Top 10 Western Themed Party Food Ideas

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Are you hosting a western party and in search of some ideas for easy western party food? Then look no further! Below are some tasty, easy ideas for western themed party food for your upcoming event. Whether you are hosting a denim and diamonds affair or a low-key back yard barbeque, country and western foods are a sure crowd pleaser. Most of these recipes can be made a few days ahead of time to make your western party food planning a cinch!

Top 10 Western Themed Party Food Ideas:

1. BBQ Baby Back Ribs

No western party menu is complete without some great ribs. You can either slow cook these on a very low temperature (275 degrees) for about 4 hours on your grill or in your oven. Use a dry rub and finish with you favorite BBQ sauce for finger licking good western party food!

2. Home-Style Macaroni and Cheese

This mac-n-cheese isn’t just for kids and doesn’t come in the blue box! This is hearty, comfort food that is a crowd pleasure for guests of all ages! Use a generous amount of sharp cheddar and top with some fresh white bread crumbs and a drizzled of melted butter before baking. Country and western foods don’t get much tastier than this!

3. Country Fried Chicken

This is a classic western themed party food menu item and is perfect for guests who like to mingle while they munch. Use strips of white chicken breasts and I love the tasty buttermilk breading recipe in The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond cookbook!.

4. Fancy Baked Beans

Baked beans don’t need to come from a can. Jazz up you own homemade baked bean recipe by using different kinds of beans (navy, lima and kidney) mixed with dark brown sugar, bacon and onions. This makes a wonderful, hearty western party food side dish.

5. Grilled Corn on the Cob

Corn on the Cob is a definite for any country and western food menu. Brush peeled corn with a good grilling sauce like Wegman’s Basting Oil and grill for a few minutes until desired tenderness.

6. Grilled Steaks

Western themed party food has to include beef! Tender grilled steaks or London broil is a super-easy way to satisfy your guest. Sprinkle the meat with garlic seasoned sea salt or marinade it in your favorite marinade 3 hours prior to grilling. Simple, easy and delicious!

7. Cornbread and/or Garlic Butter Biscuits

Western themed food is not for the carb conscious but cornbread and biscuits will be irresistible to your guests. Place baskets lined with red and white napkins on tables around your party with some honey butter, and watch these hearty appetizers disappear fast!

8. Chicken and Cheese Quesadillas

A fast and easy country and western party food include these super easy chicken and cheese quesadillas. Use burrito sized tortillas. You can use Perdue Shortcuts shredded into smaller pieces to make your job easier, mix equal parts of salsa and sour cream and add your favorite grated cheddar cheese. Grill in a grill pan or frying pan over medium heat until cheese is melted. Cut into thirds and serve with guacamole, salsa or your other favorite Mexican condiment. TIP: Quesadillas are easier to flip if you use one tortilla folded in half for each quesadilla.

9. Beverages with a Western Twist

You can’t go wrong with popular beer and wine, but if you want a true western themed party food menu, use special attention to your beverages by offering margaritas! Mason jars are a great added touch for serving beverages of all kinds.

10. Chili

This may be the easiest of all country and western party foods and can be used as a main course or an appetizer. Use your crock pot to make ahead and to keep warm during the duration of your party. If you are serving hot dogs, this makes a great condiment for the chili dog lovers at your party. Don’t forget the shredded cheddar cheese for serving on top.

Don’t Forget Dessert!

Western party food doesn’t have to end with the main course – your desserts can be western themed too. Choose a western style cake such as a horseshoe or cowboy boot, and wow your guests with your sweet ending! Another dessert option is to fill western themed glasses with an individual dessert like chocolate mousse, pudding or ice cream.

Use your imagination and think Western when planning your western themed party food menu. Accent your menu with western styles table ware and drink ware to accentuate your western theme. Country and western party food can be delicious AND easy, so no need to stress over your menu. Western party food typically appeals to all ages and personal tastes so your guest are sure to find a thing or two on your menu to please their palettes.

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Source by Katie Bierman

How Much Does it Cost to Use a Food Dehydrator?

