Food: where does it come from?

As the word Food comes, lots of tasty and yummy food items like pizza, dosa, sandwich, burger, idli, poori chole, and omelette jumps to our mind.  Think of the food items you had in your breakfast today. Sandwich? Great!!! Now let’s read, what is food?

What is Food?

We all eat vegetables, fruits; pulses, cereals and some of us eat meat, chicken and Fish. Anything we eat to live is called FOOD. We need it every day as it helps our bodies to grow well, remain healthy and gives us lots of energy to perform daily work. It acts as a fuel for our body. All living beings, be they humans, plants and animals, need food every day to survive.  It is very much valuable and should not be wasted. Many of us waste so much food at parties and at home.

There is so much variety in the food that we eat daily, but have you ever thought that what are these food items made of? Many of us love to eat Rajma (Kidney beans) for which we need Kidney beans, salt, spices, oil and so on. Check out here:

Food Items and their Ingredients

Food item           Ingredients

Roti/Chapati          Flour, water

Dal                           Pulses, water, salt, oil/ghee, spices

Sources of Food

We have two primary sources from which we can get food

1. Plants
2. Animals

Plants are an important source of food for both humans and animals. Grains like rice and wheat, fruits and vegetables, pulses, sugar and spices come from a variety of plants. They also provide us with oils like sunflower, mustard and groundnut oil which is used as a cooking fuel. Half of the food that we eat daily comes from just two crops – rice and wheat. Rice is used to make boiled rice, idlis and dosa. Wheat is ground to make chapattis, noodles, bread etc. Not just solid items but plants are also sources of liquid items like tea and coffee.

All the parts of the plants such as stems, leaves, roots, seeds and fruits are considered to be consumable parts.

Food ItemsPlant part which gives us the ingredientCarrot, turnip, radish and beetroot.Roots sugar cane, coriander.Stemspinach, cabbage, amaranthus, curry leaves, Onion etcLeavespumpkin, cauliflowerFlowersrice, wheat, jowar, maize, ragi, grams, peas, beans, groundnut, sesame, mustard, coconut, sunflower seedSeedsmango, guava, orange, apple, pear, grapes, banana fruits

Animal gets us food materials like eggs, milk, meat, chicken and fish.  Cow and buffalo give us milk, from chickens we get meat.

AnimalsAnimal Edible ProductsPaneer, cheese, cream, butter, curd, ghee etc.Dairy productsBeesHoneyFish, prawns, crabsSea Foodhen, duck, sheep, goat, pig, cowMeathen, duckEggscows, buffaloes, goat, camel milk

Food habits in human beings

Many of us eat all vegetables but do not eat chicken, eggs and meat. Based on eating habits of human beings, they are grouped into two groups.

1. Vegetarians: Human Beings who depend on plants and their products for their food. Their diet includes – grains, pulses, fruits, cereals and vegetables.

2. Non-Vegetarians: Human beings who depend on animal and animal products for their food. Their diet includes – eggs, fish, meat, and poultry.

You must have understood Food and food habits in Human Beings. Read all major nutrients of the food and their importance in the next chapter of class 6 CBSE right at your desktop just by stepping into BYJU’S.com.

• The temperature inside a cucumber can be up to 20 degrees cooler than room temperature.
•  Apples float in water because 25% of their volume is air.

We here at BYJU’S have the opinion that students should be guided with standard textbooks like the NCERT with important questions and answers chapter wise so that they could cross-check their answers with the answers given as samples provided here- – NCERT Solutions for  food where does it come from