Communities who live in rural locations often gather their vitamins and minerals from foods that are grown in the wild. Now, doctors are saying that the diet and nutrition habits of those who forage for foods such as roots, leaves and wild eggs could be vitally important, and something that we could all learn a lesson from.
These types of wild foods are often overlooked when considering the serious topic of maintaining a healthy diet for all, but they could be vital to wellness and wellbeing. When there are times of food insecurity, these types of food remain as a constant – a food that can be accessed by many.
A recent conference on Forests for Food Security highlighted the importance of these natural kind of wild foods, and emphasised the important role that these could play in bringing adequate nutrition to millions of people in food crisis. Unfortunately, as well as being vital, these food sources are also under threat, and it is important that they are recognised as important to wellbeing so that they can be protected for future generations.
Wild foods include nuts, mushrooms, leaves, fruits, roots, animals and animal products and eggs. Research carried out in Tanzania into the use and effects of wild foods showed that whilst these contributed just two percent to the amount of energy required in the daily diet, they contributed more than 30 percent of the requirement of vitamin A, 20 percent of the requirements for vitamin C, 19 percent of the iron requirement and 16 percent of calcium.
This shows that despite not being enormously helpful for dealing with problems of food shortages in terms of starvation, wild foods can be vital to help people maintain adequate nutrition when food is scarce.