Eating is the ingestion Ingestion is the consumption of a substance by an organism. In animals, it normally is accomplished by taking in the substance through the mouth into the gastrointestinal tract, such as through eating or drinking. In single-celled organisms, ingestion can take place through taking the substance through the cell wall of food Food is any substance or materials eaten or drunk to provide nutritional support for the body or for pleasure. It usually consists of plant or animal origin, that contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals, and is ingested and assimilated by an organism to produce energy, stimulate growth, and to provide for all humans and animals nutritional Nutrition is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary (in the form of food) to support life. Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet needs, particularly for energy Food energy is the amount of energy obtained from food that is available through cellular respiration and growth. Animals and other heterotrophs A heterotroph is an organism that uses organic carbon for growth by consuming other organisms. This contrasts with autotrophs, such as plants, which can directly use sources of energy such as light to produce organic substrates from carbon dioxide must eat in order to survive: carnivores A carnivore , meaning 'meat eater' (Latin carne meaning 'flesh' and vorare meaning 'to devour'), is an organism that derives its energy and nutrient requirements from a diet consisting mainly or exclusively of animal tissue, whether through predation or scavenging. Animals that depend solely on animal flesh for their nutrient requirements are eat other animals, herbivores Herbivores are animals that are adapted to eat plants. Herbivory is a form of predation in which an organism consumes principally autotrophs[page needed] such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria. More generally, organisms that feed on autotrophs in general are known as primary consumers eat plants, and omnivores Omnivores are species that eat both plants and animals as their primary food source. They are opportunistic, general feeders not specifically adapted to eat and digest either meat or plant material primarily. Pigs are one well-known example of an omnivore. Crows are another example of an omnivore that many people see every day. Humans are regarded consume a mixture of both. Eating is an activity of daily living ADLs are "the things we normally do in daily living, including any daily activity we perform for self-care , work, homemaking, and leisure." A number of national surveys collect data on the ADL status of the U.S. population.

Eating practices

Many homes have a kitchen room or outside (in the tropics) kitchen area devoted to preparation of meals and food, and may have a dining room A dining room is a room for consuming food. In modern times it is usually adjacent to the kitchen for convenience in serving, although in medieval times it was often on an entirely different floor level. Historically the dining room is furnished with a rather large dining table and a number of dining chairs; the most common table shape is, dining hall, or another designated area for eating. Some trains have a dining car A dining car or restaurant car (British English), also diner, is a railroad passenger car that serves meals in the manner of a full-service, sit-down restaurant. Dishware, silverware, drinkware This list of glassware includes drinking vessels , tableware, such as dishes, and flatware used to set a table for eating a meal, general glass items such as vases, and glasses used in the catering industry whether made of glass or plastics such as polystyrene and polycarbonate, and cookware Cookware and bakeware are types of food preparation containers commonly found in the kitchen. Cookware comprises cooking vessels, such as saucepans and frying pans, intended for use on a stove or range cooktop. Bakeware comprises cooking vessels intended for use inside an oven. Some utensils are both cookware and bakeware come in a wide array of forms and sizes. Most societies also have restaurants A restaurant prepares and serves food, drink and dessert to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearance and offerings, including a wide variety of cuisines and service models, food courts A food court is a indoor plaza or common area within a facility that is contiguous with the counters of multiple food vendors and provides a common area for self-serve dining. Food courts may be found in shopping malls and airports, and in various regions (such as Asia and Africa) may be a standalone development. In some places of learning such as, and/or food vendors Street food is food obtainable from a streetside vendor, often from a makeshift or portable stall. While some street foods are regional, many are not, having spread beyond their region of origin. The food and green groceries sold in farmers' markets may also fall into this category, including the food exhibited and sold in gathering fairs, such as, so that people may eat when away from home, when lacking time to prepare food, or as a social occasion (dining club).^[1] At their highest level of sophistication, these places become "theatrical spectacles of global cosmopolitanism Cosmopolitanism is the ideology that all kinds of human ethnic groups belong to a single community based on a shared morality. This is contrasted with communitarian and particularistic theories, especially the ideas of patriotism and nationalism.[citation needed] Cosmopolitanism may entail some sort of world government or it may simply refer to and myth The term mythology can refer to either the study of myths, or to a body of myths. For example, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece. The term "myth" is often used colloquially to refer to a false story, but academic use of."^[2] At picnics In contemporary usage, a picnic can be defined simply as a pleasure excursion at which a meal is eaten outdoors , ideally taking place in a beautiful landscape such as a park, beside a lake or with an interesting view and possibly at a public event such as before an open air theatre performance, and usually in summer. Descriptions of picnics show, potlucks A potluck is a gathering of people where each person or group of people contributes a dish of food to be shared among the group. Synonyms include: potluck dinner, spread, Jacob's join, Jacob's supper, faith supper, covered dish supper, pitch-in, carry-in, bring-a-plate, smorgasbord. The term potluck is not often used in the southern U.S. to mean a, and food festivals A food festival is a festival, usually held annually, that uses food, often produce, as its central theme. "These festivals have always been a means of uniting communities through celebrations of harvests and giving thanks for a plentiful growing season. They can be traced back thousands of years to celebrating the arrival of harvest time,, eating is in fact the primary purpose of a social gathering. At many social events, food and beverages are made available to attendees.

