Nutritional and medicinal values of selected underutilized green leafy vegetables for nutritional security

Abstract

Green leafy vegetables are an important to include in daily diet. GLV contains fiber, essential vitamins and minerals such as iron, calcium and magnesium and added to daily diet. They also provide protection against diseases, like high cholesterol, heart diseases, and diabetes etc. Due to lack of awareness about nutritional importance of Green leafy Vegetables these are underutilized and discarded, feed to the domestic animals. Underutilized greens which are not in a daily diet. Underutilized greens contain nutritional potential which can lead towards nutritional security. Increasing the consumption of underutilized greens in our diet can be a food based approach for treating micronutrient deficiency. Most of the people is unaware about the nutritional benefits of underutilized green vegetables their use in preventing micronutrient deficiency and many products are prepared by them which are used in income generation and employment. Knowledge regarding underutilized greens may improve dietary behavior or nutrition knowledge, attitude and behavior is important to improve dietary practice and inclusion of underutilized green leafy vegetables in daily diet.