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Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans are omnivorous, and have hunted and killed animals for meat since prehistoric times.〔 The advent of civilization allowed the domestication of animals such as chickens, sheep, pigs and cattle, and eventually their use in meat production on an industrial scale. Meat is mainly composed of water, protein, and fat, and is usually eaten together with other food. It is edible raw, but is normally eaten after it has been cooked and seasoned or processed in a variety of ways. Unprocessed meat will spoil or rot within hours or days as a result of infection with and decomposition by bacteria and fungi. Most often, ''meat'' refers to skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as offal.〔 ''Meat'' is sometimes also used in a more restrictive sense – the flesh of mammalian species (pigs, cattle, lambs, etc.) raised and prepared for human consumption, to the exclusion of fish, other seafood, poultry or other animals.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 publisher=''Collins English Dictionary'' )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】 publisher=''Merriam-Webster'' )〕 Meat consumption varies worldwide, depending on cultural or religious preferences, as well as economic conditions. Vegetarians choose not to eat meat because of ethical, economic, environmental, religious or health concerns that are associated with meat production and consumption. == Etymology == The word ''meat'' comes from the Old English word ''mete'', which referred to food in general. The term is related to ''mad'' in Danish, ''mat'' in Swedish and Norwegian, and ''matur'' in Icelandic and Faroese, which also mean 'food'. The word ''mete'' also exists in Old Frisian (and to a lesser extent, modern West Frisian) to denote important food, differentiating it from ''swiets'' (sweets) and ''dierfied'' (animal feed). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「meat」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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