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A common misconception is that it is expensive, electricity wise, to operate a food dehydrator. This is not true, even though dehydrators use electricity to operate their heating system and fans for longer periods of time, sometimes up to twelve and eighteen hours.

Food dehydrators are used to dry various foods by eliminating the water within the food. The water content of food is very high, typically between 80% to 95% for various fruits and vegetables and 50% to 75% for different meats. In order to minimize dehydration time, best dehydration practices to follow include slicing food into 1/4 inch or less strips and evenly spreading the food throughout the unit’s trays in order to maximize the amount of the food’s surface that is exposed to the unit’s heat and air flow.

However, even following best dehydration practices, a food drying process can take multiple hours. One temptation is to try and speed up the drying time by increasing the dehydrating temperature. This is not recommended and can result in case hardened food; that is, food that is dried and hard on the outside but moist and containing water on the inside. Case hardened food will spoil due to microbial growth.

So what do typical dehydrators cost to operate? Obviously the costs depend on the state and local area that you live in, however, within the U.S., on average, running a 750 watt unit for one hour would cost about 8 cents. Cost per state, per hour, for the same 750 watt unit varies from about 5 cents on the low end in North Dakota to almost 22 cents in Hawaii.

A typical dehydrator may run for twelve hours. As an example, assuming a dehydrator user lives in the state of California, a food dehydrator calculator can be used to estimate electricity costs required to run a 750 watt food drying appliance for, say, 12 hours straight. In this case the electricity cost would be about $1.21. In fact, most food drying units power on and off during the drying cycle so this would be a maximum electricity cost.

If the same Californian user bought about 3.7 pounds of apples at $1.29 per pound and dried those apples during that 12 hour time period, the user would have about 1 pound of dried apples and the cost of the dried apples would be $4.77. The total operating cost for one pound of homemade dried apples would thus be about $5.98. This homemade cost compares favorably to a well known national brand of dried apples that was recently selling at a major grocery store chain for $2.79 for a 5 ounce bag or a cost per pound of $8.93. Savings for homemade dried apples, made with a dehydrator, versus store bought – about $3.00.

Dehydrate your own dried fruit, dried vegetables and jerky at home using your food dehydrator. You’ll continuously save money versus store bought dried fruit and jerky and obtain a return on the cost of the food drying appliance. Further, you can control the ingredients that go into your food (most store bought dried fruit and jerky contain excess sugars and salts) and make great tasting food.

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Source by Rae Wilson

Cancer Is a Food Allergy Disease As Well As Environment

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Over many years of observation plus my limited knowledge of medical problems, having once been a medical student and more recently a student of genetics, the outstanding thing about cancer is the lifestyle of sufferers. While smoking contributes to onsets there is limited research into food allergies causation. My guess is that governments disallow facts to be known, as was the case with tobacco.

One incredible red flag for pancreatic and liver cancers is sugar, a major component of most foods. Alcohol is another and the two combined can be deadly. While sugar C12OH22O11), and alcohol (C2H5OH) differ in chemical make-up their effect on the digestion system is tha problem.

The function of the liver is to breakdown fats before they reach the pancreas. In simple terms this works in the small intestine in the presence of bile and digestive juices secreted by the pancreas. This is an essential part of maintaining good health.

In the presence of an overdose of sugar or alcohol the liver and associated organs are over whelmed. Fat slips through undigested and accumulates in both the liver and pancreas. It builds up contributing to obesity and leading to cancer of these vital organs and other issues.

Alcohol is a food and it is toxic to the liver, which then uses all its secretions to neutralise it. That allows fats to go untreated and thus the recognition that alcohol is fattening.

Along with these two substances there are many others that will take precedence over normal liver function. My observations show that preservatives are also toxic but less so than the other two. They contain nitrites and nitrates that exist in bacon, sausages, lunch meat, hot dogs, smoked fish, ham and also corned beef.

Sulfites exist in wine, shrimp, dried fruit and potato foods to preserve colour in food. If you are sensitive they can cause skin irritations, hypertension, abdominal pain and asthma symptoms.

