From Seed to Seed:
Plant Science for K-8 Educators

Plant parts we eat

Of course no discussion about "Plants and People" would be complete without mentioning plants as food. And, truthfully, this is the part of the "Plants and People" section that you are most easily able to explore with your students, especially since the National Science Education Standards encourage teachers to inform students about proper nutrition. All of our food comes directly or indirectly from plants. Either we eat plant parts-like fruits and grains-or we feed plants to animals. The animals use the energy contained in the plants to build muscle (meat), lay eggs, or produce milk.

There are many ways to organize the subject of plants as food. We can categorize foods by plant parts-for example, which foods are leaves and which are seeds. Or we can create categories based on each food's qualities. Is it rich in fat? Protein?

Or we can use a third approach. Let's look at the major components of food we eat, and see what role those substances play in the plant body. Then we can make the connection to the value we derive from plants.