Nutritive Value of Fruits and Vegetables: Minerals and Vitamins
The nutritional advantage of fruits and vegetables is that they offer high concentration of micronutrients for a low expenditure of calories and fat. Virtually every national report of diet and health recommendations, recommend an increase in fruit and vegetable consumption to replace foods higher in calories and fat.
Fruits and vegetables are rich sources of vitamins, particularly A and C. It has been estimated that these crops provide 91% of the vitamin C and 62% of the vitamin A consumed in US alone. It should be noted that the importance if a fruit and vegetable as a source of a nutrient is a function of both the concentration of that nutrient and the amount of that item is consumed. Thus carrots, leafy greens vegetables, and sweet potatoes are good sources of vitamin A by virtue of their high concentration of the nutrient. Likewise, citrus fruits, pepper and tomatoes are good sources of vitamin C because of high concentrations. Potatoes while lower in vitamin C concentration are also good source of the nutrient because of the large amount of potatoes consumed. In addition, certain crops are good sources of folic acid, niacin, thiamin, and vitamin B6.
Fruits and vegetables are relatively high in mineral content, particularly potassium, magnesium, iron and calcium. Unfortunate, the amount of these minerals in plant products is not good indication of their nutritive value. The bioavailability of these micronutrients is more important that the actual concentration and the bioavailability of minerals in fruits and vegetables tend to be low, primarily because of the presence of interfering substance. Bioavailability of nutrients depends on the chemical form of the nutrients and the presence of interfering substance.
Nutritive Value of Fruits and Vegetables: Minerals and Vitamins