People commonly have two or three meals a day at regular times. Snacks of smaller amounts may be consumed between meals. Some propose not snacking, yet advocate three meals a day (of 600 kcal per meal) with four to six hours between.^[3] Having three well-balanced meals (thus 1/2 of the plate with vegetables,^[4] 1/4 protein food as meat, ... and 1/4 carbohydrates as pasta, rice, ...) will then account to some 1800–2000 kcal; which is the average requirement for a regular person.^[5]

The issue of healthy eating Human nutrition is the provision to humans to obtain the materials necessary to support life. In general, humans can survive for two to eight weeks without food, depending on stored body fat. Survival without water is usually limited to three or four days. Lack of food remains a serious problem, with about 36 million humans starving to death every has long been an important concern to individuals and cultures. Among other practices, fasting Fasting is primarily the act of willingly abstaining from some or all food, drink, or both, for a period of time. A fast may be total or partial concerning that from which one fasts, and may be prolonged or intermittent as to the period of fasting. Fasting practices may preclude sexual activity as well as food, in addition to refraining from, dieting Dieting is the practice of ingesting food in a regulated fashion to achieve or maintain a controlled weight. In most cases dieting is used in combination with physical exercise to lose weight in those who are overweight or obese. Some athletes, however, follow a diet to gain weight . Diets can also be used to maintain a stable body weight, and vegetarianism Vegetarianism is the practice of following a plant-based diet including fruits, vegetables, cereal grains, nuts, and seeds, mushrooms, which are fungi not plants, with or without dairy products and eggs. A vegetarian does not eat meat, including red meat, game, poultry, fish, crustacea, and shellfish, and may also abstain from by-products of are all techniques employed by individuals and encouraged by societies to increase longevity and health.^{[citation needed]} Some religions promote vegetarianism, considering it wrong to consume animals. Leading nutritionists believe that instead of indulging oneself in three large meals each day, it is much healthier and easier on the metabolism to eat five smaller meals each day (e.g. better digestion, easier on the lower intestine to deposit wastes; whereas larger meals are tougher on the digestive tract and may call for the use of laxatives Laxatives are foods, compounds, or drugs taken to induce bowel movements or to loosen the stool, most often taken to treat constipation. Certain stimulant, lubricant, and saline laxatives are used to evacuate the colon for rectal and bowel examinations, and may be supplemented by enemas in that circumstance. Sufficiently high doses of laxatives)^{[citation needed]}. However, psychiatrists with Yale Medical School have found that people who suffer from Binge Eating Disorder (BED) and consume three meals per day weigh less than those who have more frequent meals. Eating can also be a way of making money (see competitive eating Competitive eating, or speed eating, is an activity in which participants compete against each other to consume large quantities of food in a short time period. Contests are typically less than 15 minutes in length, with the person consuming the most food being declared the winner. Competitive eating is most popular in the United States and Japan,).

