Insects also know how to choose high quality foods

Although initially very fond of sweet food, fruit flies quickly learned to choose less sweet food sources with higher nutritional value and calories.

Dr. Michael Gordon and colleagues at the University of British Columbia (Canada) found that fruit flies have the ability to learn how to choose foods rich in calories and nutrients very quickly, especially when they are hungry.

This is the first time the "smart diet" has been discovered in the insect world.

Fruit flies can learn to recognize nutritious foods within 4 hours.

The scientists conducted the experiment by allowing fruit flies to choose between a cup of sugar with different sweetness and calorie content.

The results showed that most fruit flies only take about 4 hours to learn how to choose nutrient-rich food sources such as sugar, sugar cane, maltose sugar and D-glucose sugar.

'The taste-making ability of the taste organism is of great importance to the fly. The original sweetness of sugar suggests it is a rich source of carbohydrates, but then they seem to be more nutritious , 'said Dr. Michael Gordon, head of the study. Daily Mail.

The research team then isolated a number of neurons that affect the taste and eating of fruit flies and found that blocking the insulin signal increased the ability of fruit flies to select the vegetative pathway.

Scientists have found that developing the ability to choose calories is dependent on cAMP cells . This is a cell that plays many important roles in the nervous system, but most affects the ability to learn and remember.

The team hopes their findings could help scientists better understand why mammals and insects can assess the caloric value of food.