Food 0381900517, 9780381900519

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Irving Adler

FOOD illustrated

by Peggy Adler

$5.95

0-381-90051

THE REASON WHY SERIES

FOOD /ruing Adler Illustrated

by Peggy Adler

need food to give us energy, and to provide materials for body building-for

We

growth and

repair.

How much

food do

kinds, in order to

body

need, and what live

and work

in

How does the chemical activity

good health? of the

we

grow and

cell utilize Tood?

What

are the

played by carbohydrates and proteins, vitamins and minerals? How can we plan a roles

balanced diet? Irving

Adler answers these and

many

other questions, in a clear and text supplemented with drawings, diagrams,

interesting

and

charts.

As

in his other

Reason

Why

well-known books

in

The

Series, Mr. Adler has translated

and the most recent scientific discoveries read concerns into language children can easily

and with enjoyment.

BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY

fFOOD

REASON WHY SERIES

FOOD T

IRVING ADLER Peggy Adler

The John Day Company

New York

THE REASON WHY SERIES LEARNING ABOUT STEEL: THROUGH THE STORY OF A NAIL MACHINES

AIR-Revised Edition,1972

ATOMIC ENERGY ATOMS AND MOLECULES THE CALENDAR COAL-Revised

MAGNETS NUMBERS OLD AND NEW

Edition, 1974

NUMERALS: NEW DRESSES FOR OLD NUMBERS OCEANS PETROLEUM: GAS, OIL AND ASPHALT

COMMUNICATION DIRECTIONS AND ANGLES THE EARTH'S CRUST ENERGY THE ENVIRONMENT EVOLUTION

RIVERS SETS SHADOWS-Revised

FIBERS-Updated Edition, 1972

FOOD HEAT AND

Edition, 1968

STORMS

ITS USES Revised Edition of HEAT, 1973

TASTE,

TOUCH AND SMELL

THINGS THAT SPIN FROM TOPS TO ATOMS TREE PRODUCTS WHY? A BOOK OF REASONS

HOUSES INSECTS AND PLANTS INTEGERS: POSITIVE

WHY AND HOW?

AND NEGATIVE CHANGING DESERT INTO GARDEN LANGUAGE AND MAN

A SECOND BOOK OF REASONS YOUR EARS YOUR EYES

IRRIGATION:

Copyright

©

1977 by Irving Adder

All rights reserved. Except for use in a review, the reproduction or utilization of this

work

in

any form or by any

electronic, mechanical, or other means,

or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying,

any information storage and

now known

and recording, and

in

forbidden without the written permission of the publisher. Published simultaneously in Canada by Fitzhenry & Whiteside Limited, Toronto. retrieval

Manufactured

system

in the

is

United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Adler, Irving. Food. (The Reason why series) Includes index

SUMMARY:

Discusses foods needed for energy and body-building and traces the history and future of food. 1.

I.

Food— Juvenile Adler, Peggy.

literature.

II.

[1.

Tide.

641 TX35.A34 ISBN 0-381-90051-7

76-54783

Food]

3Sj36>f/3/?

Contents The Food

We Need

6

The Body and What

8

Is in It

10

Inside the Cell

Food Makers and Food Takers

12

Where We Get the Food We Need Planning Meals

18

Keeping Food from Spoiling

Not Enough

14

22

24

Too Much

26

Junk Foods

28

Food Additives

30

Cereal Grains Around the World

Usual and Unusual Foods

Food as Symbol

32

34

36

From Food Gathering to Agriculture 41 The Origin of Cultivated Plants

40

The Origin

of

42

Drinks

43

Spices

Domesticated Animals

and Sugar

World Hunger

44

45

Food and the Future

Word Index

47

List

48

46

The Food

We

eat food

to

We Need

give us energy,

and

materials for body building.

The human body is like a machine that is moving and working all the time. The heart pumps our blood, and the diaphragm moves up and down as we breathe. The stomach and intestines churn away to mash and digest the food we have eaten. Other muscles move our legs and arms as we bend down, stand up, walk or run, push or pull, and

weights. All this uses

up energy.

lift

movement and work Some of the food that

we is

eat serves as fuel

from which energy

released by a kind of burning that

takes place in the body.