Emotional eating

Emotional eating Compulsive overeating, also sometimes called food addiction is characterized by an obsessive/compulsive relationship to food. Professionals address this with either a behaviour-modification model or a food-addiction model. An individual suffering from compulsive overeating disorder engages in frequent episodes of uncontrolled eating, or bingeing, is “the tendency to eat in response to negative emotions”.^[6] Empirical studies have indicated that anxiety leads to decreased food consumption in people with normal weight and increased food consumption in the obese.^[7]

Many laboratory studies showed that overweight individuals are more emotionally reactive and are more likely to overeat when distressed than people of normal weight. Furthermore, it was consistently found that obese individuals experience negative emotions more frequently and more intensively than do normal weight persons.^[8]

The naturalistic study of Lowe and Fisher compared the emotional reactivity and emotional eating of normal and overweight female college students. The study confirmed the tendency of obese individuals to overeat, but these findings applied only to snacks, not to meals. That means that obese individuals did not tend to eat more while having meals – rather, the amount of snacks they ate between meals was greater. One possible explanation that Lowe and Fisher suggest is that obese individuals often eat their meals with others and do not eat more than average due to the reduction of distress because of the presence of other people. Another possible explanation would be that obese individuals do not eat more than the others while having meals due to social desirability. Conversely, snacks are usually eaten alone.^[8]

Satiety and human metabolism

The control of food intake is a physiologically complex, motivated behavioral system. Hormones such as cholecystokinin Cholecystokinin (CCK or CCK-PZ; from Greek chole, "bile"; cysto, "sac"; kinin, "move"; hence, move the bile-sac ) is a peptide hormone of the gastrointestinal system responsible for stimulating the digestion of fat and protein. Cholecystokinin, previously called pancreozymin, is synthesised by I-cells in the mucosal, bombesin Bombesin is a 14-amino acid peptide originally isolated from the skin of a frog. It has two known homologs in mammals called neuromedin B and gastrin releasing peptide. It stimulates gastrin release from G cells. It activates three different G-protein-coupled receptors known as BBR1 2 & 3. It also activates these receptors in the brain, neurotensin Neurotensin is a 13 amino acid neuropeptide that is implicated in the regulation of luteinizing hormone and prolactin release and has significant interaction with the dopaminergic system. Neurotensin was first isolated from extracts of bovine hypothalamus based on its ability to cause a visible vasodilation in the exposed cutaneous regions of, anorectin An anorectic or anorexic , also known as anorexigenic or appetite suppressant, is a dietary supplements and/or drug which reduces appetite, food consumption, and as a result, causes weight loss to occur, calcitonin Calcitonin is a 32-amino acid linear polypeptide hormone that is produced in humans primarily by the parafollicular cells of the thyroid, and in many other animals in the ultimobranchial body. It acts to reduce blood calcium (Ca2+), opposing the effects of parathyroid hormone (PTH). It has been found in fish, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Its, enterostatin Enterostatin is a pentapeptide derived from a proenzyme in the gastrointestinal tract called procolipase. It reduces food intake, in particular fat intake, when given peripherally or into the brain, leptin Leptin is a 16 kDa protein hormone that plays a key role in regulating energy intake and energy expenditure, including appetite and metabolism. It is one of the most important adipose derived hormones. The Ob(Lep) gene (Ob for obese, Lep for leptin) is located on chromosome 7 in humans and corticotropin-releasing hormone Corticotropin-releasing hormone , originally named corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), and also called corticoliberin, is a polypeptide hormone and neurotransmitter involved in the stress response have all been shown to suppress food intake.^[9][10]

