Eating vegetables is good for your health. However, some may be even more beneficial. We are talking about ora-pro-nóbis, taioba and serralha. They are considered unconventional food plants (Pancs) and are rich in essential minerals, such as iron, copper, zinc, manganese, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and potassium.According to a study by the University of São Paulo (USP), the vegetables mentioned above have a nutritional value comparable, or even higher, to the most famous ones. For example, they contain more protein than spinach.
Study reinforces the importance of encouraging vegetable production. The work analyzed unconventional food plants (Pancs) grown in different regions of São Paulo and Minas Gerais, raw and braised. The results were compared with data from the Brazilian Food Composition Table (TBCA) from USP and FoodData from the United States Department of Agriculture.
Ora-pro-nóbis, taioba and milkweed are resistant plants, found in different tropical regions, as they adapt to different types of soil, but require a lot of light. In Brazil, they are found mainly in the states of Bahia, Minas Gerais, Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul.
The foods were compared to spinach (Image: Shutterstock/alicja neumiler) Among the different Pancs, ora-pro-nóbis, taioba and serralha were chosen to carry out the research due to their growing popularity. Despite this, many native Brazilian plants are not part of the population's food group. This is partly due to the lack of information about its nutritional composition.
The study also supports the expectation that wild foods may have nutritional values comparable to, or even superior to, those of traditional foods. And this reinforces the importance of encouraging its production and consumption to expand the diversity of the Brazilian diet and meet nutritional demands.
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A diet rich in fruits and vegetables will help you sleep more, a study shows. Be careful when making this change: plant-based meat also carries health risks; understand Consuming this food at the right age can prevent neurological diseases Vegetables are rich in minerals (Image: Journal of Food Composition and Analysis) Foods are rich in nutrients No significant difference was observed between the concentrations of mineral nutrients and proteins in raw and cooked plants. The nutritional analysis of ora-pro-nóbis, taioba and serralha showed that the mineral and protein contents of these plants are, in most cases, equal to or higher than those of spinach. Among the plants analyzed, Taioba stands out, which has higher concentrations of minerals than conventional plants, with high levels of iron, copper, zinc, calcium and phosphorus. Although milkweed had lower levels of some mineral nutrients (manganese, magnesium and potassium) compared to conventional plants, other minerals (iron, copper, zinc, calcium and phosphorus) were the same or significantly higher. The study was published in the Journal of Food Composition and Analysis.