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This article is primarily about the human diet. For a discussion of animal diets, see List of feeding behaviours.

In nutrition, the diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism.^[1] Dietary habits are the habitual decisions an individual or culture makes when choosing what foods to eat. Although humans are omnivores, each culture holds some food preferences and some food taboos. Individual dietary choices may be more or less healthy. Proper nutrition requires the proper ingestion and equally important, the absorption of vitamins, minerals, and fuel in the form of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Dietary habits and choices play a significant role in health and mortality, and can also define cultures and play a role in religion.

Contents 1 Traditional diet 2 Religious and cultural dietary choices 3 Diet and life outcome 4 Individual dietary choices 5 Diets for weight management 5.1 Eating disorders 6 Health 7 Diet table 8 See also 9 Notes

Traditional diet

"Traditional diet" is the diets of native populations such as the Native Americans, Khoisan or Australian Aborigines.

Traditional diets vary with availability of local resources, such as fish in coastal towns, eels and eggs in estuary settlements, or squash, corn and beans in farming towns, as well as with cultural and religious customs and taboos. In some cases, the crops and domestic animals that characterize a traditional diet have been replaced by modern high-yield crops, and are no longer available.^[2] The slow food movement attempts to counter this trend and to preserve traditional diets.

Religious and cultural dietary choices

Some cultures and religions have restrictions concerning what foods are acceptable in their diet. For example, only Kosher foods are permitted by Judaism, and Halal foods by Islam.

Diet and life outcome

A study published in the British medical journal The Lancet demonstrated that those who had been well-fed soon after they were born earned almost 50% more in average salary than those who had not. The blind trial was performed by giving a high-nutrition supplement to some infants and a lower-nutrition supplement to others, with only the researchers knowing which infants received which supplements. The infants that received the high-nutrition supplement had higher average salaries, proving that infant nutrition affects cognitive development independent of other factors such as class or parental income.^[3]

Individual dietary choices

Many individuals choose to limit what foods they eat for reasons of health, morality, environmental impact, or other factors. Additionally, many people choose to forgo food from animal sources to varying degrees; see vegetarianism, veganism, fruitarianism, living foods diet, and raw foodism.

Properly planned vegetarian and vegan diets have been found to completely satisfy nutritional needs in every stage of life,^[4]and significantly reduce risks of major diseases.

Diets for weight management

Main articles: Dieting and Diet food

A particular diet may be chosen to seek weight gain, weight loss, sports training, cardio-vascular health, avoidance of cancers, food allergies and for other reasons. Changing a subject's dietary intake, or "going on a diet", can change the energy balance and increase or decrease the amount of fat stored by the body. Some foods are specifically recommended, or even altered, for conformity to the requirements of a particular diet. These diets are often recommended in conjunction with exercise.

Eating disorders

An eating disorder is a mental disorder that interferes with normal food consumption. Eating disorders often affect people with a negative body image.

Health

Main article: Healthy diet

A healthy diet is one that is arrived at with the intent of improving or maintaining optimal health. This usually involves consuming nutrients by eating the appropriate amounts from all of the food groups, including an adequate amount of water.^[5][6][7] Since human nutrition is complex, a healthy diet may vary widely, and is subject to an individual's genetic makeup, environment, and health. For around 20% of the human population, lack of food and malnutrition are the main impediments to healthy eating.^{citation needed} Conversely, people in developed countries have the opposite problem; they are more concerned about obesity.^{citation needed}

Diet table

Food Type	Carnivore	Omnivore	Vegan	Vegetarian	Halal	Kosher	Hunter-gatherer	Specific Carbohydrate Diet
Fruits and berries	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Greens	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Vegetables	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Starchy vegetables	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Grains	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Poultry	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Fish (scaled)	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Seafood (non-fish)	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Beef	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Pork	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
Eggs	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Milk and cream	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Cheese and yoghurt	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Nuts	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

See also

• List of diets

Notes

Wikipedia content modification information:

• This page was last modified on 1 October 2008, at 14:42.

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