A staple food, food staple, or simply staple, is a food that is eaten often and in such quantities that it constitutes a dominant portion of a standard diet for an individual or a population group, supplying a large fraction of energy needs and generally forming a significant proportion of the intake of other nutrients as well. [1] For humans, a staple food of a specific society may be eaten as often as every day or every meal, and most people live on a diet based on just a small variety of food staples. [2] Specific staples vary from place to place, but typically are inexpensive or readily available foods that supply one or more of the macronutrients and micronutrients needed for survival and health: carbohydrates, proteins, fats, minerals, and vitamins. [1] Typical examples include grains (cereals and legumes), seeds, nuts and root vegetables (tubers and roots). Among them, cereals (rice, wheat, oat, maize, etc.), legumes (lentils and beans) and tubers (e.g. potato, taro and yam) account for about 90% of the world's food calorie intake. [1]
Early agricultural civilizations valued the crop foods that they established as staples because, in addition to providing necessary nutrition, they generally are suitable for storage over long periods of time without decay. Such nonperishable foods are the only possible staples during seasons of shortage, such as dry seasons or cold temperate winters, against which times harvests have been stored. During seasons of surplus, wider choices of foods may be available.
Staple foods are derived from either plant or animal products that are digestible by humans and can be supplied in substantial quantities. Common plant-based staples include cereals (e.g. rice, wheat, maize, millet, barley, oats, rye, spelt, emmer, triticale and sorghum), starchy tubers (e.g. potato, sweet potato, yam and taro) or root vegetables (e.g. cassava, turnip, carrot, rutabagas), and dried legumes (lentils and beans). [3] Animal-based staples include various types of meat (typically livestock and poultry), fish, eggs, milk and dairy products (e.g. cheese). [2] Other staple foods include sago (derived from the pith of the sago palm tree), [4] and large, fleshy fruits (e.g. breadfruit, breadnut, coconut and plantains). Staple foods may also include processed food products (depending on the region) such as olive oil, coconut oil, and sugar. [5] [6] [7]
Generally, staple foods are those eaten in bulk that supply energy to humans, predominantly in the form of sugars and carbohydrates, and so are mainly plant-based, as meats and eggs are predominantly protein and fat, though dairy products provide all these. However, not all places are suitable for agriculture, and so pastoralism can be favoured instead, as it has the advantage that animals can live off of land unsuitable for agricultural crops and consume the local plant matter that is otherwise inedible to humans and convert that into foods -meat, offal, fat, eggs and milk - that humans can eat. Animals can therefore provide staples to human diets in inhospitable ecosystems such as deserts, steppe, taiga, tundra, and mountainous terrains. Specific examples include herding in regions such as Mongolia where sheep are herded, the Prairies where the Sioux herded bison, and the Arctic, where the Sami people herd reindeer. [8] [9] [10]
The dominant staple foods in different parts of the world are a function of weather patterns, local terrain, farming constraints, acquired tastes and ecosystems. For example, the main energy source staples in the average African diet are cereals (46 percent), roots and tubers (20 percent) and animal products (7 percent). In Western Europe the main staples in the average diet are animal products (33 percent), cereals (26 percent), and roots and tubers (4 percent).
Most of the human population lives on a diet based on one or more of the following staples: cereals (rice, wheat, maize (corn), millet, and sorghum), roots and tubers (potatoes, cassava, yams and taro), and animal products such as meat, milk, eggs, cheese and fish. Regional staples include the plants rye, soybeans, barley, oats, and teff.
Just 15 plant crops provide 90 percent of the world's food energy intake (exclusive of meat), with rice, maize, and wheat comprising 2/3 of human food consumption. These three are the staples of about 80 percent of the world population, [11] and rice feeds almost half of humanity.
Roots and tubers, meanwhile, are important staples for over one billion people in the developing world, accounting for roughly 40 percent of the food eaten by half the population of sub-Saharan Africa. Roots and tubers are high in carbohydrates, calcium, and vitamin C, but low in protein. Cassava root, for example, is a major food staple in the developing world, a basic food source for around 500 million people.
With economic development and free trade, many countries have shifted away from low-nutrient-density staple foods to higher-nutrient-density staples, as well as towards greater meat consumption.
Some foods like quinoa—a pseudocereal grain that originally came from the Andes—were also staples centuries ago. [12] Oca tubers, ulluku tubers and grain amaranth are other foods that may have been historical Andean staples. [13] Pemmican made from dried meat and fat was a staple of the Plains Indians of North America. [14]
Most staple foods are currently produced using modern, conventional farming practices. However, the production of staple food using organic farming methods is growing.
