Foods from plant sources

Food Portal

Food is any substance, usually composed primarily of carbohydrates, fats, water and/or proteins, that can be eaten or drunk by an animal for nutrition or pleasure. Items considered food may be sourced from plants, animals or other categories such as fungus or fermented products like alcohol. Although many human cultures sought food items through hunting and gathering, today most cultures use farming, ranching, and fishing, with hunting, foraging and other methods of a local nature included but playing a minor role.

Most traditions have a recognizable cuisine, a specific set of cooking traditions, preferences, and practices, the study of which is known as gastronomy. Many cultures have diversified their foods by means of preparation, cooking methods and manufacturing. This also includes a complex food trade which helps the cultures to economically survive by-way-of food, not just by consumption.

Many cultures study the dietary analysis of food habits. While humans are omnivores, religion and social constructs such as morality often affect which foods they will consume. Food safety is also a concern with foodborne illness claiming many lives each year. In many languages, food is often used metaphorically or figuratively, as in "food for thought".

Food sources

Almost all foods are of plant or animal origin, although there are some exceptions. Foods not coming from animal or plant sources include various edible fungi, including mushrooms. Fungi and ambient bacteria are used in the preparation of fermented and pickled foods such as leavened bread, wine, beer, cheese, pickles, and yogurt. Many cultures eat seaweed, which is a protist, or blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) such as Spirulina.^[1] Additionally, salt is often eaten as a flavoring or preservative, and baking soda is used in food preparation. Both of these are inorganic substances, as is water, an important part of human diet.

Plants

A variety of foods from plant sources

Many plants or plant parts are eaten as food. There are around 2,000 plant species which are cultivated for food, and many have several distinct cultivars.^[2] Plant-based foods can be classified as with the nutrients necessary for the plant's initial growth. Because of this, seeds are often packed with energy, and are good sources of food for animals, including humans. In fact, the majority of all foods consumed by human beings are seeds. These include cereals (such as maize, wheat, and rice), legumes (such as beans, peas, and lentils), and nuts. Oilseeds are often pressed to produce rich oils, including sunflower, rape (including canola oil), and sesame.^[3]

Fruits are the ripened extensions of plants, including the seeds within. Fruits are made attractive to animals so that animals will eat the fruits and excrete the seeds over long distances. Fruits, therefore, make up a significant part of the diets of most cultures. Some fruits, such as pumpkin and eggplant, are eaten as vegetables.^[4] (For more information, see list of fruits.)

Vegetables are a second type of plant matter eaten as food. These include root vegetables (such as potatoes and carrots), leaf vegetables (such as spinach and lettuce), stem vegetables (such as bamboo shoots and asparagus), and inflorescence vegetables (such as globe artichokes and broccoli). Many herbs and spices are highly-flavorful vegetables.^[5]

Animals

Various raw meats

Animals can be used as food either directly, or indirectly by the products they produce. Meat is an example of a direct product taken from an animal, which comes from either muscle systems or from organs. Food products produced by animals include milk produced by Mammals, which in many cultures is drunk or processed into dairy products such as cheese or butter. In addition birds and other animals lay eggs, which are often eaten, and bees produce honey, a popular sweetener in many cultures. Some cultures consume blood, some in the form of blood sausage, as a thickener for sauces, a cured salted form for times of food scarcity, and others use blood in stews such as civet.^[6]

