Americans are setting their mouths on fire with spicy hot foods says Ellen Cushing in her recent article for The Atlantic. Getting to the bottom of any trend in popular culture is not an easy task with a singular result. But Cushing explains part of the story is that flamin’ hot spice is an easy way to make cheap food taste like something:
“Macroeconomic trends are pointing us in this direction. So for example, food costs are really high and spice is a great way of masking cheap flavors, or sorry, cheap ingredients. So for example, you may have noticed that a lot of chicken nuggets are spicy. That’s because chicken is a pretty cheap, flavorless meat. But if you put a bunch of spice on it, it starts to taste like something.”
An Unmistakable Trend
The trend toward more spicy foods is hard to miss. More than half of American consumers are now likely to choose a food item described as spicy. Compare that to only 39% a decade ago. Of every 20 restaurants, 19 are offering at least one spicy menu item. More than half of Generation Z consumers consider themselves to be connoisseurs of hot sauce. Even the Skittles brand now has hot and spicy gummies. We could go on, but surely, you get the idea.
Spice sells.
Should We Worry?
Don’t look for us to bring rain to this parade. There are those who get agitated about hyperpalatable foods, but we are not about to jump on that path. Yes, you can find observational research to suggest that high consumption of hot and spicy foods has an association with excess body weight.
But the truth is that high consumption of just about any kind of food might be found to have such an association. So if you are part of the growing contingent with a taste for flamin’ hot foods, we will not fault you or wring our hands about the trend you’re following. Cheap eats with intense flavor seems to be just the ticket for the lives many of us live. Let’s see where it takes us.
Click here for an interview with Cushing and here for free access to her article in The Atlantic.
Charleston Hot Peppers, photograph by Scott Bauer / WikiArt
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August 25, 2025 at 2:33 pm, Monica Bhagwan said:
This aligns with my observations of the fast casual/food truck/”street food” trends. Everything is covered in excess with adoption of a stream of east Asian trends but covering up pretty cheap ingredients. It gives the illusion of being a step up from “unhealthy” fast food but not expensive like full service restaurants.