World production, 2012 [16] | Average world yield, 2010 | World's most productive countries, [17] 2012 [18] | World's largest producing countries, 2013 [19] | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rank | Crop | (metric tons) | (tons per hectare) | (tons per hectare) | Country | (metric tons) | Country |
1 | Maize (Corn) | 873 million | 5.1 | 11.1 [20] | United States | 354 million | United States |
2 | Rice | 738 million | 4.3 | 9.5 | Egypt | 204 million | China |
3 | Wheat | 671 million | 3.1 | 8.9 | New Zealand | 122 million | China |
4 | Potatoes | 365 million | 17.2 | 45.4 | Netherlands | 96 million | China |
5 | Cassava | 269 million | 12.5 | 34.8 | Indonesia | 47 million | Nigeria |
6 | Soybeans | 241 million | 2.4 | 4.4 | Egypt | 91 million | United States |
7 | Sweet potatoes | 108 million | 13.5 | 33.3 | Senegal | 71 million | China |
8 | Yams | 59.5 million | 10.5 | 28.3 | Colombia | 36 million | Nigeria |
9 | Sorghum | 57.0 million | 1.5 | 4.5 | United States | 10 million | United States |
10 | Plantain | 37.2 million | 6.3 | 31.1 | El Salvador | 9 million | Uganda |
Rice is most commonly cooked and eaten as separate entire grains, but most other staple cereals are milled into a flour or meal that can be used to make bread, noodles, pasta, porridge and mushes like mealie pap (although both can be eaten either as grains or ground into flour). Root vegetables can be mashed and used to make porridge-like dishes such as poi and fufu. Pulses (such as chickpeas, from which gram flour is made) and starchy root vegetables (such as canna rhizomes) can also be made into flour.[ citation needed ]
Consumed in isolation, staple foods do not provide the full range of essential nutrients. The nutrient-deficiency disease pellagra is associated with a diet consisting primarily of maize, while the disease beriberi is associated with a diet of refined white rice. [21] Scurvy can result from a lack of vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid. One author indicated that the nutritional value of some staple foods are negatively affected by higher levels of carbon dioxide, as occurs in climate change. [22]
The following table shows the nutrient content of 10 major staple vegetable foods in raw form on a dry weight basis to account for their different water contents. Raw grains are not edible and cannot be digested, so they must be cooked, sprouted, or otherwise prepared for human consumption. In sprouted and cooked form, the relative nutritional and anti-nutritional contents of each of these grains are different from that of the raw form of these grains, as shown. Potatoes also must be cooked, but should not be sprouted. The highlighted values show the highest nutrient density among these 10 staples. Other foods, consumed in smaller quantities, may have nutrient densities different from these values.
Staple | Maize (corn) [A] | Rice, white [B] | Wheat [C] | Potatoes [D] | Cassava [E] | Soybeans, green [F] | Sweet potatoes [G] | Yams [Y] | Sorghum [H] | Plantain [Z] | RDA |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Water content (%) | 10 | 12 | 13 | 79 | 60 | 68 | 77 | 70 | 9 | 65 | |
Raw grams per 100 g dry weight | 111 | 114 | 115 | 476 | 250 | 313 | 435 | 333 | 110 | 286 | |
Nutrient | |||||||||||
Energy (kJ) | 1698 | 1736 | 1574 | 1533 | 1675 | 1922 | 1565 | 1647 | 1559 | 1460 | 8,368–10,460 |
Protein (g) | 10.4 | 8.1 | 14.5 | 9.5 | 3.5 | 40.6 | 7.0 | 5.0 | 12.4 | 3.7 | 50 |
Fat (g) | 5.3 | 0.8 | 1.8 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 21.6 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 3.6 | 1.1 | 44–77 |
Carbohydrates (g) | 82 | 91 | 82 | 81 | 95 | 34 | 87 | 93 | 82 | 91 | 130 |
