FOODS

In terms of biology and chemistry, fat is the combination of fatty acids usually occurring in living beings or in food, composed by carbon, oxygen and hydrogen, that is insoluble in water. Fats, in specific situations, are referred to triglycerides, that are main components of vegetable oils and or fatty animal tissue. In food, there are many types of fats: unsaturated, saturated and trans fats: • Unsaturated fats, which are liquid at room temperature, are considered beneficial fats because they can improve blood cholesterol levels, ease inflammation, stabilize heart rhythms, and play other beneficial roles due to its properties and melting point. There are two types of unsaturated fats: monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats (Omega-3). • Saturated fats are found in each type of food in different quantities. Following a Hardvard investigation (cited in this project), the “Dietary Guidelines for Americans” recommends getting less than 10 percent of calories each day from saturated fat...

One of the most important groups in the food pyramid is the vegetables and fruits group (even when all the groups are extremely important). This section is the one who has to be the most abundant in our diet. If we set our attention on fruits, we see that the World Health Organization (the biggest authority in this field) says that adults should eat around 400 grams of fruits and vegetables a day, excluding potatoes and sweet potatoes (they have a bigger amount of carbohydrates than others). They can be ingested raw (in salads, having fruit as a dessert) or cooked (like many vegetables). And can be a main dish or an accompaniment to other types of food. The main nutrients that we can find in these groups are not refined or complex carbohydrates (that are the healthiest ones) and vitamins. Vitamins are very important in our alimentation because we need them for living and for being healthy and are nutrients that our body can not create for himself. Vegetables and fruit are called “nutri...

Dairy or milk products are those that are produced from mammals milk or contain it. Water buffaloes, goats, sheeps or camels are the most used animals to get this types of products. Milk, cheese, yogurt or butter are examples of this level of the pyramid food. Milk products are consumed in every part of the world except from some parts of Asia. • Milk is maybe the most important food of this level. It is produced after a pasteurization process after standardization of the fat level. Sometimes bacteria like Streptococcus lactis are added. Milk can be divided into several foods based on the kind of product made like cram, cheese or yogurt. Also, milk is divided depending on the fat content in it. Somes types of it are scalded milk, condensed milk, evaporated milk, khoa… • Fermented milk is the one that is made with bacteria like thermofilic bacteria, often Lactococcus. Ymer, kumis or amasi are types of fermented milk but there exists much more. • Yogurt is milk fermented with thermofilic...

Carbohydrates are macronutrients, meaning they are one of the three main ways the body obtains energy are a very important part of a diet and of the nutritional pyramid. There are healthy and unhealthy carbohydrates and are found in a wide variety of forms; the most common ones are sugars, starches and fibers. The main function of this nutrients is providing fuel and energy for muscles and the central nervous system. This the most important function but not the only one because they also have influence in moods and memory, so that take part of brain functions. As well, some studies affirm that carbohydrates enable fat metabolism. Carbohydrates are also classified in if they are simple, that contains one or two sugars (fructose) or complex, which contains three or more sugars (polysaccharides). The difference is the chemical structure and how quickly the sugar is absorbed and digested. Simple carbs are digested and absorbed more quickly and easily than complex carbs. We normally identif...

Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for an organism. In majority of the cases, food comes from animal, plant or fungal origin, all of them containing essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins or minerals, ingested by the organism to sustain vital functions, stimulate growth, repairment processes and for supplying energy requirements. Each species has different feeding behaviours to match their metabolic demands, often influenced by geographical, environmental and ecological context. In case of humankind, our omnivorous diet has been the result of multiple evolutive developments, adaptable to different ecosystems but usually consisting in two main methods: hunting and agriculture. Nowdays, the intensive food demands our continued global population growth requires is supplied with intensive agricultural labours joined with a massive livestock component, united with complex food processing and food distribution systems. In order to study...