Why are Americans Eating Spicier Food?
This question prompted much discussion on Marginal Revolution, the blog run by economists Tyler Cowan and Alex Tabarrok. No one much liked the hypothesis of the study under discussion: that baby boomers with their dulling sense of taste need more spices.
No one specifically mentioned the 1965 Hart-Cellar immigration act which abolished national origin quotas and fairly quickly led to immigrants from non-European parts of the world overtaking immigrants from Europe.
One unexpected consequence was a great increase in the number of ethnic restaurants. This allowed Americans to acquire all kinds of new tastes.
Tyler Cowan’s occasional posts on food are worth reading.