Sodium benzoate, or benzoic acid when combined with vitamin C is linked to cancer and leukaemia and damage to heart, liver, kidneys, spleen, brain and adrenal glands.

This topic is huge but the bottom line is to eat fresh, prepare your own food, and avoid anything with preservatives and especially potato products, such as packet chips, etc. Consuming these things is also piling on the weight as people become addicted to the taste which is highlighted by a high degree of salt, which is bad for the heart and blood vessels.

The latter also contain high quantities of trans fats what are stored around the vital organs as they cannot be digested by the liver. In effect, they are as bad as smoking for long-term health.

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Source by Norma Holt

Fast Food Nutrition – The Silent Killer

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It’s recognized that fast food isn’t healthy or nutritious at all and as a matter of fact, it’s completely harmful to you. Therefore it is crucial for you to know about fast food nutrition details that will help you become more conscious of the unknown dangers of eating fast foods which can be even worse than you may ever have thought possible. Americans have for ages been familiar with consuming fast foods and recently, this problem has also spread to the rest of the globe.

Hence, becoming acquainted with junk food nutrition information is necessary for not just Americans and people residing in the western world, but in addition for people living in the third world countries where this fad has quickly caught on and is consequently affecting the more affluent in those parts of the world too. Fast food will make an individual fat and it is also the key cause for obesity in the USA with even kids not being spared.

You can easily understand from taking a look at junk food nutrition details that these foods are full of fat and are packed with calories. Although Americans have to eat not more than sixty-five grams of fat plus that their calorie count shouldn’t exceed two thousand, dependent of age and how much they exercise, when they consume fast foods, they would find themselves consuming much more than the suggested levels. Statistically, this is often 30 percent or more above the ideal level.

Hence, a meal that is made of a McDonalds Big Mac together with some french fries and a shake would cost you fifty-seven grams of fat in addition to twelve hundred calories, which will make sure that you will be unable to stay within the required limits. Often you might consume more than this mini-meal and should you go for a “super size” meal, you would certainly take in a lot more than you should. Whenever the unwanted fat and calories stay in your body, you’d just end up doing lots of damage to your body and it’s health. By doing this you pay a large price for having satisfied a short-term urge to please your taste buds.

Moreover, you can see out of available junk food nutrition specifics that fast foods do not contain sufficient basic fibers and nutrients and there are insufficient vitamins contained as well, all of which are crucial for a person’s health and well-being. After you have carefully learn about these fast food nutrition specifics, you’d probably realize that the threat to your health is usually hidden and therefore fast foods will act as some sort of silent killer which can even result in early death.

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Source by Terje Brooks

What Makes Our Food More Appetizing?

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Have you ever heard it said we eat with our eyes? Although the phrase may sound silly give it some thought. Our eyes tell us when we’re attracted to the opposite sex. You’re not going to get up close and personal with someone you don’t find physically appealing are you? It’s the same with food.

So it could be said we do eat with our eyes. If we don’t find it physically pleasing then it’s unlikely we’ll want to eat it. Ever wondered why restaurants serve up meals with a little garnish on the plate, some salad, etc. It’s to make the food seem more attractive. If it looks pleasant then chances are it probably tastes that way as well. A problem a lot of people have is not making their meals look good enough. When people start a diet they invariably make their meal look dull and boring. Extra effort is needed to make it seem exciting and appetising.

Do we perhaps make unhealthy meals seem more appealing? Dress them with trims and garnishes as we don’t like to think how bad they are for us. Is this perhaps true with some meal choices in restaurants? Maybe they don’t want us to think of all the unhealthy ingredients that make up the dish.

So how can we make our diet more attractive? Let’s discuss some important points.

Colour

As with all things in life we’re guided by our senses. We’re not attracted by things that give off an unappealing aroma or don’t look good on the eye. It’s the same with food. Make your meal look pleasant and enjoyable by adding lots of colour. Lemon or other acidic juices sprinkled over your food will help it keep its colour until ready to serve. A good tip to keep green veg from losing colour is to only cook it briefly.

