Each food we eat is a chemical kaleidoscope of many different nutrients varying slightly from any other food. Even within the one type, there can be variations. A tomato, vine-ripened, can contain more vitamin C than one brought to maturity in a glasshouse. Orange juice left open to the effects of the air, will lose some of the same vitamin.

Around fifty essential nutrients have been identified in food, and while the body is able to synthesise and metabolise these elements, they must initially be consumed in order for the body to begin to make use of them.

How we choose to mix and match these foods has been the source of much pleasure and pain, experiment and error, throughout history.