Food

Food is essential body nutrients like proteins, fats, vitamins, carbohydrates, or minerals that is usually from plants or animal origin and is eaten, drank, or assimilated to produce energy, maintain life, and stimulate growth by an organism.

Early human societies and cultures obtained food thru the practices of gathering and hunting, while today other methods like foraging, hunting, ranching, farming, and fishing are used to supply food.

Many cultural traditions have an associated cuisine, which is a set of cooking traditions, practices, and preferences that are specific in nature or gastronomy as it is better known.

Foods are diversified by methods of manufacturing, cooking methods, and preparation in many cultures and a complex food trade helps these cultures to survive economically directly from this exchange.

The type of food a society consumes is often affected by religion and social constructs such as morality.

Water and salt are very important in the human diet but neither is of plant or animal origin.

Various edible fungi such as mushrooms and ambient bacteria which are used in pickled and fermented food such as bread, yogurt, cheese, pickles, and alcoholic drinks are neither considered plant or animal origin.

Other items not of plant or animal origin that are used in the human diet are seaweed, blue-green algae, and also baking soda which is inorganic and is used in food preparation.

About 2,000 plant species make up the many plants and plant parts that are eaten for food.

A good source of food for humans and animals are seeds of various plants because they contain nutrients that are needed for the plants to germinate and grow.

Most of the food eaten by humans is seed based such as, cereals that contain corn, wheat, rice, and barley. Another class of seed based food is legumes such as beans, peas, and lentils and the last class is all kinds of nuts.

Rich oils come from seeds like sunflower, sesame, and rape seed when they are pressed.

The ripened ovaries of plants are called fruit including the seeds that are inside of them.

Seeds of the fruit are spread to other areas by animals and humans through the process of eating and excreting.

Tomatoes, pumpkins, and eggplants are eaten and thought to be vegetables, although they are actually a fruit.

Vegetables are another group of plants used for food and consist of these major groups root vegetables, stem vegetables, leaf vegetables, and inflorescence vegetables such as globe artichokes and broccoli.

By the products they produce animals are used as food either directly or indirectly. A product that is taken directly from an animal would be meat, which is the muscle tissue or the organs from their internal system.

Examples of indirect animal products would be milk, eggs, and honey.