With the introduction of Mc Donald’s burger in USA towards the end of the twenty century the entire globe has entered into a new era of fast food. In the last two decades the consumer began to change their food pattern. Now a days people from our society more specifically the youth population are fond of western foods like pizza,burger,pasta,fries and cola characterized by the increase intake of calories,sugar, saturated fats and animal proteins and reduced consumption of fruits and vegetables. As a result of abruptly changing food pattern the occurrence of life style diseases like obesity,diabetes, cardiovascular disease etc become more common even in the child population.

In healthy diet intake of plant based foods such as fruits and vegetables,cereals, legumes and nuts plays an important role. Fruits and vegetables are a rich source of vitamins,minerals, dietary fibres and antioxidants which are usually present in very trace amount in other fruit source.

1. Vitamins- Fruits and Vegetables are the most common source of vitamin A and C in our diet.

Vit A is a fat soluble vitamin and it’s deficiency is responsible for night blindness in adult and irreversible blindness in children. Mostly orange or deep yellow fruits like carrot,papaya,mango etc are a rich source of Vit A whereas Vit C is a water soluble vitamin and responsible for normal development of bone and teeth. It’s deficiency leads to scurvy. All citrus fruits,guava, banana and leafy green vegetables are the rich sources of Vit C.

Iron – Iron is an essential micronutrient for the formation of haemoglobin. Vit C is an important cofactor to enhance the absorption of Vit C. Deficiency of Iron leads to anaemia. Leafy green vegetables,Potato,Tomato are rich source of iron.

Folic Acid- Folic acid is an another important phytochemical responsible for multiplication and maturity of RBC and it’s deficiency leads to mega blastic anaemia. All leafy green vegetables contain folic acid in sufficient amount.

Dietary fibre- Almost all fruits and vegetables contain dietary fibre. It’s deficiency leads to constipation,obesity and coronary disease.

Anti oxidants- Every day reactive oxygen species are produced in our body from various metabolic pathways and sometimes due to consumption of carcinogenic agents like tobacoo products. Reactive oxygen species may disturb the normal cell metabolism and responsible for their damage. It may lead to life threatening diseases like cancer and many forms of cardiovascular disorders. An important function of anti oxidants is to neutralize the  harmful effect of these reactive oxygen species. Polyphenols and Flavanoids are the two major group of anti oxidant present in fruits and vegetables. Phenolic compounds are usually present in the peel portion of the fruit and vegetables and responsible for it’s bitter taste. Leafy green vegetables, citrus fruits,berry fruits,tomato are the natural source of such anti oxidants. Scientific studies revel that the regular intake of anti oxidant rich fruits helps to prevent cancer, inflammatory joint disease, various forms of cardiovascular diorders, asthma and diabates.

In this concert age the world is moving so fast that we hardly get enough time to cook our own food. So many a times mostly during our lunch hour working men and women and students usually depends on fast food or processed meal. These fast foods and processed meal contains large amount of carbohydrate,fats and sodium and a minute amount of protein. But for a healthy life we should have balanced diet with vitamins and minerals. Lack of balanced diet is a major cause for the development of lifestyle diseases like diabates, obesity, hypertension,high cholesterol level in blood,coronary artery diseases etc. Mediterranean diet is an ideal model characterized by large consumption of plant products like fruits, vegetables,nuts, cereals and pulses. Pulses are a good source of plant protein whereas fruits and vegetables mostly meet the requirement of vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre, antioxidants and other micronutrients.

Usually in our eating pattern only fruits and vegetables are the natural source for most of the micronutrients. Therefore any well fed people lacking fruits and vegetables from the diet list may suffer from hidden hunger and other deficiency syndromes. In case of children such deficiency may effect the process of both growth and development.

Vitamins and antioxidants also play a crucial role in maintaining the immunity of an individual. Especially many polyphenols and flavanoids compounds are efficient to prevent the entry of disease causing viral strain into the host cell. Recent studies revel that some of these polyphenols and flavanoids are even effective against SARS-CoV-2.

ICMR(Indian Council of Medical Research) suggests that in our condition we should have on an average 100 gms of fruits and 300 gms of vegetables in our daily diet plan and in case of vegetables it’s more preferable to consume in salad form to prevent the cooking loss of nutrients. While choosing the fruits and vegetables for our diet we should go for maximum numbers of colours possible to get the optimum benifit. For fruits we can go for Apple,Banana,Orange,Guava,Plam,Peach etc and for vegetables we can go for Cabbage, Cauliflower,Spinach,Tomato,Papaya,Carrot,Brinjal etc. Unlike broccoli or strawberry these list of fruits and vegetables are cost effective also.

With the emerging importance of fruits and vegetables in our diet FAO(Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations) has decided to celebrate the present year of 2021 as the International Year of Fruits and Vegetables. In this new year let’s try something new, let’s fulfill a resolution of having sufficient amount of fresh fruits and vegetables in our daily diet from our own kitchen garden.