It’s vital to add lots of colour to mealtimes. Be creative and make your food vibrant and appealing. If it’s overcooked, dull or soggy it’s not going to appear appetizing. Vegetables are a great way of adding appeal to food as they come in so many colours. Yellow peppers, red onions, green celery, all excellent additions to your plate and attracting the eye.

Next time you’re at a market or in the vegetable aisle at a store have a look around at the wide variety of colour available. Check out the freshness. Make food tempting to the nose and taste buds as well. Add lots of spices and herbs to give a rich aroma and flavour.

All too often healthy low fat food can seem tasteless but with a little know how it can be turned into a vibrant and delicious feast. A cheap and easy way of adding taste is by using peppers to make a meal hot and spicy. Tone it down a little and add sweetness by using a little sugar.

Texture

Unfortunately this is often missed in the cooking and preparation of meals. Just as important as taste and smell, if it isn’t feeling good to chew then you’re most likely going to want to spit it out! Don’t burn or over cook your food. Blanch your veg to keep it crisp – nothings worse than soggy vegetables! Don’t turn your meals into dull, tasteless experiences – keep everything as good on the eye and taste buds as they were before they were cooked.

Organise the food on your plate so it looks appealing and attractive as well. Make your meal look larger by using a smaller plate. Don’t just dump the food on your plate – arrange everything out nicely and spread it out well covering the whole plate. Add aroma to mealtimes by burning scented candles or incense while you eat. Be aware though that the fruit scented ones may increase your appetite! An appealing fragrance in the air will make you forget about your hunger.

Don’t forget to take in plenty of liquids with your meal. It’s not a good idea to wait until after eating to have your drink, take it whilst you eat as this makes your stomach feel fuller and aids digestion.

The key to a successful diet is not to have the brain thinking its being denied all the food it enjoys. Make all your meals exciting to the senses. Try new ideas and experiment with recipes. Achieving this will help your goal of a successful diet.

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Source by Jonathan Jenkins

Principles of Ancient Egyptian Food Storage

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The process of food preservation is a system used to conserves a quantity of food for some future time and date. There has always been some sort of food preservation employed in just about every culture and nation of the world since early times. In generally, we find various methods used such as canning, cold storage, drying, fermenting, freezing, pickling, salting or smoking according to the location where the culture resides. Some areas blend in with certain types of preservation while others are better suited for alternative methods.

The early ideas pertaining to preservation centered on preserving the food in a manner that likely imitated the exact method used by nature and duplicated how it was naturally accomplice. Original practices made maximum use of cold storage, drying, freezing, fermenting or drying. These were natural processes which occurred often in common fruit. Ancient Egyptian records have reveal their use of salt curing, smoking, pickling, drying, or fermenting as the popular methods used in those days. Drying food methods have been claimed to be one of the oldest means on earth to preserve food with tomb dating instructions discovered in China over 2000 years ago. These Chinese instructions described the various processes involved in salting, drying as well as pickling bamboo shoots. Many 16th century records indicate that the European conquerors in Maya used a method of smoking foods in order to preserve peppers. Methods such as sun drying, smoking, or salting have been used on most perishables including many species of fish.

Salt has traditionally been employed for preservation of meats and fish since ancient times. Various cultures would obtain their supply of salt either directly from the earth deposits or from seawater which had been dried out. The salt has traditionally been employed to create various brines or used in the drying processes for fish in particular.

The ancient Egyptians often used a method known as “banking” in order to preserve much of their perishable foods. The process consisted of digging a hole in the ground and then lining it with wood, leaves or possibly straw so as to make a sort of barrier between the food and the soil. Caves represented the more natural form of “banking” and were used whenever they were available to preserve foods. Foods would be successfully stored in containers made from skins, reed baskets or in various pottery vessels and then placed either in caves or in the holes dug in the ground. Liquids naturally required a much more diverse approach and their types of containers were entirely different.

Pests such as insects, damage as a result of moisture or weather, mold or fungus would often lower the quality of the saved foods and these hindrances had to be taken into account when planning for future food storage. If you stop for a moment and think carefully at how these early civilizations stored their food perhaps we too as survivalists could create a similar storage to serve the same ends.

