The vegetable garden in the tropics - Journey to Forever

(1)
All figures are approximate averages
Leaf vegetables: amaranth, cassava, kangkong, taro
Fruit vegetables: eggplant, okra, sweet pepper, tomato
Seed vegetables: peanut, cowpea, pigeon pea, soy bean
(2)
The required daily energy (2,500 kilocalories) can be taken as carbohydrates
or fat.
(3)
Only peanuts and soy beans contain fat.
We see that fruits and vegetables can contribute considerably to good
nutrition. When people cultivate their own garden they enrich their diet
with several nutrients. The addition of vitamins and minerals is very
important, as other foodstuffs are often short of these nutrients. Fruit
and vegetables also make the basic diet more appetizing, and they improve
digestion.
Table 1 shows that the nutritive value of animal products is also high.
For example they contain a high proportion of high quality proteins.
Unfortunately these products are often very expensive. A mixture of
several vegetables (e.g. leaf vegetables and seed vegetables) can provide
a diet of a quality comparable to that of the best animal products. It
should be mentioned that, contrary to common opinion, European vegetables
(lettuce, cabbage) are not more nourishing than tropical vegetables.
The daily needs of vegetables are normally about 150 to 250 grams per
person, of which at least 50 grams (a handful) should be leaf vegetables.
This means a consumption of 55 to 90 kg per person per year. It is particularly
important that growing children and breastfeeding mothers
consume sufficient quantities of vegetables (especially leaf vegetables)
and fruit.
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The vegetable garden in the tropics