The human body

like a factory that

new parts that are body as we grow. It also

builds

itself. It

added

to the

replaces

is

builds

some old parts that are worn-

out.

Some

the

building

of the food

material

we

eat provides

for

the

body

building needed for growth and repair.

This book describes the kinds of food

we need work

in

in order to

good

grow and

live

and

health. It also takes a look

back at the history of food, and a look forward to the food of the future.

The Turkey Dinner Is a Symbol of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving. Nearly

all

peoples, grateful to their

gods for the food they have received, have some kind of thanksgiving

ceremony. In the United

turkey dinner has

become the symbol 37

States, the

of thanksgiving.

and Uncleanliness. In some religions, particular foods are considered "clean" and may be eaten, while others are considered "unclean" and are forbidden. Both the Jewish and Muhammadan religions consider pork to be unclean. In the Hindu Cleanliness

religion,

because

it is it is

forbidden to eat the flesh of a cow, not considered unclean, but because

it is

con-

sidered holy. Fasting. a

Not

eating, as well as eating,

practice.

religious

special fast days,

any foods

is

during Lent.

tween

In

when

many

can be part of

religions

there

are

eating certain foods or even

forbidden. Christians do not eat meat

Muhammadans do

dawn and

sunset

during

Ramadan.

The Easter Egg Is a Symbol of the Renewal of Life in the Spring

not eat anything bethe

month

of

Special Symbols. In bol of the renewal of

many

groups, an egg

life in

is

the sym-

when

the spring,

plants

begin to grow again after seeming to be dead during the winter. In the Christian religion of the belief that Jesus

came

to life

symbol again after he had it is

also a

died.

Matzos Is a Symbol of Freedom

In the Jewish religion, there

is

a special springtime

feast called a seder to celebrate the freeing of the

from slavery Horseradish

Egypt many thousands of years ago. eaten as a symbol of the bitterness of

in is

slavery. Matzos, a flat

symbol

Jews

unleavened bread,

of freedom.

39

is

eaten as a

From Food Gathering

Many

thousands of years ago

to

Agriculture

all

people were food

and animals then were wild. People picked seeds, gathered fruits and nuts, and dug up roots to eat, and fished and hunted for meat. Gathering food was an all-day job for nearly everybody. Then, about nine thousand years ago, some people discovered that they could plant seeds to grow crops, and they could tame some animals to raise them for food. This was the beginning of farming. While food gatherers moved from place to place, farmers settled down on the land. Farming produced more food than food gathering. Some people, freed from the job of producing food, could do other work. Crafts and trade developed, and some villages grew to be big gatherers. All plants

cities.

In the United States today, out of every twenty

people working, only one

is

a farmer.

Farming

Food Gathering

sweet potato: Central America

peanut:

South America

Places of Origin of

Some

soybean China

Cultivated Plants

The Origin of Cultivated Plants

was planted for the first time in a different part of the world, and then spread from there to the rest of the world. Wheat was

Each

first

of the three

main

cereal grains

planted about nine thousand years ago in the

country in western Asia that

comes originally from

is

now

east Asia,

called Iraq. Rice

and maize was

first

planted in Mexico.

When wheat

spread to Europe from the region

around the Mediterranean Sea, rye and oats went with it as weeds. But then they, too, were planted when the people in Europe found that they grew well and produced edible seeds. The potato, the peanut, and lima beans come originally from South America. The sweet potato comes from Central America. The soybean plant was first cultivated in China. It was grown commercially in the United States for the

first

time in 1924.

Now

the

United States produces two out of every five tons of soybeans grown in the world.

41

The Origin of Domesticated Animals

The

animal domesticated, the dog, was not raised for food. The dog probably domesticated himself by hanging around man's hunting camps first

where he could pick up scraps of food. Then, later, the dog helped man domesticate other animals raised for food.

The goat was

first

tween 7000 and 6000

domesticated in Jericho beB.C.

Sheep were domesticated

in Persia not long afterward. Cattle

not long before 4000

were

first

raised

B.C.

The pig entered man's farming life first as a crop robber, eating some of the crops people had planted. It was domesticated in east Asia and southeast Europe.

The guinea pig comes originally from Peru, and the rabbit was first raised in France. Rabbits were domesticated

late,

between the

turies A.D.

