Eating (also known as
consuming) is the
ingestion of
food, typically to provide a heterotrophic
organism with
energy and to allow for . Animals and other
heterotrophs must eat in order to survive —
carnivores eat other animals,
herbivores eat plants,
omnivores consume a mixture of both plant and animal matter, and
detritivores eat
detritus. Fungi digest organic matter outside of their bodies as opposed to animals that digest their food inside their bodies. For humans, eating is an
activity of daily living. Some individuals may limit their amount of nutritional intake. This may be a result of a lifestyle choice, due to
hunger or
famine, as part of a
diet or as religious fasting.