Nutritional Value of Fruits and Vegetables

Fruits and vegetables are an integral component of a nutritious diet, providing essential vitamins and nutrients that may help protect against chronic illnesses like cancer and cardiovascular disease. According to the United States Department of Agriculture’s recommendations, people should aim to consume at least 50% of their daily food intake from fruits and vegetables.

Fruit and vegetable production provides livelihoods to many small-scale farmers, yet has significant environmental effects. Chemicals used in harvesting, handling, storing and transporting produce may damage soil, water quality and biodiversity; in addition, waste from inferior quality perishable products often results in significant food losses leading to overreliance on imports while further degrading natural resource bases.

Policy and Support for Producing Fresh Produce

Policy and support for producing fresh fruits and vegetables has historically been low compared to other staple crops. A number of factors have contributed to this, including limited research and development expenditure, poor policy focus, inadequate government extension investment and no comprehensive system in place to monitor consumption and production levels.

Consumption and Health

According to World Health Organization recommendations and other organizations, eating enough fruits and vegetables each day to meet nutritional requirements requires eating an array of different kinds. A minimum daily serving for fruit should consist of 1-1 1/2 cups (25-35g). Incorporating various colors and textures should provide optimal benefits from their consumption.

Vegetables are nutritional powerhouses, packed with vitality-boosting fiber, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals that fight oxidative stress and antioxidants that protect cells against further damage from free radicals. Furthermore, vegetables provide ample vitamin C which is key for controlling inflammation within blood vessels as well as increasing levels of nitric oxide gas that relaxes blood vessels.

Tomatoes, peppers and eggplant are among the many vegetables often classified as fruits by Merriam-Webster Dictionary. A fruit is defined as any plant with seeds or any substance produced from a plant that disseminates those seeds into the wider environment.

There is no single definitive answer when it comes to classifying tomatoes as either vegetables or fruits, although “fruit” tends to refer to plants with flowers and seeds while vegetables encompass everything from flowers and roots of a plant.

Fruits and vegetables differ most significantly when it comes to their chemical makeup. Vegetables contain many nutrient-rich compounds not present in fruits, including phytochemicals and vitamins that cannot be found there. Some vegetables contain higher caloric intake than others while still offering substantial fiber benefits and other nutritional advantages.

Vegetables are an essential source of dietary fibre, making them an important tool in weight management, heart disease prevention and some forms of cancer risk reduction. Eating more vegetables may increase HDL (good) cholesterol while simultaneously decreasing LDL (bad) cholesterol and triglycerides levels.