Food sources are crucial to note if you must stay healthy. It’s important to eat a balanced diet, but what does that mean? To be balanced, a diet should contain all food groups in the right ratios.
Otherwise, it’s easy to end up with too much or too little of one specific nutrient and not getting all the nutrients we need in a day.
Plant-based food
Plants have a wide range of nutrients that are essential for the human body to function properly. Humans ingest everything from vegetables, flowers, and even the stems of certain plants to leaves and stems such as lettuce, celery, carrots, beetroot, and seeds such as wheat and rice.
Plants provide all food, and animals rely on them as well. As a result, we get food from plants either directly or indirectly. The primary reason one is advised to consume more fruits and vegetables daily is that they are a fantastic source of rich nutrients.
Plants provide us with almost everything from tomatoes to Coffee, rice, cereals, legumes, pulses, oil, healthy fat, fruits, sugar, spices, etc. Different sections of different plants provide us with different benefits.
Let us have a quick look at some of the common foods obtained from various parts of plants.
Vegetables
As you already know, vegetables are only obtained from plants. Some vegetables rich in nutrients such as spinach, beetroot, turnip, lettuce, cauliflower, etc., are all obtained from only plants.
The stems, roots, and leaves of some plants are nutritious and edible.
Roots
Carrot, radish, turnip, beetroot are a few of the roots that are consumed as vegetables.
Stem
Ginger and potato are the stems that are consumed as vegetables.
Leaves
Lettuce, spinach, cabbage, pumpkin leaves are some of the leaves consumed as vegetables.
Flowers
Cauliflower and broccoli are the flowers consumed in the form of vegetables.
Fruits
Fruits are a colourful and healthy source of fresh food from plants. Avocado, Pineapples, Orange, Bananas, mango, apple, red and green grapes are some of the most common fruits consumed globally.
Cereals
Cereals are one of the most consumed foods in the world. They include maize, Jowar, rice, wheat, millet, barley, etc. These are one of the richest sources of nutrients from plants.
Tea, Coffee
Tea and Coffee are widely grown in Africa and Asia, especially in the southern parts of India. These healthy beverages are also obtained from the leaves, seeds, and stems of different plants.
Not just beverages, sugar is also obtained from sugarcane plants. Maple syrup is also derived from a plant, and it is a loved sweetener.
Oil
Oil can come from plants, but the bulk of healthy oils can be extracted from the seeds, roots, and leaves of the plants. A few of the plants producing oil are palm nuts, castor, peanuts, mustard, and sunflower.
Spices
Thyme, Curry, Cinnamon, pepper, cardamom, clove, ginger, and cumin seeds, are obtained from the plants and used for traditional medicine and cooking purposes.
Food From Animals
So many animal products are used as food indirectly or directly. Milk, meat, and eggs are crucial examples of food gotten from animals.
Animal products are also a rich source of nutrients. The complete food chain is composed of all of these animals starting with tiny organisms that take advantage of the energy from the sun to the apex, where the organisms are big predators and rely mainly on producers.
Let us take a look at some of the most notable food obtained from animals:
Milk
Sheep, cows, buffaloes, goats, and camels are a fantastic source of milk. Interestingly, milk is also tagged an ideal food. It is rich in proteins, vitamins, minerals, fats, and carbohydrates.
Eggs
Turkeys, chickens, ducks, quails, and geese are raised for meat and eggs. The egg is one of the most consumed foods that is a rich source of vitamins and protein. The bright yellow yolk of the egg is the most loved part. It also contains iron, vitamins, calcium, and phosphorus.
Meat
Meat is healthy, but of two types- white meat and red meat.
The meat of goat, cow, sheep, and pigs comes with a lot of fat and falls into the red meat category. White meat is the less fatty option and is obtained from fish and chicken. White meat is mostly recommended as they are healthier and can be quickly digested as compared to their red cousins.
Meat is highly rich in zinc, proteins, vitamins, iron, and phosphorus.
