Food - we need it to survive. Some food we love to eat and some not. All foods contain different types of vitamins, minerals, quantities of sugar and fat and have different tastes. We cannot live without food.
We will start a new series where we look at different types of food and gather more information on it, but today we will just look at a few random facts that are interesting.
Take away or fast food joints are popping up every where. So many to choose from and while not one of your healthiest options, it is always nice to eat it. McDonalds is a well known fast food chain and they are found in most countries all over the work and employs more than 1.5 million people.
'Cuisine' is a name given to food that people prepare in a certain way and eat and you will find different types of cuisine in different countries. Even though a lot of food that are the same is eaten, the people eat different foods in different countries. Countries have 'traditional cuisine' that is not eaten in other countries.
Choose any 5 countries and find out what their traditional cuisine is.
Plants are important to humans, since many of them we can eat. There are more than 2000 types of plants that people can use as food.
Have you ever cried when cutting an onion? It is because the onion releases a gas when cut and the gas irritates the eye and the only way the eye can get rid of the irritation is to produce tears to try and wash it out.
Did you know a tomato and a pumpkin is not a vegetable but a fruit. Although they are labeled as vegetables, they are technically a fruit since it contains seeds.
Some people love garlic, even if it can make your breath stink.... China produces more than 10 million tons of garlic per year. Now that can cause a huge stink. India produces the most bananas and can produce more than 22 million tons of bananas in a year.
Humans use many different methods for gathering food which include farming, hunting, gardening, foraging and fishing.
Most humans do not only eat fruits and vegetables, but also meat that comes from animals like pigs, sheep and cattle. Animals are also used for other food products like eggs, honey and milk. If a person do not eat meat they are called vegetarians or vegans if they do not use any animal products either by eating it or wearing it.
Most food are cooked before you eat it and by applying the heat to it, it changes the way the food look and taste.
Various cooking methods include boiling, simmering, steaming, sautéing, pan frying and deep-frying.
Food needs to be cooked carefully and also stored properly - you cannot leave meat outside for days and most food needs to be refrigerated to stay fresh. If you eat food that are not fine to eat any more, you can end up with food poisoning. More than 70 million people end up with food poisoning each year and in about 700 of the cases it can be fatal, which means the person will die.
A few people have food allergies. This means your body will show a reaction if you eat the food you are allergic to. It can be anything from an itchy rash to your throat closing up and you are not able to breathe. There are many types of allergies and some well known once are nuts, gluten and dairy.
We need to eat to live, but sometimes food is so nice it feels like we live to eat....
