[HN Gopher] Darwinian Gastronomy: Spices taste good because they...
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       Darwinian Gastronomy: Spices taste good because they are good for
       us
        
       Author : magoghm
       Score  : 24 points
       Date   : 2023-02-11 06:15 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (academic.oup.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (academic.oup.com)
        
       | overcast wrote:
       | Wonderful news, this chocolate eclair is healthy for me!
        
         | yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
         | Sugar - sadly - isn't a spice.
        
           | overcast wrote:
           | The title is implying tasting good = healthy.
        
             | yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
             | My point is that there's room for a little more nuance than
             | that; "your body likes X because it's good for you" doesn't
             | imply a universal rule, just a specific correlation.
        
             | TulliusCicero wrote:
             | It's really more like tasting good = evolutionarily useful.
        
               | carlmr wrote:
               | Which is true for sugar. It's good if you get a few grams
               | of sugar while running around the forest all day. It's
               | not good to get half a pound of sugar from big gulp
               | softdrinks while you're sitting in traffic.
        
               | beebmam wrote:
               | Not necessarily, even in the evolutionary biology model.
               | Something can taste good to humans entirely by accident,
               | and be evolutionarily neutral (or even a small amount
               | negative). Just like the reason men have nipples.
        
         | twelvedogs wrote:
         | The ingredients probably are, the quantities possibly not
        
       | mouse_ wrote:
       | Makes sense. Menthol (mint) is a vasoconstrictor, capsaicin is a
       | vasodilator. Children will have no idea what this means, but they
       | still know innately they're opposites of each other. Our
       | instincts guide us when we listen.
        
       | redtriumph wrote:
       | nit: This article should have (1999) in title.
       | 
       | Interesting read nonetheless.
        
       | cm2187 wrote:
       | And so does nutella and peanut butter.
        
       | bretbernhoft wrote:
       | This is a thought I just finished having. Right alongside a bowl
       | of canned soup, that (with the help of spices) turned out to be a
       | five star meal. Food is medicine, as it is said.
        
         | gt565k wrote:
         | I always put black pepper and cayenne pepper in my soups.
         | 
         | Warms me up and is healthy.
        
           | heyitsguay wrote:
           | And a touch of garlic powder!
        
       | cwkoss wrote:
       | Hmm. I wish this analysis accounted for availability of spices in
       | different regions: I would expect onions and garlic to be more
       | prevalent in Scandanavian dishes than cinnamon and ginger simply
       | because those are easier to grow in temperate climates.
       | 
       | Would be interesting to look at which spices have 'broken into' a
       | cuisine despite being not agriculturally viable in that region.
       | How does this set of spices differ from the broader set? More
       | antimicrobial?
        
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       (page generated 2023-02-13 23:00 UTC)