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The article seems to ignore the fact that people eat what grows locally. So, India grows a lot of spices, hence the food has those as ingredients. Norway does
by yumraj 3y ago
The article seems to ignore the fact that people eat what grows locally.
So, India grows a lot of spices, hence the food has those as ingredients.
Norway doesn’t, so food is bland.
That’s my theory anyway..
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- 4death4 3y agoYour theory ignores the fact that chili peppers are a new world vegetable.
- jamincan 3y agoIf you read to the end of the article, it seems the study is looking at spice use more broadly and not so much spicyness (ie. heat) specifically. That would explain why east African food that is influenced by spice trade with India ranks so high on the scale compared to west African food.
- 4death4 3y agoBut the main point being asserted that “people eat what grows locally” is invalidated by the prevalence of chili pepper in various Asian cuisines.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Teever 3y agoWhile the chili peppers originated in the New World the fact remains that they grow better in Asia than in Norway which is what people mean by 'local food's in this context.
- gizajob 3y agoYeah but chilli plants need hot conditions to perform well. You can’t grow them effectively in cold climates.
- Modified3019 3y agoIt also ignores things like shifts in culture, such as some European aristocracies deciding that food with lots of “spices” (herbs and such) was a “vulgar” thing commoners did, as a method of signaling their class, which gradually effected commoner behavior.
- pvaldes 3y agoNorth of Europe used horseradish as the closer substitute. Some notes: 1) The results depend on how we define spice. Many European countries use cheese to add interesting flavors to the food. Other parts of the world are more lactose intolerant and probably use spices where the west would simply use some type of cheese. A lot of berries dried or fresh could also play that role. Black currants could be easily included among spices for this purpose. 3) As a general rule, the poorest the diet, the more spices will include. If you basically eat rice each day, you will crave for something able to add a different taste each day 4) Places with more biodiversity have more choices. Small forests in Tropical areas have twenty times more tree species that entire countries in Europe so the number of possible sources of flavor is much higher.
- JohnFen 3y ago> The results depend on how we define spice. I thought this was well-defined. Herbs & spices come from plants. An herb is the leaf of the plant, and a spice is any non-leaf part of the plant. Am I mistaken?
- sdflhasjd 3y agoThat's how we define spices, but what is "spice"?
- JohnFen 3y agoWell, until I read this comment thread, I wasn't aware that there was an ambiguity with that, either. "Spice" is synonymous with "spices". I thought the ambiguity was the difference between "spicy" and "spiced", where people often use "spicy" to mean "hot", and "spiced" to mean "contains spices", but not necessarily hot. Now that I'm aware that others find ambiguity, I have nothing I can say about it because this is new information to me. I suppose it's up to them to define it!
- BenjiWiebe 3y agoHard cheese, especially aged hard cheese, has extremely low lactose and is unlikely to be an issue, especially if used as an ingredient.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]