Why doesn't vomit taste exactly like the food you previously ate - i.e. if you were sick after eating lemon pie - why doesn't the vomit taste delicious like lemon pie?

Answer 1

When you vomit, you don't just vomit what you last ate, especially if you have not eaten recently. Vomit also includes various juices produced in your stomach, primarily for digestion. The components of this include hydrochloric acid and various digestive enzymes. Additionally, the food is almost immediately altered by the digestion process, starting with saliva that breaks down the starch in the pie crust, and the acid of the stomach which dissolves the proteins. This hydrochloric acid (and, less frequently, bile backed up through the duodenum) is the cause of the burning sensation.