I'm a little surprised at the discussion of human's desire for sweetness.
I would have thought that fruit trees signal ripeness with signals which
appeal to the senses of primates like us.  It's peach season now where I
live, and I can't help but notice colour changes, delicious scents and of
course the gradual change from hard sour flesh to soft sweet flesh.

I imagine that in season, sweet fruit would have been an abundant safe
source of energy and a little protein, vitamin C, etc.

So two questions: does anybody know of a sweet food which is also harmful
to humans?  I don't mean the super sweet varieties of modern agriculture
which can affect sugar metabolism.  Old varieties of plums which grow wild
in our area are not very sweet at all. The only fruit which comes close to
dangerous that I can think of is of course chillis which can be ripe but(to
me anyhow) virtually inedible, but not because they cause lasting injury!
Why wouldn't early humans avail themselves of a safe abundant energy source?

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