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Comment by klodolph | Hacker News Reader

I'll posit an additional theory—that people with gastrointestinal problems don't eat spicy food because it causes discomfort.

But the other part that the article mentions—eating more vegetables and meats—well, most of the spicy foods I can think of are basically vegetables + meat in a spicy sauce.

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Both points seem plausible to me.

On the second point, while I wouldn't say "most spicy dishes are healthy"...I might agree that spicy dishes are on average, healthier than some other flavor affinities.

Agreed, spiciness adds minimal additional calories compared to something like a thick cream sauce or sugary hoisin-style sauce. Healthiness isn't a given but seems easier to achieve compared to other popular styles of preparing food.

I'm also curious how spiciness affects satiety. Eating a meal and feeling full afterward is obviously preferable to having constant cravings for more snacks and treats.

> eating more vegetables and meats

What is everyone living on? Just bread?

Rice, breads, and noodles do make up a very large percentage of many people's diets, especially when you're in poverty.

It's not just a diet: it's an empire. ;)

http://www.maruchan.com/

Indeed, these kinds of “staples” have made up the bulk of calories in pretty much all peasant diets around the world for the past 5000+ years.

Not just rice and wheat, but also including oats, barley, rye, maize, quinoa, potatoes, yams, manioc (a.k.a. cassava, yuca), taro, plantains, soybeans, peas, lentils, chickpeas, beans, etc.

Reliance on staples is the main reason that agricultural societies tend to have substantially shorter stature, shorter life expectancy, and more health problems than hunter–gatherer societies.

In recent times, the biggest problem is sugar though. Modern people consume ridiculous quantities of refined sugar in processed foods, fast restaurant food, soda and fruit juice, etc. Consuming large quantities of alcohol also isn’t helping anything.

Vegetables and meat are lower in carbs than rice, potatoes, pasta, bread etc

One little correction -> Meat has zero carbs. All kinds of meat.

I don't believe that's strictly correct.

Muscles contain glycogen, Wikipedia tells me [0], at a concentration of 1-2% by mass.

That shouldn't really be dietarily relevant, but you did say zero carbs.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycogen

There Is no glycogen in meat from the store, glycogen quickly breaks down after death.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nutrition/comments/354ho4/if_glycog...

Meat is best while eaten still alive. Seafood in particular.

And doughnuts, coffee, ramen, and soda.

Replace doughnuts with Banquet dinners and you described my college years well. I mean, there was also alcohol involved.

Agreed. I love hot food, but I don't eat it anymore. Peppers are very bad to me. But not nearly as bad as eggplant. Nightshades are legitimately toxic.

Well, most nightshades are toxic, and some people are allergic to all nightshades. But it's not correct to say that "nightshades are toxic".

So no tomatoes, potatoes, or bell peppers for you either?

Right. I had to change my entire diet. Potato without the skins, though, is pretty tolerable.

Yeah, the whole solanum family increase reflux in a lot of people, some worse than others. I save my allowance for spicy peppers, and simply don't miss aubergines, potatoes (I eat yams instead), tomatoes, and perhaps related, I'm extremely tobacco-sensitive.

Curiously, I can't eat yams. When I do, I often end up with some kind of nasty burn on my tongue. I have the same response to citrus fruits (my favourites), and sweet-and-sour sauces.

I wonder if there is also a correletion to UCLA's earlier findings http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/latinos-age-slower-than-ot... including staple diets of mostly new world foods or perhaps it can also be attributed to heterosis.

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