Copyright @2010 Joseph Parish

http://www.survival-training.info

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Source by Joseph Parish

Is it Possible to Eat the Medifast Way Without Buying the Food?

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I recently had someone contact me and tell me that she was very impressed with what she’d been reading in her research about the Medifast diet. She felt that something similar might work for her, but she hesitated to spend the money on the diet’s food. She wanted to know if it was possible to eat similar foods with items she was able to buy from the grocery store. This is a relatively common question that I had myself. And previously, I did try to accomplish something similar. I will discuss this more in the following article.

What You’d Need To Accomplish If You Were Trying To Eat The Medifast Way On Your Own: One big reason for the success that most people have on this diet is that it is able to get you in ketosis where you are rapidly burning your own fat. You’re typically able to do this because the calorie to carb to protein ratio is so specific and favorable. I know from experience that it’s quite a challenge to come up with foods that are going to meet this criteria. And, if you are able to do so, it’s generally pretty expensive and time consuming.

Also keep in mind that you’ll be eating six times per day. When you’re on this diet, you eat five of the plan’s prepackaged meals and then you make one larger main meal on your own. This is necessary for a couple of reasons. First, eating so often helps to keep hunger at bay and it keeps your metabolism humming along for ketosis purposes. And yet, while you’re eating so much, you’re also only taking in around 1,000 calories per day. Not only that, but the carb to protein ratio is mostly kept at even.

If you’ve not yet researched the foods that you’re going to use to accomplish this, I can tell you that the “safe” goods under this umbrella are difficult to come by. Many will have way too much sugars and carbs which isn’t friendly to ketosis. It’s common to compensate for low amounts of calories and fat with additional sugar so that the taste is still pleasant.

I’ll look at Medifast’s new brownies as an example of what you’d need to accomplish. This product has only 110 calories and 2 grams of fat. There are 15 grams of carbs, but this is balanced out with a very high 11 grams of protein. There are only 8 grams of sugars and 4 grams of fiber. Even if you look at health food stores, it’s going to be quite difficult to find a comparable product with so much protein and fiber. And, even if you do, you’re likely to find that it’s more expensive and you’d still have to come up with four similar meals for the day.

I know that many people research DIY Medifast because they think that by “doing it themselves” they’re going to save some money. But in my experience, this just isn’t the case. If you use the good Medifast coupons, your cost per meal for Medifast is just over $2 per meal. It’s extremely difficult to come up with meals that costs less than this, especially since you will need a lot of specialty ingredients. I tried something similar when I was on the zone diet. Not only do I think that I never ever got close to the calorie to carb to protein ratio of Medifast, but I also know that I spend a lot more than $10 per day for 6 meals.

That’s not to say that if money isn’t an issue and you just like to cook that you can’t come up with something that has a low amount of calories and carbs while packing in high amounts of fiber and protein. I’m sure that this probably is possible for at least a few meals per day. But, I also suspect that it would be quite time consuming, expensive, and challenging. However, I’m generally someone who doesn’t have a lot of patience and who prefers convenience.

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Source by Lindsey Price

Role Of Food Service Consultants

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If you have ever received bad service in a restaurant, you know that it can be a sales killer for any restaurant business. However, if you desire to have your restaurant be among the better restaurants in town and you aspire to be the best in your niche, then, providing great service is one of the best ways to earn a strong reputation. And one person that can help you deliver great is a professional food service consultant. The professional food service consultant can advise and give you the guidance you on the proper service techniques for your concept and assist in training how to deliver great service.

Providing great service is complex and needs all departments to coordinate their training and to achieve great service. It effects each food service departments such as banqueting, catering, room service and kitchen. Good food and beverage managers learn how to organize each of these departments to achieve great service.

Providing great service in hotels is even more complicated because there are so many departments involved. Every department imaginable including housekeeping, human resources and purchasing can have an impact on service. Different types of hotels have different food service needs as well. Little wonder that providing great service is so complicated. Food service consultants are the experts who know exactly what is needed by different restaurants.

