Spicy Seniors

Posted October 11, 2007, 6:57 pm in Health by Growing Bolder


Seniors like it spicy! An article just published in The Boston Globe says that the changing Baby Boomer palate is leading to a shift in the food and restaurant industries. Doctors and market researchers say that as we get older, we actually lose some of our ability to taste. To make up for it, we turn to foods that can overcome our senses - ones that pack some heat.

The article focuses on some big brands that are adding spicy foods to their lineups. Pringles now offers a Spicy Guacamole flavor. McDonald's has the Chipotle BBQ Snack Wrap. Other fast food chains are updating their menus. And the H.J. Heinz says its "hot and spicy" ketchup is the best selling of its recently-launched line of flavored ketchups.

Phil Lempert is a food market analyst, and tells the Globe that baby boomers are actually losing taste buds as they get older, but they're not losing their desire for good food. So they are helping drive the changes. And it's just the beginning.

At this point, few researchers have actually studied the connection between aging palates and spicy food, so there's no real way to tell how many boomers are changing their habits. But John Finley, head of the food science department at Louisiana State University, says that we should see more restaurants follow the trend. He predicts not only new flavors, but current flavors explored in more depth.

MenuMine, a menu item database, says that a decade ago, 35 percent of all chain restaurants mentioned the word "spicy" on their menus. Today, it's up to 54 percent.

The proof is in our DNA. Doctors say that after the age of 40, the number of nerve receptors that responds to smell and taste drops. What gets through? A group of flavors called "sensory irritants." According to doctors consulted in the Globe article, these irritants - including jalapeno, black pepper, ginger and cinnamon - come in through the chemosensory system. That's the same system that registers touch, temperature, pain and pressure.

Elizabeth Sloan from Sloan Trends Inc. says that the food industry is realizing that it needs to change. She tells the Globe that "they're finally starting to get it because they're seeing where the dollars are." Fergus M. Clydesdale, head of food science at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst agrees, telling the newspaper: "food for old folks just doesn't work."

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