Why Vegetable and Fruit are important for human body?

The vegetables and fruits add colour and variety to our diets in addition to providing a host of essential nutrients and phytonutrients that help to prevent chronic degenerative diseases. The fruils are also high in potassium and help to establish a proper balance between the sodium and potassium content of our diets. An often-neglected group, this group provides for the water-soluble vitamins and minerals, so vital for the proper functioning of the body's various mechanisms. These delicious natural capsules of vitamins and minerals offer protection against many diseases, especially, heart diseases and certain types of cancer.

Most important is the fact that it offers a variety in terms of texture, colour and flavour and thus helps to avoid monotony in the meal. Green leafy vegetables are rich sources of various nutrients such as iron, calcium, p-carotene, folic acid and vitamin C, the amount being much more in the darker leaves. Their contribution to energy intake is very low, usually less than 2-3%. Yellow-orange coloured vegetables are rich in p-carotene. They must therefore be included at least four to five times in our diets. We can say adding colour to our diet will add colour to our life: The citrus fruit such as oranges, sweet-lime (mosmbi) and also, papaya and guavas are rich in vitamin C and the yellow-orange ones such as mango and papaya are rich in p-carotene. Fruits with high water content such as melons have low energy content, while dry fruits such as dates and raisins are high in energy.