When food rots, some microbes release sulphur dioxide from sulphur-containing amino acids. This smell, even at very low concentrations, helps us avoid rotten food. Removing or reducing this receptor would have been disadvantageous millions of years ago, so we retained it. It’s better to be healthy but hungry than satiated and dead.
If we did evolve that way, we might have evolved not to mind the smell so much too
When food rots, some microbes release sulphur dioxide from sulphur-containing amino acids. This smell, even at very low concentrations, helps us avoid rotten food. Removing or reducing this receptor would have been disadvantageous millions of years ago, so we retained it. It’s better to be healthy but hungry than satiated and dead.