Disorders

Physiologically, eating is generally triggered by hunger There were 923 million malnourished people in the world in 2007, an increase of 80 million since 1990. The FAO purports that the world already produces enough food to feed everyone — 6 billion people — and could feed double — 12 billion people, but there are numerous physical and psychological conditions that can affect appetite The appetite is the desire to eat food, felt as hunger. Appetite exists in all higher life-forms, and serves to regulate adequate energy intake to maintain metabolic needs. It is regulated by a close interplay between the digestive tract, adipose tissue and the brain. Decreased desire to eat is termed anorexia, while polyphagia is increased eating and disrupt normal eating patterns. These include depression Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities. The term "major depressive disorder" was selected by the American Psychiatric Association to designate this symptom cluster as a mood disorder, food allergies Allergy is a disorder of the immune system which is a form of hypersensitivity. Allergic reactions occur to normally harmless environmental substances known as allergens; these reactions are acquired, predictable, and rapid. Strictly, allergy is one of four forms of hypersensitivity and is called type I hypersensitivity. It is characterized by, ingestion of certain chemicals, bulimia Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by recurrent binge eating, followed by compensatory behaviors. The most common form is defensive vomiting, sometimes called purging; fasting, the use of laxatives, enemas, diuretics, and over exercising are also common, anorexia nervosa Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by refusal to maintain a healthy body weight, and an obsessive fear of gaining weight due to a distorted self image which may be maintained by various cognitive biases that alter how the affected individual evaluates and thinks about their body, food and eating. AN is a serious mental illness, pituitary gland The pituitary gland, or hypophysis, is an endocrine gland about the size of a pea and weighing 0.5 g . It is a protrusion off the bottom of the hypothalamus at the base of the brain, and rests in a small, bony cavity (sella turcica) covered by a dural fold (diaphragma sellae). The pituitary fossa, in which the pituitary gland sits, is situated in misfunction and other endocrine In physiology, the endocrine system is a system of glands, each of which secretes a type of hormone into the bloodstream to regulate the body. The endocrine system is an information signal system like the nervous system. Hormones regulate many functions of an organism, including mood, growth and development, tissue function, and metabolism. The problems, and numerous other illnesses Illness is a state of poor health. Illness is sometimes considered a synonym for disease. Others maintain that fine distinctions exist. Some have described illness as the subjective perception by a patient of an objectively defined disease and eating disorders Eating disorders are a group of conditions characterized by abnormal eating habits that may involve either insufficient or excessive food intake to the detriment of an individual's physical and emotional health, binge eating disorder, bulimia nervosa, anorexia nervosa being the most common specific forms in the United States, Though primarily.

A chronic lack of nutritious Nutrition is the provision, to cells and organisms, of the materials necessary (in the form of food) to support life. Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet food can cause various illnesses, and will eventually lead to starvation Starvation is a severe reduction in vitamin, nutrient and energy intake. It is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation can cause permanent organ damage[citation needed] and eventually, death. The term inanition refers to the symptoms and effects of starvation. When this happens in a locality on a massive scale it is considered a famine.

If eating and drinking is not possible, as is often the case when recovering from surgery, alternatives are enteral nutrition and parenteral nutrition.

See also

• Aphagia
• Competitive eating
• Crop
• Dietary supplement
• Dieting
• Dining in, formal military ceremony
• Energy crop

References

1. ^ John Raulston Saul (1995), "The Doubter's Companion", 155
2. ^ David Grazian (2008), "On the Make: The Hustle of Urban Nightlife", 32
3. ^ Eating recommendations by BCM
4. ^ Half of plate to be filled with vegetables, according to Harvard School of Public Health
5. ^ Calorie requirements for regular person estimated at 2000 kcal
6. ^ Eldredge, K. L., & Agras, W. S. (1994). Weight and Shape Overconcern and Emotional Eating in Binge Eating Disorder. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 19 (1), 73-82.
7. ^ McKenna, R. J. (1972). Some Effects of Anxiety Level and Food Cues on the Eating Behavior of Obese and Normal Subjects: A Comparison of Schachterian and Psychosomatic Conceptions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 22 (3), 311-319.
8. ^ ^{a b} Lowe, M. R., & Fisher, E. B. Jr. (1983). Emotional Reactivity, Emotional Eating, and Obesity: A Naturalistic Study. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 6 (2), 135-149.
9. ^ Geiselman, P.J. (1996). Control of food intake. A physiologically complex, motivated behavioral system. Endocrinol Metab Clin North Am. 1996 Dec;25(4):815-29.
10. ^ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/dispomim.cgi?id=164160&rn=1

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