Food and Drink

Food isn't just a necessity: it is one of our greatest sources of pleasure.

Treats like champagne, chocolate and chips all give your brain a big "pleasure
hit" that keeps us coming back for more. And preparation is as important as the
ingredients: food with a browned crust generally tastes better than food without
it as users of microwaves will attest.
In recent years, food, science and technology have become more closely
linked than ever. Scientifically minded chefs like Harold McGee, Heston
Blumenthaland Ferran Adri harness science to develop sometimes startling
new dishes.

Mouth to stomach
The human digestive system works in stages. Some digestion takes place
in the mouth, but the process begins in earnest in the stomach and is concluded
as the food passes through the intestines to the rectum. Our guts rely on
athriving cocktail of bacteria to help them digest the food.
Depending on what they eat, other animals organise their digestive
systems differently. Herbivores like cows have the rumen an extra chamber
before the stomach that helps break down the tough grass they eat while
alligators can divert extra blood to their stomachs to cope with their huge meals.

Food in human evolution

Humans

began

as hunter-gatherers,

before developing

agriculture anddomesticating animals for farming. Sheep were probably the first
animals to be farmed, followed by cattle and pigs.

We are still unsure what our earliest ancestors ate, in particular how much of
their diet was meat, although tzi the iceman had consumed Ibex, deer,
vegetables and possibly grains (see gallery).
It has been argued, controversially, that the invention of cooking was a key
factor in human evolution (as well as us our chaotic teeth) a question that
partly hangs on when humans discovered fire.
Like us, apes also prefer cooked food to raw possibly because cooked
foodgives you more energy than raw.

Feeding the world

Nowadays almost all our food comes from farming. Because of the huge
increase in human population over the last 200 years, farming has become much
more intensive and reliant on technology the so-called Green Revolution in
the 20th century was a major boost. At the same time, technologies for
preserving food have come along in leaps and bounds.
However the gains have not been without cost: soil quality has been
damaged, crops like bananas have become less genetically diverse, rare breeds
of animal have been pushed close to extinction, and habitats have been
destroyed. Increasing demand for meat also puts pressure on agriculture.
One possible solution to food shortages is genetic modification of crop
plants to increase yields and make them resistant to disease. However GM has
proved unpopular with the public, despite efforts to produce environmentally
friendly varieties. (See GM Organisms for more about genetic modification)
Concerns

about

environmental

damage

from

farming

led

to

the development of "sustainable" techniques, such as organic farming, which

rejects the use of artificial fertilisers, pesticides and other agricultural

technologies. Organic farming produces lower yields, but there is evidence that
it produces adequate amounts of food with less environmental damage.
Overfishing of the world's oceans has also led to great damage, causing
population crashes in many species. In recent years, fish farms have become
more widespread they reduce the burden on wild fish, but have problems of
their

own

with escaping

fish, excessive

food

consumption,infectious

viruses and louse infestations. Unless the population declines are halted, we will
have to turn to less appetising species for our seafood such asjellyfish.