Food is any material prepared from one or more ingredients in order to provide nutrition to an organism. In its broadest sense food is any material prepared with or from any source for human consumption. In this modern day lingo food is generally of animal, plant or fungi origin, and has necessary nutrients, including proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, or other minerals. Food preparations may also include medical or pharmaceutical products intended to treat, improve or protect a person’s health. Today most food products are manufactured using genetically modified plants and micro-organisms rather than conventional breeding methods.
A wide range of foods has been domesticated for consumption around the world. Domesticated animals have been used to prepare food for people for thousands of years. From horse, cow, sheep, goat, pig, chicken, turkey and rabbit, real food may be cooked, boiled, processed, deep fried, steamed, and even served on the table. Real foods that people eat include fruits, vegetables, legumes, roots, grains, nuts, eggs, dairy products, salt and sugar. In this modern era, some of these real foods may be prepared in various ways depending on region and culture.
The first food group is carbohydrates, which includes pasta, breads, rice, cereals and potatoes. These are the most widely used food ingredients and constitute the bulk of our food supply. All of our body needs are fulfilled by the carbohydrates we eat daily. When it comes to meeting our daily nourishment the American diet still provides less than adequate amounts of carbohydrates.
The second group is fats and oils, which include butter, margarine, tropical oils, some fish oils, and certain animal origin proteins like dairy products. The fats and oils that we get from these animal sources provide very little of the nutrients we need. One of the reasons we get so much fat from the animal source is because they don’t have the enzymes to break their own fat down and use the energy contained within it. This means that the animals we eat have way too much fat and none of the essential nutrients, so we are forced to get it from another place.
The third group of food is dietary fibre, which includes grains, vegetables, nuts, seeds, nuts, fruits, legumes and beans. All of these provide us with the nutrients we need, but most importantly, all of them are fibrous. Fibre provides a large amount of energy that our bodies need, so without it our immune system gets drained and we become more prone to disease and infection. Without a rich intake of carbohydrates and plenty of dietary fibre our bodies can become obese and suffer from other health problems. We can take help from the food pyramid, which shows how much each type of food and nutrient should be eaten.
The fourth group of food is our water supply, which includes fresh fruits and vegetables, cereals, dried beans and the like. Water supplies are essential for many aspects of our health and so a lot of us should aim to include this within our daily diet. This can be seen by the shape in which many fruit and vegetables are because they contain a large amount of water. It’s this nutrient that is the most important because without it, we could not survive and would have to go back on the meat and carbohydrate diets!