The Aurochs, Ancestor

of the

Cow

sixth

and tenth cen-

Drinks Besides the foods

we

eat there are foods

we

drink.

farming itself. The first people who planted cereal grains soon found that if cooked cereal was allowed to stand, it became a

Some

of

them are

kind of beer.

as old as

Now we know

that the beer

is

pro-

duced by fermentation caused by small plants called yeast which change sugar into alcohol. In ancient Egypt beer was made from barley. There are many different kinds of fermented alcoholic drinks. In the Andes mountains, chicha is made from corn. In Japan, sake is made from rice. In Europe and North America, beer and ale are made from barley and other foods containing starch and sugar. There is also wine made from grapes or other fruit, mead from honey, and pulque, made in Mexico from agave sap. There are also nonalcoholic drinks made from plant materials. Tea is made from leaves of a special plant. The custom of drinking tea began in China about fifteen hundred years ago. Coffee and cocoa are made from the seeds of certain evergreen trees. The coffee tree grew at first only in Africa, but now most of the world's coffee is grown in South and Central America. The cocoa tree grew at first in South and Central America, but now most of the world's cocoa comes from Africa. 43

Spices

Some

and Sugar

foods are luxury foods, used chiefly for their

than for their food value.

taste rather

are the

Among them

many spices and sugar.

Spices were

first

used in the tropics, where the

and the chief foods were starchy grains or roots. The grains had little taste, and meats, spoiled by the heat, had a bad taste. Using climate

is

hot,

spices in cooking gave the starchy foods a pleasant taste

and covered up the bad

taste of the meat.

Eating spicy food also helps keep people cool in a hot climate.

The

spices

sweat.

When

rates,

cools the skin.

it

make people

perspire, or

the perspiration on the skin evapo-

anyone to eat sugar, because the human body can make all the sugar it needs from starch. The first sugar used for its flavor was the sugar in honey, made by bees. Now most of the world's sugar comes from the sugarcane plant, which probably grew originally in southeast Asia and India. It

is

not

Sugar Cane

necessary

for

Spices

help fight

fertilizer

World Hunger Poor people usually do not get enough to eat (are undernourished) and especially do not get enough protein to eat (which is one cause of being malnourished). In the developed countries, about 28 million people do not get enough food or protein. In the developing countries the number of undernourished or malnourished people is more than 430 million. In some regions, where people grow barely enough to keep them alive, a year of dry weather is a disaster. The crops don't grow, and thousands of people die of starvation.

To end world

hunger,

it

is

necessary for the

developed countries to help the developing coun-

They can help by supplying better seed and more fertilizer and insecticides, to increase the amount of food that the developing countries can grow. In emergencies, they can also send them food.

tries.

But, above

all,

it

is

necessary for the developing

by providing work all of their people, and providing enough food the poor and not only the rich. countries to help themselves

45

for

for

Food and

the Future

The population of the world is increasing. With more and inore people alive from year to year, it is necessary to grow more and more food for them. This can be done partly by planting crops on addi-

and by growing more on each acre planted. It can also be done in part by finding new ways of making food. Scientists are now experimenting with ways of preparing food from seaweed, and even from petroleum. Petroleum can be converted into high-protein food by growing yeast and bacteria on it. In the future, livestock now being fed tional land,

grain will be fed these increase the

amount

new

foods instead. This will

of grain that

can be used for

feeding people.

The problem

of feeding the

world

tional problem. All the countries of

have to work together to solve

it.

an internathe world will is

Word List

Amino

acid:

One

twenty different kinds of units

of

out of which protein molecules are made.

Balanced meals: Meals that provide each day calories,

carbohydrates,

protein,

fat,

the

all

vitamins,

and minerals that the human body needs. Carbohydrates: Starch and sugar, which

are

energy-giving foods.

Carnivorous: Meat-eating. Deficiency disease:

A

disease caused

by not getting

enough of a necessary nutrient. Enzyme: A protein molecule whose special job in the cell is to speed up the making or breaking of some other kind of molecule. Fermentation: The process in which yeast changes sugar into alcohol. Herbivorous: Plant-eating.

Malnourished: In poor health as a result of not ting

enough

Nutrient:

body

of

one or more necessary nutrients.

