Vegetable - Wikipedia. In everyday usage, a vegetable is any part of a plant that is consumed by humans as food as part of a meal. The term vegetable is somewhat arbitrary, and largely defined through culinary and cultural tradition. It normally excludes other food derived from plants such as fruits, nuts, and cereal grains, but includes seeds such as pulses. The original meaning of the word vegetable, still used in biology, was to describe all types of plant, as in the terms . At first, plants which grew locally would have been cultivated, but as time went on, trade brought exotic crops from elsewhere to add to domestic types. ![]() ![]() Full list of fruits and vegetables that are OK for your dog to eat and which should be avoided. Show your bunny how much you love him by providing him with a healthy diet. He'll reward you with long life, good health, and carrot-lip kisses. We can help you eat more fruits & vegetables! Fruits & Veggies–More Matters® is a health initiative focused on helping Americans increase fruit & vegetable. Building a healthy plate is easy when you make half your plate fruits and vegetables. Nowadays, most vegetables are grown all over the world as climate permits, and crops may be cultivated in protected environments in less suitable locations. China is the largest producer of vegetables and global trade in agricultural products allows consumers to purchase vegetables grown in faraway countries. The scale of production varies from subsistence farmers supplying the needs of their family for food, to agribusinesses with vast acreages of single- product crops. Depending on the type of vegetable concerned, harvesting the crop is followed by grading, storing, processing, and marketing. Vegetables can be eaten either raw or cooked and play an important role in human nutrition, being mostly low in fat and carbohydrates, but high in vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber. Many nutritionists encourage people to consume plenty of fruit and vegetables, five or more portions a day often being recommended. Etymology. The word vegetable was first recorded in English in the early 1. It comes from Old French. The year 1. 95. 5 saw the first use of the shortened, slang term . The broadest definition is the word's use adjectivally to mean . ![]() ![]() More specifically, a vegetable may be defined as . This is considerably different from the word's culinary meaning. While peaches, plums, and oranges are . The question of whether the tomato is a fruit or a vegetable found its way into the United States Supreme Court in 1. The court ruled unanimously in Nix v. Hedden that a tomato is correctly identified as, and thus taxed as, a vegetable, for the purposes of the Tariff of 1. The court did acknowledge, however, that, botanically speaking, a tomato is a fruit. They foraged for edible fruit, nuts, stems, leaves, corms, and tubers, scavenged for dead animals and hunted living ones for food. Plant breeding through the selection of strains with desirable traits such as large fruit and vigorous growth soon followed. The addition of vegetable matter provided some variety to the diet. The staple diet of the Aztecs in Central America was maize and they cultivated tomatoes, avocados, beans, peppers, pumpkins, squashes, peanuts, and amaranth seeds to supplement their tortillas and porridge. In Peru, the Incas subsisted on maize in the lowlands and potatoes at higher altitudes. They also used seeds from quinoa, supplementing their diet with peppers, tomatoes, and avocados. Vegetables used to accompany these included yams, soybeans, broad beans, turnips, spring onions, and garlic. The diet of the ancient Egyptians was based on bread, often contaminated with sand which wore away their teeth. Meat was a luxury but fish was more plentiful. These were accompanied by a range of vegetables including marrows, broad beans, lentils, onions, leeks, garlic, radishes, and lettuces. The vegetables grown included onions, garlic, cabbages, melons, and lentils. The Romans grew broad beans, peas, onions and turnips and ate the leaves of beets rather than their roots. Most are low in fat and calories but are bulky and filling. Particularly important are the antioxidant vitamins A, C, and E. When vegetables are included in the diet, there is found to be a reduction in the incidence of cancer, stroke, cardiovascular disease, and other chronic ailments. Some beans contain phytohaemagglutinin, and cassava roots contain cyanogenic glycoside as do bamboo shoots. These toxins can be deactivated by adequate cooking. Green potatoes contain glycoalkaloids and should be avoided. There's little doubt that one of the best ways to improve your health is to make sure you're eating plenty of fresh, minimally processed high-quality. These foods are commonly eaten raw and may become contaminated during their preparation by an infected food handler. Hygiene is important when handling foods to be eaten raw, and such products need to be properly cleaned, handled, and stored to limit contamination. Potatoes are not included in the count as they are mainly providers of starch. For most vegetables and vegetable juices, one serving is half of a cup and can be eaten raw or cooked. For leafy greens, such as lettuce and spinach, a single serving is typically a full cup. Japan, for example, recommends the consumption of five to six servings of vegetables daily. Some are staple