Eating is the ingestion of food. In biology, this is typically done to provide a heterotrophic organism with energy and nutrients and to allow for growth. 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 their bodies as opposed to animals that digest their food inside their bodies.
Amandines de Provence, poster by Leonetto Cappiello, 1900, which shows a woman eating almond cookies
Women eating biscuits in England
A girl eating a piece of cake
Eating with fork at a restaurant
A carnivore, or meat-eater, is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from the consumption of animal tissues whether through hunting or scavenging.
Lions are obligate carnivores consuming only animal flesh for their nutritional requirements.
Members of the plant kingdom can live on meat too, such as the Venus flytrap, a carnivorous plant.
The Bengal tiger's large canines and strong jaws reveal its place as an apex predator.
Lions are voracious carnivores; they require more than 7 kilograms of meat daily. A major component of their diet is the meat of large mammals, such as this buffalo.