Any one needs:

get-

of the

protein,

main

types of food the

carbohydrates,

fat,

vita-

mins, or minerals.

Omnivorous: Normally using both plants and mal meat as food.

A body-building nutrient. Symbol: A word or object that stands

ani-

Protein:

for something

else.

Undernourished: Not getting enough food.

47

Index health, 20, 26-27,

amino

acids, 13-15, 25,

47

balanced meals, 20-21, 47 barley, 16, 33, 43 body building, 6-7, 12

junk foods, 28

calories, 18-20, 26, 32, 47 canning, 22 carbohydrates, 8, 10-11, 13-15,

maize, 32-33, 41

luxury foods, 44

47 carbon dioxide, 12-13 cattle, 42 cells, 8, 10-12 cereal grains, 15-16, 21, 32, 41, 43 chemicals in food, 23, 30-31 cholesterol, 27 cocoa, 43 coffee, 43 cooking, 22-23 corn (see also maize), 32, 33, 43 cultivated plants, 41

malnourishment, 45, 47 milk, 16, 19-21 minerals, 8-9, 11-14, 16-20, 24-25, 28, 31-32, 47 mold, 22 nutrients, 14,

deficiency diseases, 24, 47 dietary needs (see also balanced

pasteurization, 22

peanut, the, 41

42 planning meals, 18, 21 pig, the,

potato, the, 16, 41 protein, 8-11, 13-15, 18-20, 25,

meals; nutrients), 19

sheep, spices,

9,

47

goat, the,

43-44, 47 12-13

sunlight,

sweet potato, the, 41 symbols, food as, 36-39, 47

undernourishment, 45, 47 unusual foods, 34-35 vitamins, 8-9, 11, 13-14, 16-20, 25, 28, 31-33, 47

32-33

42

green plants,

water, 8-14

wheat, 32-33,41 1

growth of human body,

43-44, 47

sugar, 8, 11, 13, 15-16, 28,

tooth decay, 27, 31

fermentation, 43, 47 food gathering, 40 food makers, 12-13 food takers, 12-13 fuel, 7-8, 10-11, 14-15 of cereal grains,

22-23

starch, 15-16, 28,

8-11, 14, 16-17, 27-28, 32,

germ

42 44

spoilage of food,

energy for body needs, 6-7, 11-13, 15, 18 enriched foods, 33 enzymes, 10-11, 22, 47 fat,

45-47

repair of body, 7, 14, 18 rice, 16, 32-33, 41, 43

domesticated animals, 42

43-44

32-33, 47

overweight, 26-27, 31

28, 32,

DDT, 30

drinks,

29-30

hunger, 45

7,

14, 18

yeast, 22,

46

Boston Public Library "I 7 ?

LOWER MILLS BRANCH LIBRARY j

TX355 ./534

35936SL317 The Date Due Card

in the pocket indi-

cates the date on or before

book should be returned

which

this

to the Library.

Please do not remove cards from this pocket.

ABOl

[OR

Irving Adler for

many years was the kind of teacher everything so clear that students found themselves looking forward to classes. He is able to create the same degree of enthusiasm

who made

his

more than

in the readers of

hooks for young people. Mr. Adlers writing philosophy includes the belief that "children are interested in and can understand very profound scientific truths when fifty

those truths are

presented clearly

One tion of

in their

own

language."

direct result of this philosophy

The Reason

Why

Series

was the initiaby Irving and Ruth

Adler, who worked together on its first thirty books Irving Adler has continued the series. He lives in

North Rennington, Vermont, where, when he

isn't

writing, he takes care of his garden, does research in mathematical biology, and is active in

community!

affairs.

ABOUT THE ILLUSTBATOB Peggy Adler, daughter of the author, has had a varied career as free-lance artist and illustrator. She has illustrated books for The John Day Company, Little Rrown and Company, and The Humane Society of the

United States. She has done numerous posters, mailads and logos for educational institutions

ers,

(includ-

ing the Rronx Zoo), civic organizations, and business establishments. She also organized the world premiere of the Twentieth-Century Fox film the

Butch Cassidy and with her husband and five Rranford, Connecticut.

Sundance Kid. She

children in

lives

The John Day Company 666 Fifth Avenue

New

York,

New

York 10019

i