In nutrition, diet is the sum of food
consumed by a person or other organism. The word diet often implies the use of
specific intake of nutrition for health or weight-management reasons (with the
two often being related). Although humans are omnivores, each culture and each
person holds some food preferences or some food taboos. This may be due to
personal tastes or ethical reasons. Individual dietary choices may be more or
less healthy.
Complete nutrition requires ingestion and
absorption of vitamins, minerals, essential amino acids from protein and
essential fatty acids from fat-containing food, also food energy in the form of
carbohydrate, protein, and fat. Dietary habits and choices play a significant
role in the quality of life, health and longevity.