In
nutrition,
diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other
organism.
Dietary habits are the habitual decisions an individual or culture makes when choosing what foods to eat. With the word
diet, it is often implied the use of specific intake of
nutrition for
health or
weight-management reasons. Although humans are
omnivores, each culture and each person holds some food preferences or some food taboos, due to personal tastes or ethical reasons. Individual dietary choices may be more or less healthy. Proper nutrition requires the proper ingestion and absorption of
vitamins,
minerals, and
food energy in the form of
carbohydrates,
proteins, and
fats. Dietary habits and choices play a significant role in
health and
mortality and can also define cultures and play a role in
religion.