“This openness makes omnivores fantastically adaptable. Humans have been able to survive on diets made up almost exclusively of milk and potatoes (early eighteenth-century [[Irish]] peasants) or meat and fish (the [[Inuit]] until recently). However, **their openness also makes omnivores vulnerable**. Meat can go bad and contain dangerous bacteria. To avoid being eaten, most plants are either toxic or hard to digest. As a result, **omnivores are also much more vigilant toward their food than specialists**. Using a variety of strategies, they learn how to avoid foods that are likely to have undesirable side effects. The most basic of these strategies is to keep track of which foods made them sick and avoid these foods in the future—something that, as omnivores, we take for granted, but that some animals, such as vampire bats, are unable to do. Keeping track of which food is safe to eat requires some dedicated circuitry, not general learning mechanisms. **The sick animal must learn to avoid the food it ate a few hours ago, and not all the other stimuli—what it saw, felt, smelled in between eating and getting sick**” --- **Tags** -- [[quotes]], [[story-bias]], [[resilience]], [[anti-fragility]], [[diet]], [[type-two-thinking]], **Source** --