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A comment on Was cancer less likely in a pre-industrial world?. Parent comment

Re:Was cancer less likely in a pre-industrial world? by sokoloff on Saturday May 15, 2021 @10:01AM (#27165320)
Is tobacco use higher today vs pre-industrial eras? I don’t think of it as a particularly modern introduction to humanity.
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Re:Was cancer less likely in a pre-industrial world? by magneticnorth on Saturday May 15, 2021 @10:07AM (#27165365)
Tobacco was unknown in Europe until Europeans were introduced to it by native Americans.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_tobacco

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Re:Was cancer less likely in a pre-industrial world? by sokoloff on Saturday May 15, 2021 @10:09AM (#27165379)
Wow. That’s mind-blowing. I knew it was a huge economic driver in the early American colonies, but I always imagined it pre-dated [in Europe] the colonization.

Thank you for my TIL!

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Re:Was cancer less likely in a pre-industrial world? by throw0101a on Saturday May 15, 2021 @10:34AM (#27165574)
Other things that changed post-1492: potatoes, maize (corn), tomatoes, cocoa (chocolate), vanilla are probably most predominant across the Atlantic.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbian_exchange

Bunch of stuff happening in the Pacific as well, e.g., chilli peppers (capsicum):

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chili_pepper#Distribution_to_A...

Good book:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1493:_Uncovering_the_New_World...

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Re:Was cancer less likely in a pre-industrial world? by triceratops on Saturday May 15, 2021 @02:33PM (#27167699)
The entire Colombian Exchange is eye-opening. Try to imagine Italian food without tomatoes, Indian food without chili peppers, or a Britain with no chips to accompany their fried fish.
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