Community Forum

In northern Europe, wheat, rye and fats of animal origin predominate, while in southern Europe olive oil is ubiquitous and rice is more prevalent. In Italy, the cuisine of the north, featuring butter and rice, stands in contrast to that of the south, with its wheat pasta and olive oil.

In some parts of Greece, gyros is the staple, while in others this role is filled by bread. Throughout the Middle East and Mediterranean, common ingredients include lamb, olive oil, lemons, peppers and rice.

The vegetarianism practiced in much of India has made pulses (crops harvested solely for the dry seed) such as chickpeas and lentils as important as wheat or rice.

From India to Indonesia, the extensive use of spices is characteristic; coconuts and seafood are also used throughout the region both as foodstuffs and as seasonings.

It made me wonder, is it the same with everyone else? Do you also have a fixed pattern your hand just follows automatically?

How many times do you mash before you turn?

An English Sunday roast with roast beef, roast potatoes, vegetables and Yorkshire pudding

Traditional pizza from Naples: originally Italian dish

German sausages and cheese

Beef Stroganoff, a Russian dish

Nutritional science, the study of nutrition as a hard science, typically emphasizes human nutrition.

The type of organism determines what nutrients it needs and how it obtains them. Organisms obtain nutrients by consuming organic matter, consuming inorganic matter, absorbing light, or some combination of these. Some can produce nutrients internally by consuming basic elements, while others must consume other organisms to obtain pre-existing nutrients.

All forms of life require carbon, energy, and water as well as various other molecules.

Animals require complex nutrients such as carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins, obtaining them by consuming other organisms. Humans have developed agriculture and cooking to replace foraging and advance human nutrition. Plants acquire nutrients through the soil and the atmosphere.

Fungi absorb nutrients around them by breaking them down and absorbing them through the mycelium.

Plants, algae, and some microorganisms use photosynthesis to make some of their own nutrients.

Water is found in nearly all foods and has been defined as food by itself. Water has no food energy, and fibers have low energy densities, or food energy relative to volume, some providing none, while fat is the most energy-dense component.

Some inorganic substances are also essential for plant and animal functioning

Human food can be classified in various ways, either by related content or by how it is processed.The number and composition of food groups can vary. Most systems include four basic groups described by their origins and relative nutritional functions: vegetables and fruit, cereals and bread, dairy, and meat.

Studies that look into diet quality group food into whole grains, refined grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, eggs, dairy products, fish, red meat, processed meat, and sugar-sweetened beverages.

The Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization use a system with eighteen or nineteen[a] food classifications, including: cereals and their products; roots, tubers, plantains and their products; pulses, seeds and nuts and their products; milk and milk products; eggs and their products; fish, shellfish and their products; meat and meat products; insects, grubs and their products; vegetables and their products; fruits and their products; fats and oils; sweets and sugars; spices and condiments; beverages; foods for particular nutritional uses; food additives; composite dishes; and savory snacks.

One large egg has 7 grams of protein. A 4-ounce (110 g) serving of cheese has about 15 grams of protein. And 1 cup (~240 mL) of milk has about 8 grams of protein. Other nutrients found in animal products include calories, fat, essential vitamins (including B12) and minerals (including zinc, iron, calcium, magnesium).

Food products produced by animals include milk produced by mammary glands, which in many cultures is drunk or processed into dairy products (cheese, butter, etc.). Eggs laid by birds and other animals are eaten and bees produce honey, a reduced nectar from flowers that is used as a popular sweetener in many cultures.

Some cultures consume blood, such as in blood sausage, as a thickener for sauces, or in a cured, salted form for times of food scarcity, and others use blood in stews such as jugged hare.

Sweetness is almost always caused by a type of simple sugar, such as glucose or fructose, or disaccharides, such as sucrose, a molecule combining glucose and fructose. Sourness is caused by acids, such as vinegar. Sour foods include citrus, especially lemons and limes. Sour is evolutionarily significant as it can signal a food that may have gone rancid due to bacteria.Saltiness is the taste of alkali metal ions such as sodium and potassium.

It is found in almost every food in low to moderate proportions and enhances flavor. Bitter taste is a sensation considered unpleasant, caused by foods such as unsweetened dark chocolate, caffeine, lemon rind, and some types of fruit. Umami, commonly described as savory, is a marker of proteins and characteristic of broths and cooked meats.

Foods that have a strong umami flavor include cheese, meat and mushrooms.

Catfish have millions of taste buds covering their entire bodies. While most animals' taste buds are located in their mouths, some insects' taste receptors are located on their legs, and some fish have taste buds along their entire bodies.Dogs, cats, and birds have relatively few taste buds (a chicken has about 30), and an adult human has between 2000 and 4000, while a catfish can have more than a million.

Herbivores generally have more than carnivores as they need to tell which plants may be poisonous.Not all mammals share the same tastes: some rodents can taste starch, cats cannot taste sweetness, and several carnivores (including hyenas, dolphins, and sea lions) have lost the ability to sense up to four of the five taste modalities found in humans.

A 2003 World Health Organization (WHO) report concluded that about 30% of reported food poisoning outbreaks in the WHO European Region occur in private homes. According to the WHO and CDC, in the US alone, annually, there are 76 million cases of foodborne illness leading to 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths.

In Vietnam, from 2011 to 2016, on average, there were 668,673 cases of foodborne illness and 21 deaths each year.In addition, during this period, 1,007 food poisoning outbreaks with 30,395 cases of food poisoning were reported.

At their highest level of sophistication, these places become "theatrical spectacles of global cosmopolitanism and myth." At picnics, potlucks, and food festivals, eating is the primary purpose of a social gathering. At many social events, food and beverages are made available to attendees.

People usually have two or three meals a day.Snacks of smaller amounts may be consumed between meals.

Doctors in the UK recommend three meals a day (with between 400 and 600 kcal per meal), with four to six hours between.Having three well-balanced meals (described as: half of the plate with vegetables, 1/4 protein food as meat, [...] and 1/4 carbohydrates as pasta, rice) will then amount to some 1800–2000 kcal, which is the average requirement for a regular person.

In jurisdictions under Sharia law, eating may be proscribed for Muslim adults during the daylight hours of Ramadan.

As a eye witness, i have witnessed a scenarios here in Abuja, as narrated hereinafter:

"I have stopped eating fufu because of the manners they now preserve and add some detergents, such as hypo or other preservatives that are toxic for human consumption.

I have a neighbour who prepares and sell fufu. She used to buy cassava, peel and prepare the fufu the normal traditional way and i used to patronize her because her fufu was always well prepared, neat and fresh.

I discovered lately the woman has stopped buying raw cassava, but would rather buy bags of half baked fufu, that is preserved with chemicals which she now finish, wraps and sell to members of the public. Infact she supplies in huge quantities to vulnerable members of the public, including eatries, restaurants and retailers.

Attimes, bags of the half-prepared fufu are packed indiscriminately with goats, dogs, pussy cats and birds feasting on them, even in most cases urinating on them.

This unsafe production practice has made me to stop eating akpu whether from her or anywhere else. Bye bye to Akpu or fufu"