Food service consultants play an active role in recipe development. They take on a number of services like:

– Development of food products

– Compilation and preparation of recipes

– Developing new ideas for recipes

– Innovating new product range

– Product management from planning to cooking and presentation

– Analyses of the market

– Analyses of competitors

– Recipe development

– Menu development advice and planning

– Catering

– Product tasting and evaluation

– Food styling and presentation

– Food recommendations

In addition to the above, food service consultants also focus on the nutritive value of foods so that the restaurant can serve foods that appeal to a large number of customers. Food consultants can even provide food specific nutrient analysis to show the exact number of calories, protein, carbs and vitamins in particular foods. This is important as many people are becoming more health conscious. A well trained food consultant can help you modify your recipes so that they are flavorful, visually appealing and nutritious.

Along with recipe development, good food consultants also can support the training of your people.

Therefore, if your restaurant business seems to be lagging behind and you just don’t know what to do, consider contacting a professional food consultant to assist in supporting your needs. You could also depend on food and beverage consultants to produce attractive pictures and sales materials for the restaurant.

Great food and service is an integral component to your restaurant business. A restaurant with excellent food service is the foundation for popular.

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Source by Alice M Shown

Photosynthesis – Food Chain

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What do plants and animals need to grow?

Almost all plants and animals need air, water, light, and nutrition to grow. Green plants use a complicated chemical process, called photosynthesis, to create energy for survival and growth. Since plants create their own energy, they are the first link in the food chain. Animals need to drink water and eat plants or other animals to get energy. Therefore, they are present at the next step in the food chain. There are some animals, like camels, that can survive for days without drinking water. Since they live in deserts with very little water, they have adapted to the special conditions of their habitat.

How do plants get food?

Unlike animals, plants produce their own food and except for a few carnivorous plants, do not eat other organisms. Green plants use water, nutrients, and a green matter in their leaves called ‘chlorophyll’ to produce their food. Normally water and nutrients are absorbed from the ground through their roots. Some plants, however, have developed other methods for obtaining water and nutrients. Many plants make funnel-shaped ‘containers’ with their leaves to catch water. Carnivorous plants use their digestive juices to convert the insects, caught in their folding or sticky traps, into nutrients.

What happens when we keep plants in the dark?

In the absence of light, plants shed their leaves and die, leaving only their roots and stems. Plants grow slowly at night and in winters. Most animals are also dependent on light, although some have adapted to their dark habitats. For example, the moles living below the ground are almost blind because they do not need their eyes underground. We humans also need sunlight to help produce vitamin D in our skin, which in turn is needed for building bones. We will also lose time if it is pitch dark around us for very long.

What is photosynthesis?

The chloroplast inside the green leaves of plants is the ‘workshop’ where photosynthesis takes place. Water is supplied to the leaves by the roots, and carbon dioxide is absorbed from the air through tiny pores on the lower side of the leaf. Both these are broken down into the elements hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen with the help of chlorophyll and sunlight. Plants build ‘glucose’ (grape sugar) from these elements and oxygen is released in the atmosphere as a by-product. Photosynthesis has been the source of oxygen in the air since the origin of life on the Earth.

How do camels survive long voyages in the desert?

Camels can manage for about two weeks without drinking water because they can store up to 150 litres of water in their bodies. Fat is also stored in their humps and this store of energy can sustain them for about 30 days without food. Furthermore, unlike most other mammals, camels can change their body temperature. At night they lower their body temperature considerably so that during the day the body warms slowly and they do not sweat much. Consequently, there is no loss of fluids early in the day.

What is the food chain?

In nature, there are ‘producers’ that build the biological mass, and ‘consumers’ that eat. Producers are the plants, which grow and create energy with the help of photosynthesis. They are eaten by a consumer, and that consumer is often eaten by another consumer. This chain of consumers is called the ‘food chain’. A short food chain is grass-cow-man. A longer one is algae-water flea-herring-seal-polar bear: A water flea eats algae, a herring eats many water fleas, a seal eats herrings, and the polar bear eats the seal. Ultimately, a lot of algae are needed to feed a polar bear. When the polar bear dies, its meat is either eaten by other animals or it is decomposed into nutrients by bacteria. These nutrients are again used by the algae to create energy, and thus the food chain gets completed.

