CHAPTER SIX

Plant-Source Foods

Leveraging Crops for Nutrition and Healthy Diets

Erick Boy, Inge D. Brouwer, Jen Foley, Natalia Palacios, Samuel Scott, and Victor Taleon

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Plant-source foods deliver energy and important nutrients, but policies and investments are needed to improve production and consumption of these foods, especially among vulnerable populations

OVERVIEW

Food crops are key components of sustainable healthy diets. These crops, which include fruits, vegetables, and nutrient-enriched and whole grain staples, deliver energy and high concentrations of health-promoting vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, and dietary fiber.
Unhealthy diets are the leading behavioral risk factor for diet-related noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and a major contributor to globally prevalent micronutrient deficiencies. Dietary improvements can meaningfully reduce NCD-related deaths and help address deficiencies in essential nutrients.
Consumption of fruits and vegetables remains inadequate among many at-risk populations due to limited availability, affordability, and taste preferences, among other factors.
Access to affordable and high-quality food crops for the poor in low- and middle-income countries is a global equity, health, and sustainability challenge. Seasonality, perishability, price instability, and household incomes, among other factors, shape the production of and access to non-staple food crops; consumption of staple crops remains relatively stable.
Proven technologies, such as biofortification and some postharvest food processing techniques, can be scaled up to leverage crops for sustainable healthy diets.

To improve the contribution of plant-source foods to sustainable healthy diets, it is important to:

Promote policies and accessible technologies that produce and supply more nutritious crops and foods, along with behavioral strategies that shift demand and consumer actions toward a sustainable healthy diet.
Promote production and consumption of biofortified or fortified staple foods as complementary nutrition strategies where needed. These foods can be an equitable and affordable means of delivering nutrients to especially vulnerable populations, including women and children.
Prioritize investments in crop diversity that can lead to increased accessibility, affordability, and appeal of safe and healthy diets when carried out alongside upgrades to market infrastructure and nutrition and hygiene education among farmers, value chain actors, and consumers.
Create an enabling environment, supported by government and financial commitments, for scaling up crop-focused initiatives that can achieve nutrition and climate goals through holistic and context-specific multisectoral interventions that span agriculture, food, trade, and social protection.

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