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Comment by abvdasker | Hacker News Reader

This is interesting, but doesn't address a crucial question: yes, spices seem to give practical antimicrobial benefits in food preparation, but why do we enjoy spiced food more? Did it start out as something practical until we evolved a taste for more flavorful food due to its advantages (co-evolution)? Or do we like spiced food just because we're used to it (enviornmental)?

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Perhaps it's a side effect of our desire for different flavours, that would encourage us (in a wild environment) to seek a diversified diet that provides multiple types of nutrients.

not answering your question at all, but animals tend to eat things in their pure form, while humans gained the ability to combine ingredients. Even if we like the smells and tastes of herbs and spices, we don't consume them straight either. I guess I don't know what other species even have the ability to smell-taste. Dogs for example, have much more sensitive smell than we do, but doesn't seem to influence what they eat much. We might simply be creating flavor profiles that remind us of better foods, like aromatic smells of ripe fruit instead of unripe.

> Dogs for example, have much more sensitive smell than we do, but doesn't seem to influence what they eat much.

I'm not sure. Raw potato? Not interesting to a dog. Boiled plain potatoes? They'd eat them if hungry but meh. Fried, salty potatoes? They love them as much as humans do. I think dogs distinguish those primarily by smell. Similarly, while a whole raw apple or carrot won't interest my dogs, they are into them if they're sliced up (presumably from the release of the scent).

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