That's so interesting and besides having even written about why food is spicy, I didn't ever stop to think why being spicy made sense from the point of view of the pepper.
This works for peppers, but I wonder what is the case for the other types of chemicals that also trick our receptors that the food is hot (or cold), what evolutionary advantages would they provide. I'd have to research the other guys in the image below now :)
Thank you for the interesting post!
Menthol! I know that one. Worth looking into the cool effecct!
On the most basic level, it's also a compound that tricks our heat receptors with a mechanism that is probably a bit different.