The Fruit Bat’s Sweet Design

Fruit bats consume up to twice their body weight in sugary fruit every day. If you ate that diet, all that sugar could lead to diabetes, obesity, and worse. But fruit bats can load up on sugar and remain perfectly healthy. How do they do it? In a new study, scientists found that the bats process all that sugar with extra insulin-producing pancreas cells and other genetic changes along with kidneys that retain vital electrolytes to compensate for the watery diet.

In his infinite knowledge and wisdom, the Creator designed bats to adapt to their different environments, dining on anything from leaves and pollen to insects, small mammals, and even blood. But the fruit bat likely retained the original bat kind’s menu in Eden before death entered the world.

Secular scientists credit evolution for the fruit bat’s ability to stave off a sugar rush, but Christians know that our awesome God deserves all the glory!

This article is from Answers magazine, July–September, 2024, p. 20.