foods but most are accessory foodstuffs, adding variety to meals with their unique flavors and at the same time, adding nutrients necessary for health. ![]() ![]() Some vegetables are perennials but most are annuals and biennials, usually harvested within a year of sowing or planting. Whatever system is used for growing crops, cultivation follows a similar pattern; preparation of the soil by loosening it, removing or burying weeds, and adding organic manures or fertilisers; sowing seeds or planting young plants; tending the crop while it grows to reduce weed competition, control pests, and provide sufficient water; harvesting the crop when it is ready; sorting, storing, and marketing the crop or eating it fresh from the ground. The growing season can be lengthened by the use of fleece, cloches, plastic mulch, polytunnels, and greenhouses. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Besides tractors, these include ploughs, harrows, drills, transplanters, cultivators, irrigation equipment, and harvesters. New techniques are changing the cultivation procedures involved in growing vegetables with computer monitoring systems, GPS locators, and self- steer programs for driverless machines giving economic benefits. It continues to transpire and loses moisture as it does so, a process most noticeable in the wilting of green leafy crops. Harvesting root vegetables when they are fully mature improves their storage life, but alternatively, these root crops can be left in the ground and harvested over an extended period. The harvesting process should seek to minimise damage and bruising to the crop. Onions and garlic can be dried for a few days in the field and root crops such as potatoes benefit from a short maturation period in warm, moist surroundings, during which time wounds heal and the skin thickens up and hardens. Before marketing or storage, grading needs to be done to remove damaged goods and select produce according to its quality, size, ripeness, and color. A large proportion of vegetables and perishable foods are lost after harvest during the storage period. These losses may be as high as thirty to fifty percent in developing countries where adequate cold storage facilities are not available. The main causes of loss include spoilage caused by moisture, moulds, micro- organisms, and vermin. Most vegetables are perishable and short- term storage for a few days provides flexibility in marketing. During storage, leafy vegetables lose moisture, and the vitamin C in them degrades rapidly. A few products such as potatoes and onions have better keeping qualities and can be sold when higher prices may be available, and by extending the marketing season, a greater total volume of crop can be sold. If refrigerated storage is not available, the priority for most crops is to store high- quality produce, to maintain a high humidity level, and to keep the produce in the shade. There are temperature- controlling technologies that do not require the use of electricity such as evaporative cooling. It can extend the storage life of food without noticeably changing its properties. The aim is to harvest the food at its maximum state of palatability and nutritional value, and preserve these qualities for an extended period. The main causes of deterioration in vegetables after they are gathered are the actions of naturally- occurring enzymes and the spoilage caused by micro- organisms. The sealed can excludes air from the foodstuff to prevent subsequent deterioration. The lowest necessary heat and the minimum processing time are used in order to prevent the mechanical breakdown of the product and to preserve the flavor as far as is possible. The can is then able to be stored at ambient temperatures for a long period. The enzyme action will merely be inhibited, and blanching of suitably sized prepared vegetables before freezing mitigates this and prevents off- flavors developing. Not all micro- organisms will be killed at these temperatures and after thawing the vegetables should be used promptly because otherwise, any microbes present may proliferate. This method suffers from several disadvantages including lack of control over drying rates, spoilage when drying is slow, contamination by dirt, wetting by rain, and attack by rodents, birds, and insects. These disadvantages can be alleviated by using solar powered driers. Green beans can be salted by layering the pods with salt, but this method of preservation is unsuited to most vegetables. Marrows, beetroot, carrot, and some other vegetables can be boiled with sugar to create jams. Sauerkraut is made from chopped cabbage and relies on lactic acid bacteria which produce compounds that are inhibitory to the growth of other micro- organisms. India, the United States, Turkey, Iran, and Egypt were the next largest producers. China had the highest area of land devoted to vegetable production, while the highest average yields were obtained in Spain and the Republic of Korea. There are a number of ISO standards regarding fruits and vegetables. Online Etymology Dictionary. Swedenborg Concordance 1. ISBN 0- 7. 66. 1- 3. Ayto, John (1. 99. Dictionary of Word Origins. New York: Arcade Publishing. Online Etymology Dictionary. Handbook of Vegetables and Vegetable Processing. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9. 78- 0- 4. Fruits And Vegetables.
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