"It mostly has to do with amino acids and neurotransmitters. It's less energy intensive to just harvest from compatible species. Mammalian is better on Earth, but almost any vertebrate species will do. And, well, if you've met my parent, you probably know about the penchant for brains. Not going to sneer at a nice liver or pancreas, either," they said, waiting to see how much this human reacts.
"It's not like cats and taurine. We can get what we need from a broad variety of sources, but more like the way a purely vegetarian human diet requires more work to get the right building blocks for proteins. Alternatives exist, but there are certain sources that are incredibly convenient."
cw: cannibalism-adjacent talk
"It's not like cats and taurine. We can get what we need from a broad variety of sources, but more like the way a purely vegetarian human diet requires more work to get the right building blocks for proteins. Alternatives exist, but there are certain sources that are incredibly convenient."