Food and its sources

Food is any substance, usually comprised primarily of carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, water and/or proteins, that can be eaten or drunk by animals (including humans) for nutrition and/or pleasure. Most cultures have a recognisable cuisine: a specific set of cooking traditions, preferences and practices, the study of which is known as gastronomy. The study of food is called food science. In English, the term food is often used metaphorically or figuratively as in ‘food for thought’.

The main food sources are plants and animals.

Food from plant sources

Many plants or plant parts are eaten as food. There are around two thousand plant species that are cultivated for food, and many have several distinct cultivars. Plant-based foods can be classified as follows: Seeds, the ripened ovules of some plants, carry a plant embryo inside them along 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.

Fruits are the ripened ovaries 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.

Vegetables are other plant matter which is 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-flavourful vegetables.

Foods from animals

When animal tissue is eaten as food, this is known as meat. Many different kinds of animals are eaten, but mammals make up the majority of meat.

The most common mammal-based meat include beef, lamb, pork, and mutton. Poultry is meat from a bird; the most common poultries are chicken and turkey. Seafood is meat from a fish or other sea creature, such as shellfish or lobster. Some cultures eat other forms of meat, including insects, snails, reptiles, or amphibians.

Often animal products are eaten as well. Mammals produce milk, which in many cultures is drunk or processed into dairy products such as cheese or butter. Birds and other animals lay eggs, which are often eaten. Many cultures eat honey, produced by bees, and some cultures eat animal blood.

Other foods

Some foods do not come from animal or plant sources. These 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 yoghurt. Many cultures eat seaweed or blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) such as spirulina. Additionally, salt is often eaten as a flavouring 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.

4.Answer the following questions.

1.What is food?

2.What are the main sources of food?

3.How many species of plants are cultivated by people for food?

4.Why are seeds good sources of food?

5.What groups can vegetables be classified into?

6.What is meat?

7.What meats do people eat?

8.What other products do animals give?

9.Does all food come from plants and animals?

10.What inorganic substances are used for food preparation?

5.Someone has modified this shopping list and created lots of strange new foods. Can you take the words together again correctly? Write a new shopping list.

1. Vegemins 2. Vitatoes 3. Potatables 4. Chice 5. Tomit 6. Sosh 7. Ficuits 8. Fruya 9. Ricken 10. Bisatoes

1..................... 2..................... 3..................... 4..................... 5..................... 6..................... 7..................... 8..................... 9..................... 10....................

6.Give the English equivalents to the following words and word combinations:

перш за все, джерела їжі, види рослин, вирощувати задля їжі, початковий ріст, виробляти олію, на довгі відстані, важлива частина харчування, коренеплоди, стебло, спеції, морські істоти, ссавці, складати більшість, їстівний.

7.Fill in the table.

FOOD

…	from animals	other
seeds	fruits	…	…	milk	eggs	honey	fungi …	inorganic substances
…	…	…	beef pork …	butter …

8.Someone has been playing around with these sentences. The strange facts have become even stranger fiction. Read them carefully, put the correct sentences back together.