About Human Beings' Eating

Some species of animals eat leaves and grass. Other species eat fruit and berries. Some animals eat things that come from oceans and rivers. And some animals eat meat.

But human beings eat everything! We eat things that grow under the ground and things that grow above the ground. We eat things that grow on bushes and trees. We eat fish and other things that grow in oceans and rivers. We eat birds that live in forests and fields and birds that are raised on farms. We eat the meat of wild animals and of tame ones.

We eat raw foods—fruits and vegetables and sometimes fish. We eat boiled food and baked food and fried food. We eat food in its natural form and food covered with sauces and other liquids.

We eat on planes and trains, at restaurants and at home, at school and at work, indoors and outdoors. We eat big meals and small snacks.

Every human being must eat to live.

Hunger was very important in the development of the human race. Primitive people had to move from place to place to find food. Then someone discovered that foods could be grown from seeds planted in the ground. Several families could establish a village and do the farm work together. Later, people found that they could tame some animals and raise them for food. Life became much easier. The family's food supply was more plentiful, and people didn't have to worry about where their next meal was going to come from.

When Europeans started to travel long distances, they brought back species from Asia, olive oil from Greece, coffee from Arabia, tea from China, pineapples from Hawaii, and corn, tomatoes, and potatoes from the New World. People wanted to learn how these additions to the dinner table could be cooked, so cookbooks became necessary. The first printed cookbook was published in Italy in about 1470. Since then, millions of cookbooks have been written. There are cookbooks about soups, about salads, about bread, about cakes and pies, about vegetables.

There are cookbooks about hamburgers. There are cookbooks for picnics and cookbooks for dinner parties. There are cookbooks filled with pictures of delicious-looking foods. There are huge cookbooks and tiny ones. There are cookbooks written for beginning cooks and cookbooks written for experts. There are even cookbooks written for children.

When people aren't eating, they're reading about food!