If aliens had to survive on Earth, what exactly would they eat?

.unexplained-mysteries.com/ ^ | June 21, 2026 | T.K. Randall

[BenLurkin]

ET: The Extraterrestrial, the titular alien is seen eating and drinking all manner of human foods and beverages from chocolates to tins of beer.

In reality, however, it is unlikely that an entity that lived and evolved on another world would be capable of consuming and digesting the same types of foods as we are.

Professor Jose Miguel Soriano del Castillo of the University of Valencia ,,,argues that dining on the same foods that humans eat would be highly risky for a visitor from another world and that their best bet would be to instead seek out the individual nutrients and raw materials of food such as water, nitrogen, salts and basic organic molecules.

As for what an alien might typically eat on its own planet - it's difficult to speculate because it depends entirely on the biology of the alien and the nature of its planet's atmosphere.

If we were ever in a position in which we had to provide food to an alien visitor, we would likely need a whole team of scientists and nutritionists to determine what it could and could not eat.

Feeding it the wrong thing - no matter how well-intentioned - could prove fatal.

[Ezekiel]

Exactly. It’s not rocket science.

We’ve known this since 1982!

[null and void]

They’ll eat the fat ones first...

[neverevergiveup]

Frosted Strawberry Pop-Tarts and probably head cheese.

[Tijeras_Slim]

You go out at night, eatin’ cars
You eat Cadillacs, Lincolns too
Mercuries and Subaru
And you don’t stop, you keep on eatin’ cars
Then, when there’s no more cars
You go out at night and eat up bars

[telescope115]

Another Twilight Zone that threw me for a loop first time I saw it- starred Agnes Moorhead alone in a cabin with tiny spacemen attacking her. 😮

[Libloather]

What happens when they scarf up all the electrolytes? We’re doomed.

[telescope115]

I hope they like Italian

[clearcarbon]

"If aliens had to survive on Earth, what exactly would they eat?"

Endangered species.

[technically right]

Brats, sauerkraut and Hamm’s beer. Only the essentials.

[Jonty30]

Plants to be safe.

[Jonty30]

We are a sweet meat.

[PAR35]

“To Serve Man”

It’s a cookbook.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zp_EhjlLGkQ

[PROCON]

[OrangeHoof]

Could I hope they would eat “influencers”?

[FirstFlaBn]

They could drop by Warren Zevon’s place for a big dish of Beef Chow Mein.

[Red Badger]

Plants.........

[Magnum44]

Consumables

[SandCastle]

“How do you know they need to eat?”

Exactly. Giving an unknown false entity humain traits is the first form of acceptance. Next thing you know . .

[maro]

With a nice Chianti.

[Leaning Right]

What would the aliens eat while here? It’s obvious.