1 : food
2 : Legal definition
3 : Human eating habits
3.1 : Historical development
3.2 : Meals
3.3 : Cultural influences
4 : Food production or acquisition
4.1 : Basic foods
5 : Food preparation
5.1 : Recipes
5.2 : Food manufacture
5.2.1 : Types of manufactured food
6 : Food and health
6.1 : Food safety
6.2 : Nutrients in food
7 : See also
8 : External links
Food is any substance normally eaten or drunk by living things. The term food also includes liquid drinks. Food is the main source of energy and of nutrition for animals, and is usually of animal or plant origin.
The study of food is called food science. In English, the term food is often used metaphorically or figuratively, as in food for thought.
Legal definition
Western food law recognises four categories of object as food:
- any substance or product, whether processed, partially processed or unprocessed, intended to be, or reasonably expected to be ingested by humans whether of nutritional value or not;
- water and other drinks;
- chewing gum;
- articles and substances used as ingredients or components in the preparation of food.
Human eating habits
Historical development
Humans are omnivorous animals that can consume both plant and animal products. We changed from gatherers to hunter gatherers. After the experience of the Ice Age it is probable that humans wanted to create some feeling of security by controlling what plants were growing and which animals were available. This led to agriculture, which has continually improved and altered the way in which food is obtained.
Meals
A selection of different complementary foods eaten together comprise a meal. People often choose to eat meals together with other family members or friends and this is seen as an important social occasion. Food eaten in smaller quantities between meals is regarded as snack food.
See also: Eucharist, Fasting, I-tal, Kashrut, Muslim dietary laws, Potluck and Totemism.
Cultural influences
The number of meals in a day, their size, composition, when and how they are eaten is greatly dependent on cultural traditions. Meals also plays an important role in the celebration of many key cultural and religious festivals.
In societies where the availability of food has risen above subsistence levels and beyond staple foods, food is also sold pre-prepared for immediate consumption in restaurants and other similar retail premises. See also: Fast food, Slow Food.
Food production or acquisition
Food for humans is mostly obtained through farming, ranching, and fishing, with hunting, foraging and other methods of subsistence locally important for some populations, but very minor for most. In the modern era, in developed nations, food supply is increasingly dependent upon factory farming techniques.
Food for livestock is known as fodder and traditionally comprises hay or grain.
Basic foods
Many people forgo food from animal sources to varying degrees; see vegetarianism, veganism, fructarianism , living foods diet, and raw foodism.
''From plant sources:
- Cereals, including barley, corn or maize, oats, rice, rye, sugarcane, wheat
- Fruit, see also list of fruits
- Herbs, see also list of herbs and spices
- Legumes, including beans, peas, lentils, jicama
- Nuts
- Seeds
- Spices, see also list of herbs and spices
- Vegetables, see also list of vegetables
From animal sources:''
- Dairy products, including milk
- Eggs
- Fish
- Insects, including honey
- Meat, including pork, beef, veal, mutton, lamb, goat, kangaroo, bushmeat, horse, human (i.e. cannibalism)
- Offal, including blood
- Poultry, including chicken, turkey, duck, goose, pigeon or dove, ostrich, emu, guinea fowl, pheasant, quail
- Seafood, including shellfish
- Wild game, including venison, elk, moose, buffalo, bear, antelope
Food preparation
Whilst some food can be eaten without preparation, many foods undergo some form of preparation for reasons of safety, palatability, or flavour. At the simplest level this may involve washing, cutting, triming or adding other foods or ingredients, such as spices. It may also involve mixing, heating or cooling, fermentation, or combination with other food.
The preparation of animal-based food will usually involve slaughter, evisceration, hanging and portioning.
See also: Barbecue, Eating utensils, Hangi, Oven, Microwave oven, Refrigeration, Food preparation utensils.
Recipes
Human knowledge of cooking and preparation methods is often taught by parents to their children, largely based on the cuisine within their cultural traditions. Since the development, of mass-produced printing, the has been supplemented by written recipes. Early examples of influential recipe books include, De re coquinaria and Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management. See also: Wikipedia.
Food manufacture
Types of manufactured food
Food and health
Dietary habits play a significant role in the health and mortality of all humans. Contemporary changes to work, family and exercise patterns, together with concerns about the effect of nutrition and obesity on human health and mortality are having an effect on traditional eating habits.
There are also a range of food issues that affect the health of some people, including:
- Eating disorders are a group of mental disorders that interfere with normal food consumption. They often affect people with a negative body image.
- Food deprivation leads to malnutrition and ultimately starvation. This is often connected with famine, which involves the absence of food in entrie communities. This can have a devastaing and widespread effect on human health and mortality. Food deprivation is regarded as a deficiet need in Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
- Malnutrition can also be triggered by the lack of key nutrients, for example insufficient and extended vitamin C deprivation results in scurvy.
- Kwashiorkor and marasmus are childhood disorders caused by lack of dietary protein.
- Certain foods contain allergens which can safely be consumed by the majority by people. However these can trigger severe illness in small proportion of susceptible people. Rarely this can trigger anaphylaxis which can be fatal.
See also: Health claims on food labels
Food safety
Foodborne illness or food poisoning, is caused by bacteria, toxins, viruses and prions. Food poisoning has been recognised as a disease of man since as early as Hippocrates. Murder by food poisoning was used during the Roman Empire. In the Middle Ages all Royal Courts had food tasters.
The sale of rancid, contaminated or adulterated food was commonplace until introduction of hygiene and vermin controls in the 19th century. Discovery of techniques for killing bacteria using heat and other microbiological by scientists such as Louis Pasteur contributed to the modern standards that we enjoy today. This was further underpinned by the work of Justus von Liebig whose work led to the development of modern Food storage and food preservation methods.
More recent comprehensive understanding of the causes of food-borne-illnesses and techniques for their elimination has led to the development of commercial systems such as HACCP, that identify and can eliminate all possible risks if properly implemented.
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Knowledge about the nutritional components, and the interactions of these components in human metabolism for an ideal diet is an expanding area of knowledge.
See also
External links
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