Advantages of food

In nutrition, the diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. Dietary habits are the habitual decisions an individual or culture makes when choosing what foods to eat. 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.
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 In some cases, the crops and domestic animals that characterize a traditional diet have been replaced by modern high-yield crops, and are no longer available. The slow food movement attempts to counter this trend and to preserve traditional diets.
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. 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. Individuals may choose to follow such a diet for ethical or moral reasons, or to try to gain some sort of claimed health benefit. Various forms of these diets may or not completely satisfy ordinary nutritional needs.
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. Individuals may choose to follow such a diet for ethical or moral reasons, or to try to gain some sort of claimed health benefit. Various forms of these diets may or not completely satisfy ordinary nutritional needs.
A particular diet may be chosen to seek weight gain, weight loss, sports training, cardio-vascular health, and 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. An eating disorder is a mental disorder that interferes with normal food consumption. Eating disorders often affect people with a negative body image.
Thus, a healthy diet is one that is arrived at with the intent of improving or maintaining optimal health. For around 20% of the human population, lack of food and malnutrition are the main impediments to healthy eating. Conversely, people in developed countries have the opposite problem; they are more concerned about obesity.

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