v  FOOD

Food is the basic necessities of life. It provides all essential nutrients. For proper function of our body nutrients provide energy.

Kinds of Nutrients

Nutrients are divided into six major groups by scientists: vitamins, minerals, water, fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. All or some food contain nutrients in varying amounts.

Carbohydrates provide energy for the body. The most important source of carbohydrates comes from plants.

Fats provide much energy as provided by carbohydrates.

Proteins are the body’s chief tissue builders. They help keep bones, muscles, blood healthy, and skin. Vitamins and minerals are called micronutrients because they are needed in small quantities compared with fats, proteins, and carbohydrates (known as macronutrients). 

Vitamins help the body make full use of other nutrients by carrying the chemical reactions that able the nutrients to work.

Cereal Grains

Cereal grains are the digestible seeds of certain grasses. These seeds have been grown by people since the beginning of agriculture. Now, the most commonly grown grains are rice, corn, and wheat. Some other grains are millet, sorghum, oats, barley, and rye.

Now the most important food staples are cereal grains. Several people eat them daily. Now a large number of people get a good percentage of calories from them. Not only people but also livestock such as hens, cattle, and hogs get food from cereal grains and products made from cereal grains.


Fruits and Vegetables

The term “fruit” has several meanings. From a botanist's point of view, it is a part of the plant that contains seeds. According to the definition, fruits include most vegetables, as well as nuts, such as tomatoes and cucumbers.

Fruit can be defined as the soft, edible, seed-bearing part of a perennial plant. A perennial plant lives for more than one growing season. Fresh fruits are full of fiber, vitamins, minerals, and carbohydrates. They can be saved by canning, freezing, or drying.


Different fruits grow in different climates, and may not grow well in harsh climates such as too cold, hot, dry, or wet. Based on the kind of climate in which they grow, fruits can be classified into different groups: tropical fruits, subtropical fruits, and temperate fruits.

Legumes, Meat, Poultry, Fish, and Eggs

Legumes are plants that are specified for their edible seeds or seed pods. Lima beans, peas, peanuts, soybeans, and lentils all are included in legumes. Legumes that are harvested for their dry seeds, such as lentils, are called pulses. Most pulses are famous in India and Pakistan.


The term “meat” consider as edible flesh of animals, such as cattle, sheep, and some birds. Meat is rich in nutrients and consider as high nutrient food.


“Poultry” is considered domesticated birds that are specified for meat and eggs. Chickens are an important source of food for most of the world’s population. The most popular meats worldwide are fish and shellfish. The world’s population consumes 15 percent of proteins from fish.

 

Eggs are a source of fats, proteins, vitamins, and minerals. Fried, boiled, scrambled, or deviled, chicken eggs are popular around the world. They are mostly used in baked goods.

Milk and Dairy Products

Mostly world’s milk, cream, yogurt, butter, and cheese come from dairy cows. However, goats, sheep, reindeer, camels, yaks, and buffalo supply milk products as well.

In much of Asia, people have commonly consumed “milk” made from soybeans. Soy milk is made by grinding and soaking soybeans in water. Soy milk contains the same protein as cow’s milk.

Diet

People’s diets vary from one country to another country. Diets can also vary within a single country and vary in provinces. Geographic differences explain part of these differences. For example, people who live near the ocean might eat greater amounts of fish than people who live farther from the ocean. People living in cool areas with short maturing seasons depend on crops that grow quickly, such as potatoes. In warm, wet lowlands where the soil retains water, rice is often famous.

Food and Culture    

People eat not only for nutrients and for hunger and starvation. People’s eating habits are strongly impacted by culture. Traditions around sharing, preparing, and consuming food serve biological roles as well as social ones. Believers of the Jain religion, for example, strongly believe in nonviolence toward all living things. Strict Jains did not like to eat meat. Many Jains also did not like eating potatoes and other tubers because many small organisms are harmed when tubers are pulled out from the earth.
World Food Supply

 A massive supply of food is required for the feeding of the world's population. Since the late 1940s, grain supplies have fluctuated, but worldwide there has been a surplus or more than enough food to feed everyone. Yet millions go hungry. Half of the death of children occur due to poor nutrition.

Many advanced countries own millions of acres of fertile land. This huge agricultural economy allows nations like Australia, the United States, and Canada to have a strong food supply for nutrition as well as the export of livestock, grain, and produce.

Food Aid

Manmade and natural crises can cause millions of people to depend upon international food aid. Food aid can also be defined as money for governments or people to buy their own food.

Food aid is common for all countries, for both donors and recipients. Some receiving countries are not allowed to enjoy as much independence as they would like. However, some countries offered food aid with certain limitations and rules.