It 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” thin

It 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.