Production

Tractor and Chaser Bin

Category:Lists of foods

Optimal foraging theory

Notes

^ McGee, 333-334. ^ McGee ,253. ^ McGee, Chapter 9. ^ McGee, Chapter 7. ^ McGee, Chapter 6. ^ Davidson, 81-82. ^ Mason ^ a b Messer, 53-91. ^ Mead, 11-19 ^ McGee, 142-143. ^ McGee, 202-206 ^ McGee Chapter 14. ^ Mead, 11-19. ^ McGee ^ McGee, 784. ^ Campbell, 312. ^ Davidson, 782-783 ^ McGee, 539,784. ^ McGee, 771-791 ^ Davidson, 356. ^ Asado Argentina ^ Davidson, 772. ^ Davidson, 786-787. ^ Robuchon, 224. ^ Davidson, 656 ^ Davidson, 660-661. ^ United States Department of Agriculture ^ Aguilera, 1-3. ^ Miguel, 3. ^ a b c Jango-Cohen ^ Hannaford ^ The Economic Research Service of the USDA ^ Regmi ^ CIA World Factbook ^ World Trade Organization, The Uruguay Round ^ Van den Bossche ^ Wansink, Marketing Nutrition, 501-3. ^ Smith, 501-3. ^ Mead, 11-19. ^ Mead, 11-19. ^ Benson ^ Humphery ^ Magdoff, Fred (Ed.) "[T]he farmer's share of the food dollar (after paying for input costs) has steadily declined from about 40 percent in 1910 to less than 10 percent in 1990." ^ World Health Organization ^ Howe, 353-372 ^ World Food Programme ^ Shah ^ Kripke ^ United Nations World Food program ^ a b National Institute of Health, MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia ^ Hippocrates, On Acute Diseases. ^ Magner, 243-498 ^ USDA ^ a b c d National Institute of Health ^ About Epipen, Epipen.com ^ Wansink, Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think ^ Simoons ^ Nicklas ^ Merson, 245 ^ Merson, 231. ^ Merson, 464. ^ Merson, 224. ^ Carpenter ^ Merson, 266-268. ^ Parekh,187-206. ^ Schor ^ United Kingdom Office of Public Sector Information

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References

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• Asado Argentina. About Asado Argentina. Retrieved from http://www.asadoargentina.com/about-asado-argentina/ on 2007-05-28.
• Campbell, Bernard Grant. Human Evolution: An Introduction to Man's Adaptations. Aldine Transaction: 1998. .
• Carpenter, Ruth Ann; Finley, Carrie E. Healthy Eating Every Day. Human Kinetics, 2005. .
• Davidson, Alan. The Oxford Companion to Food. 2nd ed. UK: Oxford University Press, 2006.
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2005. . Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/docrep/008/a0200e/a0200e00.htm on 2006-09-29.
• Hannaford, Steve. Oligopoly Watch: Top 20 world food companies. Retrieved from http://www.oligopolywatch.com/2005/10/06.html on 2006-09-23.
• Howe, P. and S. Devereux. Famine Intensity and Magnitude Scales: A Proposal for an Instrumental Definition of Famine. 2004.
• Humphery, Kim. Shelf Life: Supermarkets and the Changing Cultures of Consumption. Cambridge University Press, 1998. .
• Jango-Cohen, Judith. The History Of Food. Twenty-First Century Books, 2005. .
• Jurgens, Marshall H. Animal Feeding and Nutrition. Kendall Hunt, 2001. .
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• Lawrie, Stephen; R A Lawrie. Lawrie's Meat Science. Woodhead Publishing: 1998. .
• Magdoff, Fred; Foster, John Bellamy; and Buttel, Frederick H. Hungry for Profit: The Agribusiness Threat to Farmers, Food, and the Environment. September 2000. .
• Mason, John. Sustainable Agriculture. Landlinks Press: 2003. .
• Merson, Michael H.; Black, Robert E.; Mills, Anne J. International Public Health: Disease, Programs, Systems, and Policies. Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2005.
• McGee, Harold. On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004. .
• Mead, Margaret. The Changing Significance of Food. In Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik (Ed.), Food and Culture: A Reader. UK: Routledge, 1997. .
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• Nicklas, Barbara J. Endurance Exercise and Adipose Tissue. CRC Press, 2002. .
• Parekh, Sarad R. The Gmo Handbook: Genetically Modified Animals, Microbes, and Plants in Biotechnology. Humana Press,2004. .
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• Shah, Anup. Food Dumping (Aid) Maintains Poverty. Causes of Poverty. Retrieved from http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Poverty/FoodDumping.asp on 2006-09-29.
• Simoons, Frederick J. Eat Not This Flesh: Food Avoidances from Prehistory to the Present. .
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• United Kingdom Office of Public Sector Information. Food Safety Act 1990 (c. 16). Retrieved from http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1990/Ukpga_19900016_en_2.htm#mdiv1 on 2006-11-08.
• United States Department of Agriculture, USDA Economic Research Service: The Economics of Food, Farming, Natural Resources, and Rural America. "Briefing Rooms, Food CPI, Prices and Expenditures: Food Expenditure Tables". Retrieved from http://www.ers.usda.gov/briefing/CPIFoodAndExpenditures/Data/ on 2007-06-06.
• Van den Bossche, Peter. The Law and Policy of the bosanac Trade Organization: Text, Cases and Materials. UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005. .
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