Food is what people and animals eat to live. Food usually comes from animals and plants. It is eaten by living things to provide energy and nutrition. Food contains the nutrition that people and animals need to be healthy. The consumption of food is normally enjoyable to humans. It contains protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins, water and minerals. Liquids used for energy and nutrition are often called "drinks". If someone cannot afford food they go hungry.
Food for humans is mostly made through farming or gardening. It includes animal and vegetable sources. Some people refuse to eat food from animal origin, like meat, eggs, and products with milk in them. Not eating meat is called vegetarianism. Not eating or using any animal products is called veganism.
Food produced by farmers or gardeners can be changed by industrial processes (the food industry). Processed food usually contains several natural ingredients and food additives (such as preservatives, antioxidants, emulsifiers, flavor enhancers). For example, bread is processed food.
Food processing at home is done in the kitchen, by the cook. The cook sometimes uses a cookbook. Examples of cooking utensils are pressure cookers, pots, and frying pans.
Food can also be prepared and served in restaurants or refectory (in particular for children in school).
The utensils used may be a plate, knife, fork, chopsticks, spoon, bowl, or spork.
Many people do not grow their own food. They have to buy food that was grown by someone else. People buy most of their food in shops or markets. But some people still grow most or all of their own food.
People may buy food and take it home to cook it. They may buy food that is ready to eat from a street vendor or a restaurant.
Originally, people got food as hunter-gatherers. The agricultural revolution changed that. Farmers grew crops including those invented and improved by selective breeding. These improvements, for example the invention of maize, allowed feeding more people, and further improvements gave it a better taste.
Food shortage has been a big problem throughout history. Many people do not have enough money to buy the food that they need. Bad weather or other problems sometimes destroy the growing food in one part of the world. When people do not have enough food, we say that they are hungry. If they do not eat enough food for a long time, they will become sick and die from starvation. In areas where many people do not have enough food, we say that there is famine there.
Food and water can make people sick if it is contaminated by microorganisms, bad metals, or chemicals.
If people do not eat the right foods, they can become sick.
People may often have a variety of eating disorders that cause them to either eat too much, or not be able to eat certain things or amounts. Common diseases like Coeliac disease or food allergies cause people to experience ill effects from consuming certain foods that are normally safe. If people eat too much food, they can become overweight or obese. This causes numerous health problems. On the other hand, eating too little food, from lack of access or anorexia could cause malnutrition. Therefore, people have to balance the amount, the nutrition, and the type of food to be healthy.
Many cultures or religions have food taboos. That means they have rules what people should not eat, or how the food has to be prepared. Examples of religious food rules are the "Kashrut" of Judaism and the "Halal" of Islam, that say that pig meat cannot be eaten. In Hinduism, eating beef is not allowed. Some Christians are "vegetarian" (someone who does not eat meat) because of their religious beliefs. For example, Seventh-day Adventist Church recommends vegetarianism.
In addition, sometime beliefs do not relate to the religion but belong to the culture. For example, some people pay respect to "Guān Yīn" mothergod and those followers will not consume "beef" as they believe that her father has a shape of the cow.
Fine
If someone is found guilty of a crime, their punishment may be to pay a fine, a certain amount of money. In many countries, fines can be ordered by police, court judges and some government officers.
When agreeing to a contract with a business, a customer may agree to certain rules. If the customer breaks the rules, then they agree to pay a fine for doing so. For example, when somebody hires a car and agrees to return it by Friday, they agree that if they do not return the car by Friday, they must pay a $50 fine to the business.
Frying
To fry food is to cook it in hot butter or vegetable oil or other fat. We can fry food in a small amount of fat in a pan or in a lot of oil in a pot. Some restaurants use deep frying to fry a large amount of food.
Fish
Fish (plural: fish) are an aquatic group of vertebrates which live in water and respire (get oxygen) with gills. They do not have limbs, like arms or legs, and they do have digits (fingers & toes). This is a definition which does not quite work: some amphibia also live in water and have external gills, but they are not fish.
Fish used to be a class of vertebrates. Now the term covers five classes of aquatic vertebrates:
There are more fish than tetrapods (land vertebrates): there are over 33,000 described species of fish. Fish are usually covered with scales. They have two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins. Most fish are cold-blooded (poikilotherm). A fish takes in the oxygen from the water using gills. There are many different kinds of fish. They live in fresh water in lakes and rivers, and in salt water in the ocean. Some fish are less than one centimeter long. The largest fish is the whale shark, which can be almost 15 meters long and weigh 15 tons. Most fish live in the water. A group of fish called the lungfish have developed lungs because they live in rivers and pools which dry up in certain parts of the year. They burrow into mud and aestivate until the water returns.
'Fish' is a paraphyletic term in cladistics because it lacks a monophyletic group of descendants. It does not include the land vertebrates or tetrapods, which descended from fish.
Though often used interchangeably, these words have different meanings. Fish is used either as singular noun or to describe a group of specimens from a single species. Fishes describes a group of different species.
Fish, the oldest vertebrate group, includes a huge range of types, from the Middle Ordovician, about 490 million years ago, to the present day. These are the main groups:
Certain animals that have the word "fish" in their name are not really fish: Crayfish are crustaceans, and jellyfish are Cnidarians. Some animals look like fish, but are not. Whales and dolphins are mammals, for example.
Most kinds of fish have bones. Some kinds of fish, such as sharks and rays, do not have real bones. Their skeletons are made of cartilage, and so they are known as cartilaginous fish.
All fish are covered with overlapping scales, and each major group of fish has its own special type of scale. Teleosts ('modern' fish) have what are called "leptoid" scales. These grow in concentric circles and overlap in a head to tail direction like roof tiles. Sharks and other chondrichthyes have "placoid" scales made of denticles, like small versions of their teeth. These also overlap in a head to tail direction, producing a tough outer layer. Shark skin is available for purchase as shagreen, a leather which as original is smooth in one direction, and rough in the other direction. It may be polished for use, but is always rough in texture and resistant to slipping.
The scales are usually covered with a layer of slime which improves passage through the water, and makes the fish more slippery to a predator.