Fiber (g) | 8.1 | 1.5 | 14.0 | 10.5 | 4.5 | 13.1 | 13.0 | 13.7 | 6.9 | 6.6 | 30 |
Sugar (g) | 0.7 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 3.7 | 4.3 | 0.0 | 18.2 | 1.7 | 0.0 | 42.9 | minimal |
Minerals | [A] | [B] | [C] | [D] | [E] | [F] | [G] | [Y] | [H] | [Z] | RDA |
Calcium (mg) | 8 | 32 | 33 | 57 | 40 | 616 | 130 | 57 | 31 | 9 | 1,000 |
Iron (mg) | 3.01 | 0.91 | 3.67 | 3.71 | 0.68 | 11.09 | 2.65 | 1.80 | 4.84 | 1.71 | 8 |
Magnesium (mg) | 141 | 28 | 145 | 110 | 53 | 203 | 109 | 70 | 0 | 106 | 400 |
Phosphorus (mg) | 233 | 131 | 331 | 271 | 68 | 606 | 204 | 183 | 315 | 97 | 700 |
Potassium (mg) | 319 | 131 | 417 | 2005 | 678 | 1938 | 1465 | 2720 | 385 | 1426 | 4700 |
Sodium (mg) | 39 | 6 | 2 | 29 | 35 | 47 | 239 | 30 | 7 | 11 | 1,500 |
Zinc (mg) | 2.46 | 1.24 | 3.05 | 1.38 | 0.85 | 3.09 | 1.30 | 0.80 | 0.00 | 0.40 | 11 |
Copper (mg) | 0.34 | 0.25 | 0.49 | 0.52 | 0.25 | 0.41 | 0.65 | 0.60 | - | 0.23 | 0.9 |
Manganese (mg) | 0.54 | 1.24 | 4.59 | 0.71 | 0.95 | 1.72 | 1.13 | 1.33 | - | - | 2.3 |
Selenium (μg) | 17.2 | 17.2 | 81.3 | 1.4 | 1.8 | 4.7 | 2.6 | 2.3 | 0.0 | 4.3 | 55 |
Vitamins | [A] | [B] | [C] | [D] | [E] | [F] | [G] | [Y] | [H] | [Z] | RDA |
Vitamin C (mg) | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 93.8 | 51.5 | 90.6 | 10.4 | 57.0 | 0.0 | 52.6 | 90 |
Thiamin (B1) (mg) | 0.43 | 0.08 | 0.34 | 0.38 | 0.23 | 1.38 | 0.35 | 0.37 | 0.26 | 0.14 | 1.2 |
Riboflavin (B2) (mg) | 0.22 | 0.06 | 0.14 | 0.14 | 0.13 | 0.56 | 0.26 | 0.10 | 0.15 | 0.14 | 1.3 |
Niacin (B3) (mg) | 4.03 | 1.82 | 6.28 | 5.00 | 2.13 | 5.16 | 2.43 | 1.83 | 3.22 | 1.97 | 16 |
Pantothenic acid (B5) (mg) | 0.47 | 1.15 | 1.09 | 1.43 | 0.28 | 0.47 | 3.48 | 1.03 | - | 0.74 | 5 |
Vitamin B6 (mg) | 0.69 | 0.18 | 0.34 | 1.43 | 0.23 | 0.22 | 0.91 | 0.97 | - | 0.86 | 1.3 |
Folate Total (B9) (μg) | 21 | 9 | 44 | 76 | 68 | 516 | 48 | 77 | 0 | 63 | 400 |
Vitamin A (IU) | 238 | 0 | 10 | 10 | 33 | 563 | 4178 | 460 | 0 | 3220 | 5000 |
Vitamin E, alpha-tocopherol (mg) | 0.54 | 0.13 | 1.16 | 0.05 | 0.48 | 0.00 | 1.13 | 1.30 | 0.00 | 0.40 | 15 |
Vitamin K1 (μg) | 0.3 | 0.1 | 2.2 | 9.0 | 4.8 | 0.0 | 7.8 | 8.7 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 120 |
Beta-carotene (μg) | 108 | 0 | 6 | 5 | 20 | 0 | 36996 | 277 | 0 | 1306 | 10500 |
Lutein+zeaxanthin (μg) | 1506 | 0 | 253 | 38 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 86 | 6000 |
Fats | [A] | [B] | [C] | [D] | [E] | [F] | [G] | [Y] | [H] | [Z] | RDA |
Saturated fatty acids (g) | 0.74 | 0.20 | 0.30 | 0.14 | 0.18 | 2.47 | 0.09 | 0.13 | 0.51 | 0.40 | minimal |
Monounsaturated fatty acids (g) | 1.39 | 0.24 | 0.23 | 0.00 | 0.20 | 4.00 | 0.00 | 0.03 | 1.09 | 0.09 | 22–55 |
Polyunsaturated fatty acids (g) | 2.40 | 0.20 | 0.72 | 0.19 | 0.13 | 10.00 | 0.04 | 0.27 | 1.51 | 0.20 | 13–19 |
[A] | [B] | [C] | [D] | [E] | [F] | [G] | [Y] | [H] | [Z] | RDA |
A cereal is a grass cultivated for its edible grain. Cereals are the world's largest crops, and are therefore staple foods. They include rice, wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, and maize. Edible grains from other plant families, such as buckwheat and quinoa, are pseudocereals. Most cereals are annuals, producing one crop from each planting, though rice is sometimes grown as a perennial. Winter varieties are hardy enough to be planted in the autumn, becoming dormant in the winter, and harvested in spring or early summer; spring varieties are planted in spring and harvested in late summer. The term cereal is derived from the name of the Roman goddess of grain crops and fertility, Ceres.
Millets are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most millets belong to the tribe Paniceae.
