Food, nutrition and cooking

Nutrition is the process by which organisms absorb and utilize food substances, whether in their raw state or after having been subject to culinary processes to facilitate digestion. Food serves the functions of: providing materials from which energy is derived, contributing to the formation of enzymes necessary for synthetic processes, and providing the materials from which the components of the organism can be assembled. The exchange, preparation and (collective) consumption of foodstuffs are of considerable symbolic significance to man.

Groups and individuals are in large part nourished by a wide range of information, whether in a raw form as stimuli or after having been ordered and processed into more digestible patterns. Information serves the functions of: providing stimuli from which the group derives its energy, contributing to the formation of integrative patterns necessary for development, and providing the concepts from which the components of the organization can be assembled. The exchange, preparation and (collective) consumption of information are of considerable symbolic significance to man.

Phrases such as 'getting one's teeth into' or 'devouring' a document, 'digesting' ideas, 'food for thought' and a 'thirst for knowledge' are frequently used. Ideas are often considered as essential 'nourishment' for the spirit.

The problems of assimilating ideas may be attributed to their unprepared state ('half-baked') or the need to process them (to allow ideas to 'simmer', to 'ferment' or to 'percolate'). There is little attention to the nature of the foodstuffs essential for adequate nutrition except in the media concerned with supplying its audience with a well-balanced 'diet' of information. The gastronomic art of preparing and enjoying food is occasionally reflected in a 'feast of ideas' but with little understanding of how such a feast should be prepared or served.

Malnutrition. Vitamins. Natural and synthetic foods. Variety of foods and food preparation processes. Censorship in relation to vital nutrients and food poisoning. 'One man's meat is another man's poison'.