor. Cats aren’t alone in this. It’s been found that hyenas, dolphins, lions and other strictly carnivores have lost the ability to taste sweets.
Cats in the wild exclusively eat meat, so it seems somewhat natural that they don’t have a taste for sweets. A human diet depends on more nutrients and that is why we have a taste for sweets. If only we had an on and off switch for the sweet gene!
