I can't eat spicy food like you.(double meanings)

[Hansman]

I can't eat spicy food like you.
Does this sentence have two different meanings?
1) I can't eat spicy food, and you can't eat spicy food either.
2) I can't eat spicy food, but you can eat spicy food well.

Does this sentence mean only the #1 and if to mean the #2, should I use the word unlike?
I can't eat spicy food unlike you.
=I can't eat spicy food, but you can eat spicy food well.

What do you native English speakers think?

 

[tedmc]

I think the sentence is inherently ambiguous and has two possible meanings as you stated.

To avoid the ambiquity, you could rephrase it as follows:
Like you, I can't eat spicy food. (you and I can't eat spicy food).
Unlike you, I can't eat spicy food (you can, but I can't).

 

[jutfrank]

If you're asking purely about sentence meaning and nothing else, there's at least one more possibility:

I can't eat spicy food (that is) like you.

 

[Tarheel]

Try:

I can't eat spicy food, like you can.

 

[5jj]

I can't eat spicy food, like you can.

I'd drop the comma.

 

[Hansman]

If you're asking purely about sentence meaning and nothing else, there's at least one more possibility:

I can't eat spicy food (that is) like you.

Thank you so much, but I can't understand that is in your reply.
Is it a relative pronoun or a conjunction or something else?
What does that is mean in your reply?

 

[jutfrank]

My word that is a relative pronoun, substituting for spicy food.

Logically, I can sense three literal meanings to the relative clause:

a) You are spicy food.

This may be meant in a completely literal sense. You can imagine that I'm talking to a burrito as I say the sentence, which is logically equivalent to saying 'I can't eat spicy food and since you are spicy food, I can't eat you'. It could also be metaphorical in that instead of talking to a burrito, I'm talking to a person but I'm saying that that person is spicy food by metaphor.

b) You are like spicy food.

This is comparative, likening spicy food to you. Logically, it's saying 'You are somewhat similar to spicy food, and since I can't eat spicy food, I can't eat you by extension of similarity'.

c) You are spicy.

This is also comparative, but it's likening you only to the spiciness of spicy food. You have a spiciness that is similar to the spiciness of spicy food. Logically, it's essentially only saying 'I can't eat spicy food and you are spicy'.

There may be other senses that I've missed.

 

[Tarheel]

You can eat spicy food, but I can't.