Human food

These are usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contain essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, and minerals.

Geographic and cultural differences have led to the creation of numerous cuisines and culinary arts, including a wide array of ingredients, herbs, spices, techniques, and dishes.

Although aquatic foods contribute significantly to the health of billions of people around the world, they tend to be undervalued nutritionally, primarily because their diversity is framed in a monolithic way as "seafood or fish."

In the natural settings that human primate ancestors evolved in, sweetness intensity should indicate energy density, while bitterness tends to indicate toxicity.

It is found in almost every food in low to moderate proportions to enhance flavour, although eating pure salt is regarded as highly unpleasant.

Other than enhancing flavour, salty foods are significant for body needs and maintaining a delicate electrolyte balance, which is the kidney's function.

Some popular types of ethnic foods include Italian, French, Japanese, Chinese, American, Cajun, Thai, African, Indian and Nepalese.

While many foods can be eaten raw, many also undergo some form of preparation for reasons of safety, palatability, texture, or flavour.

The term "cooking" encompasses a vast range of methods, tools, and combinations of ingredients to improve the flavour or digestibility of food.

Cooking technique, known as culinary art, generally requires the selection, measurement, and combining of ingredients in an ordered procedure to achieve the desired result.

[62] Several organisations have begun calling for a new kind of agriculture in which agroecosystems provide food but also support vital ecosystem services so that soil fertility and biodiversity are maintained rather than compromised.

Computer-based control systems, sophisticated processing and packaging methods, and logistics and distribution advances can enhance product quality, improve food safety, and reduce costs.

In the pre-modern era, the sale of surplus food took place once a week when farmers took their wares on market day into the local village marketplace.

In the latter part of the 20th century, this has been further revolutionized by the development of vast warehouse-sized, out-of-town supermarkets, selling a wide range of food from around the world.

Between the extremes of optimal health and death from starvation or malnutrition, there is an array of disease states that can be caused or alleviated by changes in diet.

As previously discussed, the body is designed by natural selection to enjoy sweet and fattening foods for evolutionary diets, ideal for hunters and gatherers.

[104][105] A similar amount is lost on top of that by feeding human-edible food to farm animals (the net effect wastes an estimated 1144 kcal/person/day).

This often includes decision-making around production and processing techniques, marketing, availability, utilization, and consumption of food, in the interest of meeting or furthering social objectives.

[116] Food policy comprises the mechanisms by which food-related matters are addressed or administered by governments, including international bodies or networks, and by public institutions or private organizations.

Agricultural producers often bear the burden of governments' desire to keep food prices sufficiently low for growing urban populations.

[120] States that sign the covenant agree to take steps to the maximum of their available resources to achieve progressively the full realization of the right to adequate food, both nationally and internationally.

[122] Furthermore, the number who suffer from hidden hunger – micronutrient deficiences that may cause stunted bodily and intellectual growth in children – amounts to over 2 billion people worldwide.

Food can also be adulterated by a very wide range of articles (known as "foreign bodies") during farming, manufacture, cooking, packaging, distribution, or sale.

Discovery of techniques for killing bacteria using heat, and other microbiological studies by scientists such as Louis Pasteur, contributed to the modern sanitation standards that are ubiquitous in developed nations today.

[149] In more recent years, a greater understanding of the causes of food-borne illnesses has led to the development of more systematic approaches such as the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), which can identify and eliminate many risks.

In some instances, traces of food in the air, too minute to be perceived through smell, have been known to provoke lethal reactions in extremely sensitive individuals.

[153] Rarely, food allergies can lead to a medical emergency, such as anaphylactic shock, hypotension (low blood pressure), and loss of consciousness.

It is however often difficult to identify the specific components in diet that serve to increase or decrease cancer risk since many foods, such as beef steak and broccoli, contain low concentrations of both carcinogens and anticarcinogens.

Imbalances between the consumed fuels and expended energy results in either starvation or excessive reserves of adipose tissue, known as body fat.

Others choose a healthier diet, avoiding sugars or animal fats and increasing consumption of dietary fiber and antioxidants like various polyphenols.