Flour is a powder made by grinding raw grains, roots, beans, nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many cultures. Corn flour has been important in Mesoamerican cuisine since ancient times and remains a staple in the Americas. Rye flour is a constituent of bread in both Central Europe and Northern Europe.
Porridge is a food made by heating or boiling ground, crushed or chopped starchy plants, typically grain, in milk or water. It is often cooked or served with added flavourings such as sugar, honey, fruit, or syrup to make a sweet cereal, or it can be mixed with spices, meat, or vegetables to make a savoury dish. It is usually served hot in a bowl, depending on its consistency. Oat porridge, or oatmeal, is one of the most common types of porridge. Gruel is a thinner version of porridge and congee is a savoury variation of porridge of Asian origin.
CGIAR is a global partnership that unites international organizations engaged in research about food security. CGIAR research aims to reduce rural poverty, increase food security, improve human health and nutrition, and sustainable management of natural resources.
African cuisine is an integral part of the continent's diverse cultures reflecting its long and complex history. The evolution of African cuisine is closely entwined with the lives of the native people. Influenced by their religious practices, climate and local agriculture. Early African societies were largely composed of hunter-gatherers who relied on foraging for wild fruits, vegetables, nuts, and hunting animals for sustenance. As agriculture developed across the continent there was a gradual shift to a more settled lifestyle with the cultivation of crops such as millet, sorghum, and later maize. Agriculture also brought about a change in diet leading to the development of a variety of culinary traditions vary by religion. Many African traditional dishes are based on plant- and seed-based diets.
Yam is the common name for some plant species in the genus Dioscorea that form edible tubers.
Ghanaian cuisine refers to the meals of the Ghanaian people. The main dishes of Ghana are centered around starchy staple foods, accompanied by either a sauce or soup as well as a source of protein. The primary ingredients for the vast majority of soups and stews are tomatoes, hot peppers, and onions. As a result of these main ingredients, most Ghanaian jollof rice, soups, and stews appear red or orange.
Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems, leaves, roots, and seeds. An alternative definition of the term is applied somewhat arbitrarily, often by culinary and cultural tradition. It may exclude foods derived from some plants that are fruits, flowers, nuts, and cereal grains, but include savoury fruits such as tomatoes and courgettes, flowers such as broccoli, and seeds such as pulses.
In 2020, approximately 80% of Chad's labor force was employed in the agricultural sector. This sector of the economy accounts for 52.3% of the GDP, as of 2017. With the exception of cotton production, some small-scale sugar cane production, and a portion of the peanut crop, Chad's agriculture consists of subsistence food production.
Belizean cuisine is an amalgamation of all ethnicities in the nation of Belize and their respectively wide variety of foods. Breakfast often consists of sides of bread, flour tortillas, or fry jacks that are often homemade and eaten with various cheeses. All are often accompanied with refried beans, cheeses, and various forms of eggs, etc. Inclusive is also cereal along with milk, coffee, or tea.
Fijian cuisine has long consisted of primarily foraged and farm-grown food. Although rice, wheat, and tea all became staples during Fiji's colonial era, native Fijians still eat primarily tubers and coconuts. The cuisine of Fiji is known for its seafood and various green vegetables, including ''ota'', a young forest fern, and ''bele'', a plant that resembles spinach.
A great variety of cassava-based dishes are consumed in the regions where cassava is cultivated. Manihot esculenta is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes.
A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legumes.
The cuisine of Niger draws on traditional African cuisines. Various spices are used and meals include grilled meat, seasonal vegetables, salads, and various sauces. Meals in Niger usually start with colorful salads made from seasonal vegetables. Moringa leaves are a favorite for a salad.
Chadian cuisine is the cooking traditions, practices, foods and dishes associated with the Republic of Chad. Chadians use a medium variety of grains, vegetables, fruits and meats. Commonly consumed grains include millet, sorghum, and rice as staple foods. Commonly eaten vegetables include okra and cassava. A variety of fruits are also eaten. Meats include mutton, chicken, pork, goat, fish, lamb and beef. The day's main meal is typically consumed in the evening on a large communal plate, with men and women usually eating in separate areas. This meal is typically served on the ground upon a mat, with people sitting and eating around it.
Central African cuisine includes the cuisines, cooking traditions, practices, ingredients and foods of the Central African Republic (CAR). Indigenous agriculture in the country includes millet, sorghum, banana, yam, okra, yellow onion, garlic, spinach, rice and palm oil. Imported crops of American origin include maize, manioc (cassava), peanuts, chili peppers, sweet potato and tomato. Additional foods include onions, garlic, chiles and peanuts.
This is a categorically organized list of foods. Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is produced either by plants, animals, or fungi, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, and minerals. The substance is ingested by an organism and assimilated by the organism's cells in an effort to produce energy, maintain life, or stimulate growth.
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