A detailed guide to food and nutrition, from the basic ingredients of a balanced, healthy diet to the technology of modern food production.An essential addition to the award-winning Eyewitness series, Eyewitness Food explores the myriad ways in which good affects our lives, from the role of microscopic vitamins, minerals, and bacteria, to the impact of modern industrial farming upon the environment. The book examines how we digest and absorb food, why some foods can cause allergies while others can remedy specific ailments, which foods make children hyperactive or tired and which promote a sense of wellbeing and calm. Eyewitness food charts the development of food from the origins of crop farming and selective breeding, through the ingenious methods found to pickle, cure, smoke, or can goods, to the invention of refrigeration and GM technology. The book looks at some of the great cuisines of the world, the future of food, and how production can keep ahead of the world's ever-increasing population.