Food

Food is any substance consumed by living organisms, including liquid drinks{{fn|1}}. Food is the main source of energy and of nutrition for animals, and is usually of animal or plant origin.

Human eating habits

Historical development

Humans are commonly believed to be omnivorous animals that can consume both plant and animal products. Evidence suggests that early Homo Sapiens employed hunting and gathering as their primary means of food collection. This involves combining stationary plant and fungal food sources (such as fruits, grains, roots, and mushrooms) with mobile animals which must be hunted and killed in order to be consumed. Additionally, it is believed that humans have used fire to prepare food prior to eating since their divergence from Homo erectus, possibly even earlier.

Related Topics:
Human - Omnivorous - Homo Sapiens - Hunting and gathering - Homo erectus

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As at least ten thousand years ago, humans developed agriculture, which has continually improved and altered the way in which food is obtained. This lead to a variety of important historical consequences, such increased population, the development of cities, and the wider spread of infectious diseases. The types of food consumed, and the way in which they are prepared vary widely by time, location, and culture.

Related Topics:
Agriculture - Continually improved - Population - Cities - Infectious disease

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Meals

A selection of different foods, possibly complementary, eaten together comprises a meal. "A meal incorporates a number of contrasts, hot and cold, bland and spiced, liquid and semi-liquid, and various textures. It also incorporates cereals, vegetables, and animal proteins" (Douglas, p.41). Each person dining must use at least one untensil which will enter the mouth. A table must be used, a seating order put into effect, along with applied restrictions on movement or other types of behavior. People often choose to eat together or with others. Meals are considered to be for family, friends who are close, and guests who are to be honored. Often named and patterned, meals play a role in an important social occassion, such as the celebration of many key cultural and religious festivals. Food is not just used for nutrition or as a reward, but is a method of communication, or a code. "The meaning of a meal is found in a system of repeated analogies. Each meal carries something of the meaning of the other meals; each meal is a structured social event which structures others in its own image" (Douglas, p.44). Each group, family or culture taking part in a meal activity uses symbolic structures within the mal to varying degrees. "If food is treated as a code, the messages it encodes will be found in the pattern of social relations being expressed" (Douglas, p.36). It can have symbolic meaning, and can be used to affect personal behavior, or enforce protocol. "When he buys an item of food, consumes it, or serves it, modern man does not manipulate a simple object in a purely transitive fashion; this item of food sums up and trasnmits a situation; it constitutes an information; it signifies. That is to say that it is not just an indicator of a set of more or less conscious motivations, but that it is a real sign, perhaps the functional unit of a system of communication. By this I mean not only the elements of display in food, such as foods involved in rites of hospitality, for all food serves as a sign among the members of a given society" (Barthes, p.20). Outside a social event, food can be used as means for nourishment for a single individual.

Related Topics:
Meal - Cultural - Religious - Festival

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The number of meals in a day, their size, composition, when and how they are prepared and eaten varies greatly around the world. This diversity can be attributed to a number of local factors, including climate, ecology, economy, cultural traditions and industrialisation.

Related Topics:
Day - Size - Composition - Climate - Ecology - Economy - Cultural - Traditions - Industrialisation

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In societies where the availability of food has risen above subsistence levels and beyond staple foods, food is also sold pre-prepared for immediate consumption in restaurants and other similar retail premises. In industrial societies, meals often contain a higher proportion of food of animal origin. Food eaten in smaller quantities between meals is regarded as snack food, which can be attributed to over-nutrition.

Related Topics:
Subsistence - Staple food - Sold - Restaurant - Retail - Snack food

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:See also: Appetite, Buddhist cuisine, Eucharist, Fast food, Fasting, Gault Millau restaurant guide, Halaal, I-tal, Kashrut, Michelin restaurant guide, Muslim dietary laws, Potluck, Totemism.

Related Topics:
Appetite - Buddhist cuisine - Eucharist - Fast food - Fasting - Gault Millau restaurant guide - Halaal - I-tal - Kashrut - Michelin restaurant guide - Muslim dietary laws - Potluck - Totemism

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SOURCES

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Douglas,Mary. ?Deciphering a Meal.? Food and Culture: A Reader.

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Ed. Carole Counihan and Penny van Esterik. New York: Routledge, 1997. 36-54.

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Barthes,Roland. ?Toward a Psychosociology of Contemporary Food Consumption.? Food and Culture: A Reader. Ed. Carole Counihan and Penny van Esterik. New York: Routledge, 1997. 20-27.

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