Why do zombies crave for flesh?

Answer 1

The energy and warmth of living flesh keeps them going! Just like politicians!

Answer 2

Lets assume that the re-animation is being caused by an unknown viral agent, something that can operate on a cellular level.

This viral agent seems to be performing a function of mimicking life, but is not actually a living creature. While the body is still decaying, it appears to be at a greatly slowed rate.

The zombie seems to be a semi-living creature, but notice, the zombie only attacks living humans. Once the person is dead, and reanimated, the zombies no longer feed on that body.

What I would postulate is this, while the zombies are experiencing a form of pseudo-life, their bodies are not in fact living, they are no longer producing any of the chemicals or by-products that a living body would create. What can be assumed is that, it is not so much a craving for living flesh, but for the by-products and chemicals that a living body can produce, the zombies can no longer produce, BUT the pseudo-life of their reanimated flesh, still has a need for these chemicals.

The only place they could get these is from the tissues and blood of a living human, and that, these chemicals are no longer produced at death, and as the body dies, stops production, and the reanimation begins, the now pseudo-life zombie begins consuming these chemicals on it's own, and looses it's appeal as a source of "nourishment" for the other zombies.

Answer 3

They're dead. They can crave whatever they want!

The question then becomes: how do the zombies function? What allows them to defy the laws of nature by remaining animated and mobile for so long without decaying? What causes them to desire human flesh? For those who are inclined to take the religious explanation, this pretty much rules out trying to come up with an explanation for any of these, since applying a logical explanation to theological forces is a futile argument. The zombies were sent as a punishment for man. Or perhaps the concept that hell had reached is limits may prove to be correct. For those less inclined to take a theological reason, the most likely possibility for reanimation would be an alien virus. The effects were noticed on a global scale and in a short amount of time. This means the virus would have been spread through the atmosphere initially, rather than by a host organism, such as occurred with the black plague. The virus mostly likely altered cell structure in a manner that counteracted decay, as well as increasing longevity without the normal requirements of air, water and energy. The reanimated corpse would then have initiated some form of overall operation, at both the cellular level, and at the higher levels. The driving force is still clearly the brain, which continues to operate in a semi-normal manner. Signals for coordination and mobility were still being issued from the brain via the nerves, and implemented by the muscles. Why Do Zombies Crave Human Flesh This is the most difficult question of all if we ignore a theological explanation.

It is one thing to accept that an alien virus can adjust cell structure and affect a human being such that it causes reanimation with altered functionality. But why then does the zombie itself desire to eat human flesh? Something most humans would never consider in normal life? The infected brain clearly has some processing and reasoning capability. Perhaps each zombie reverts to a basic carnivorous nature and simply desires to consume any living creature. Although never indicated to any extent in the films, it is highly likely that a zombie would attack any living creature within the vicinity, including domestic and wild animals. It is not specifically targetting human prey. However in the initial stages of zombie infiltration, where zombies were reanimating in the midst of normal society and in populated areas, human prey just happened to be the most abundant. And the zombie itself, with its limited reasoning power, may simply associate another human as the highest candidate for prey, since they associated mostly with others humans during their life prior to reanimation.

Answer 4

Like vampires, zombies are an artistic expression of real people. These people are incapable of love which makes them a body with no soul connection hence undead zombie. Their lust is for power over other humans is symbolically reflected in their need for human flesh, without love a human has to survive with life "juice" from other people, in the most negative of curcumstances they use intimidation and fear to get your life force (eat you/drain you) have you noticed how some people enjoy being mean to others, these are zombies, only lead by their own desire to feed on others pain.

Answer 5

The same reason that Vampires crave blood...they need it to stay "alive" as it were, to function. And because they don't exactly have living flesh, so they crave what they do not have...basic human nature really does live on in death...go figure!

Alright people....humans would not taste like chicken meat, we're not poultry, or white meat. Humans most resemble the taste of steak, we are a red meat, much like cattle...

Answer 6

Because they don't carry credit cards or cash, so fast food is out. They can't call on the phone to get a reservation for a nice place, so it's brains and flesh, the only logical choice.

Answer 7

I dont know.....why doesn't the flesh crave for itself? Why does the zombie have to crave for it? Damn flesh is just too lazy to put forth the effort to crave for its own damn self, has to have the zombie crave for it!

Answer 8

Zombies typically crave brains, in my experience.

Answer 9

Brains, baby, zombies crave brains! Yummy, juicy brains! Mystery solved.

Answer 10

Because even though they're already dead, they're still derived from human, so they still retain some human characteristic. And the most basic one is hunger, hungry for meat.