enemies and attract friends with colors, tastes, and scents, all chemical inventions that have shaped our ideas of beauty and deliciousness And they protect themselves from the common chemical stresses of living with substances that protect us as well So when we eat vegetables and fruits and grains and spices, we eat the foods that made us possible, and that opened our life to a kaleidoscopic world of sensation and delight Human beings have always been plant eaters For a million years and more, our omnivorous ancestors foraged and lived on a wide range of wild fruits, leaves, and seeds Beginning around 10,000 years ago they domesticated a few grains, seed legumes, and tubers, which are among the richest sources of energy and protein in the plant world, and can be grown and stored in large quantities This control over the food supply made it possible for many people to be fed reliably from a small patch of land: so cultivation of the fields led to settlement, the first cities, and cultivation of the human mind On the other hand, agriculture drastically reduced the variety of plant foods in the human diet Millennia later, industrialization reduced it even further Fruits and vegetables became accessory, even marginal foods in the modern Western diet Only recently have we begun to understand how the human body still depends for its long-term health on a various diet rich in fruits and vegetables, herbs and spices Happily, modern technologies now give us unprecedented access to the world’s cornucopia of edible plants The time is ripe to explore this fascinating — and still evolving — legacy of natural and human inventiveness This chapter is a general introduction to the foods that we obtain from plants Because there are so many of them, particular fruits and vegetables, herbs and spices are described in subsequent chapters Foods derived from ...fields led to settlement, the first cities, and cultivation of the human mind On the other hand, agriculture drastically reduced the variety of plant foods in the human diet Millennia later, industrialization reduced it... even further Fruits and vegetables became accessory, even marginal foods in the modern Western diet Only recently have we begun to understand how the human body still depends for its long-term health on a various diet rich... The time is ripe to explore this fascinating — and still evolving — legacy of natural and human inventiveness This chapter is a general introduction to the foods that we obtain from plants Because there are so many of them, particular fruits