Archive for 14. July 2011

Drumstick Vegetable

Moringa and other highly nutritious plant resources: Strategies, standards and markets for a

better impact on nutrition in Africa. Accra, Ghana, November 16-18, 2006

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NUTRITIONAL POTENTIAL OF DRUMSTICK LEAVES: AN INDIAN

PERSPECTIVE

Dr Vanisha S. Nambiar

Department of Foods and Nutrition

A WHO-Collaborating Center for Nutrition Research

The Maharaja SayajiRao University of Baroda

Vadodara 390002. Gujarat. India.

Email: vanisha_nam@yahoo.com

In today’s world, a double burden of malnutrition is the concern of the nutritionists, as we

see under nutrition as well as over nutrition on the rise in both the developed as well as

the developing countries. Both macro as well as micronutrient deficiencies hinder the

national economic development as well as the development of individual human

potential. Children are frequently the victims of micronutrient deficiencies and failure to

overcome micronutrient malnutrition in a sustainable fashion jeopardizes a nation’s

future.

Amongst the malnutrition in children, the most significant ones are the deficiencies of

Vitamin A (VAD), iron, calcium and folic acid. These nutrient deficiencies are generally

referred to as the “diseases of poverty in the midst of plenty”. Especially, in a bio-diverse

country, like India, where, there are plenty of plant foods available at low-cost but are

underutilized. Therefore, identification of locally available, cheap and nutritious foods is

the call of the hour. This alone is the logical and sustainable strategy to avoid both

nutritional deficiencies as well as diseases due to macro-nutrient excess.

To bring about dietary modification, it is important to both improve the availability of

plant foods. Various approaches have been suggested, these include a) Nutrition

education for communication to improve practices related to consumption of available

plant foods, often using a social marketing approach. b) Horticultural interventions. c)

Economic/food policies affecting availability, price and effective demand of nutritious

plant foods. d) Technological advances concerning food preservation, plant breeding, etc.

Out of these the food-based strategies :

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