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Source by Arun Mohan Das

Pizza Has All the Major Food Groups

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In this very hectic world, meal time can be such a hassle. It seems hard to squeeze in a balanced diet when you have to do so many things throughout the day. As such, people are always on the look out for quick meals that provide all the necessary nutrients in one bite. If this is the case with you, then you need not look further than the yellow pages. The complete meal has long been around that you are probably eating it more often than you notice. Still puzzled as to what this complete food is? It is none other than the pizza.

For many, pizza may just be a snack or junk food, a fattening substance of empty nutritive value. But contrary to this common notion, the pizza can potentially be a healthful meal that can be both filling and nutritious. While it is true that wolfing down six big slices of pizza in one sitting can definitely make one fat, eating it in the right amounts can just be as healthy as eating a serving of salad. What makes pizza so good is that it has all the food groups recommended by nutritionists and doctors for a proper nutrition.

Here is a run down of the types of food that can be found in most pizzas.

Pizza Has Grain

The basis of any pizza is the crust. It is the binder of the whole pie, where all the ingredients are situated. Crust is simply bread, which is usually made of flour. This is a rich source of carbohydrates which the body uses as fuel for its everyday function. The grain food group is also a good source of vitamins and minerals that are necessary for maintaining normal body processes. The pizza crust is also a source fiber, which is very necessary for maintaining the function of the digestive system.

Pizza Has Protein-Rich Foods

Pizza is rich in food products belonging to the meat group. The usual pizza can have pepperoni, Italian sausages, ground beef, ham and other meats. Some pizzas can even have chicken, veal, or lamb. These types of food are rich in protein, iron, and vitamin D, among many other vitamins and minerals. These nutrients are necessary for building muscle and developing tissue. These nutrients are also used for maintaining hair and skin.

Pizza Has Dairy Products

Aside from the crust, a typical feature of any pizza is the cheese. Nothing beats the chewy, oozing goodness of melted mozzarella on top of any pizza. Some pizzas even have other kinds of cheeses like cheddar, feta, and Gouda. Cheese, like other dairy products is rich in calcium and protein. Calcium is a necessary mineral for growing strong bones and teeth. It is also an important element for preventing diseases like osteoporosis.

Pizza Has Fruits

Another typical ingredient of a pizza is the tomato sauce. While most people would think that tomatoes are vegetables, it is basically a fruit. And like many nutritious fruits, tomatoes are rich in vitamin C, vitamin A, and other minerals. It is also a good source lycopene, which has been shown to help prevent cancer. Certain special types of pizzas also have other kinds of fruits. The Hawaiian style pizza has pineapple, which is another good source of vitamin C. Some Asian style pizzas have mandarin orange. There are even pizzas with avocado, which is a good source of essential fatty acids that increase the level of good cholesterol in the blood.

Pizza Has Vegetables

Pizzas also have healthy vegetables. Of course there is the vegetarian pizza that contains no meat and only vegetables. Such pizzas can very much be likened to salads and have almost the same, if not more nutrients. A pizza can have slivers of bell peppers. There can also be mushrooms. Some pizzas also have cabbage, lettuce, and other greens. Vegetables are rich in calcium, beta carotene, iron, and other vitamins and minerals.

Pizza has Oils and Sweets

Pizzas can be a good source of complex energy from fats. Authentic Mediterranean and Italian pizzas often have olive oil, which is known to be very good to the heart. Other types of oils may also be present depending on the type of pizza. Sweets can also be found in pizzas, especially those for kids.

Pizza Can Comprise a Complete Balanced Meal

If you are looking for a quick meal that is complete and healthy, then you may well be eating pizza. Of course like with any other food, it is best to keep everything in moderation. A slice or two would be fine for a meal, but a dozen may be too much. So the next time you order pizza for delivery, just be grateful for such a good and complete meal.

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Source by Susan Bell