Nutritional enhancement of plant foods
The question of why it is necessary to improve the nutritional value of plant foods is
one that at first hand might seem difficult to justify. What evidence is there that this
is a problem? In the developed world there are no overt signs of malnutrition even
amongst strict vegans. The reasons for this are that many processed plant foods are
fortified with essential nutrients. Fortification is utilised to replace nutrients lost in
the heat processing of foods and through oxidation. Few vegetarians are dependent
on a single plant source to provide their basic nutritional needs. In addition,
vegetarians frequently consume vitamins as supplements and the growth in this
industry has been rapid. The fact that people are resorting to the consumption of
vitamins as supplements is are flection of their belief that more of a good thing will
result in an improvement in their health. This is a very dubious argument.
None the less, it is important to recognise that there commended intakes of nutrients,
that have been determined by expert groups of nutritionists, are based on the
evidence that a specific intake level for a nutrient is required to ensure healthy
growth and development. They do not reflect the growing body of evidence that
suggests different, and often higher, intakes of these same nutrients are required to
optimise health and lead to an active life through the prevention of chronic
degenerative diseases associated with ageing [1,2,3]. The critical issue is to determine
what intakes are required to optimise health rather than to compromise it.