❶ Change In The Diet Of People In History: Reasons And Features

The history of the development of nutritional principles is as old as the history of mankind. For millennia, there have been constant changes in the composition of the main products, the way they are prepared and the diet. Location: Location:

The main reason for changes in human nutrition is a change in the conditions of its existence. Our distant ancestors ate mainly fruits. Then the number of people increased, and some of them had to look for new land to live in the north.

However, the harsher climate provided much less edible vegetation. And in such conditions a person needed much more calories. So meat entered the human diet.

Thousands of years have passed, and people have learned to roast meat over a fire, smoke and stew in pits filled with leaves. This is how another factor in nutritional changes began to act - technical progress. And for millennia, two factors - natural and technical - have gone hand in hand.

Another revolution in this area was agriculture. However, for a long time, the fruits of the earth were mainly fed by the peoples who lived in the fertile river valleys and on the sea coasts of regions with a warm climate: the ancient Egyptians, the inhabitants of India and the Middle East, the Chinese and the Romans. The basis of their nutrition was made up of cereal plants, more precisely, products made from them: bread and cereals.

In colder or drier areas, where it was more difficult to obtain a good harvest, hunting or cattle breeding remained the basis of the economy. This means that the diet was mainly meat. True, with the development of land cultivation techniques, agricultural areas expanded more and more.

Over the centuries, each nation has developed its own national cuisine, the features of which arose under the influence of certain natural or historical conditions. For example, such delights of European cuisine as dishes from grape snails or frog legs could appear only in hungry years.

Religious notions also played a role, establishing a ban on the use of certain products (pork for Muslims and Jews, beef for Hindus).

At the same time, the level of scientific and technological progress over time made a large part of society independent of climatic conditions. A kind of unified cuisine has developed, a standard set of dishes for most peoples. These are soups, fried meat, potatoes, cereals, etc.

Now people do not want to waste time on cooking a full meal, and are increasingly using semi-finished products rich in fats. The whole world is switching to “fast” food: fast foods, french fries, chips, crackers, etc. Fast food researchers claim that this food produces large amounts of opiates, which are produced by the brain, leading to a state of intoxication.

The popularity of instant food is due to the fact that it is beneficial from a financial point of view and saves time, which is valuable in the fast pace of modern society. In Russia, such food is gaining more and more popularity. The mismatch between the incomes and needs of the population creates an unmet demand, which is quite organically directed to fast food, which is a more affordable product and has no alternative.

The controversy about the dangers of transgenic food is ongoing throughout the world. This problem has not spared Russia either. Now in the food industry of the Russian Federation it is allowed to use 13 genetically modified plant species. These are 5 varieties of corn, 3 varieties of soybeans, 2 varieties of potatoes, 2 varieties of sugar beets and 1 variety of rice.

A genetically modified plant differs from an ordinary plant in that the genes of another plant are introduced into its DNA, which means an artificial change in DNA. According to statistics, 70% of imported products are made from genetically modified raw materials.

The methods and principles of modern nutrition have pushed into the background everything valuable that has been accumulated over the decades. Complete nutrition has been replaced by transgenic foods, instant food, which negatively affect the overall functioning of the body. The arguments of the established advocates of such food influence the general opinion of the population forgetting about pure, unmodified foods.