Food – What’s Eaten is What’s Used

Food is any material consumed in order to supply nutrition to an organism. It is generally of animal, plant or fungi origin, and normally contains various essential nutrients, including proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, or any combination thereof. In its simplest form, food is the food that nourishes an animal or plant. Plants are classified into different groups according to the way they are grown, for example, vegetables are classified as root crops, grasses as grass-related tissue and fruits and roots as fruit-related tissue. The groups of plants are further subdivided into the type of tissue they contain; for example, flowers are made of the tissue that supports the stems while roots are made of tissue that supports the trunk.

Fruits and roots, together with nuts and seeds, are considered to be the richest in dietary fiber, while the leaves, nuts and seeds account for the richest variety of dietary fat. Animal products constitute the richest variety of dietary fat, which includes beef, milk and eggs. In addition to animal products, plants contain several types of fats: vegetable oils (semitage), margarine, butter, coconut oil, palm oil, hydrogenated fats and processed fats. While most foods have a small amount of saturated fat, there are some very popular foods that actually have large amounts of saturated fat.

Most people only remember one food at a time; however, it is not a difficult task to learn how much each food is used by the body. One food can provide several important nutrients to the body. For example, beans contain protein, calcium, potassium, fiber, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, copper and vitamin E. On the other hand, just two food can provide only these very limited nutrients. Therefore, it is always recommended to eat as many vegetables and fruits as possible while avoiding eating meats. It may not be very interesting, but this little experiment will help you get to know how your body uses different food.