CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0       Background of the Study

Food insecurity remains a significant international problem, with developing regions of the world enduring most of the burden. Food insecurity results in considerable health, social, psychological and behavioural consequences and is undeniably linked to poverty. Despite international commitment, the number of food insecure individuals remains unacceptably high (Bandies University, 2000). There is lack of sustainable physical and economic access to enough, safe, nutritious and socially acceptable food for a healthy and productive life all over the world, and in Nigeria in particular at national and household levels (Aliyu, 2005). In Nigeria, as in many developing countries, malnutrition is caused by many factors among which is the long standing moderate food shortage coupled with sub-optimal use of traditional food sources.

Traditional foods were defined by Kuhnlein and Recevour (1996) as food from a particular culture available from local resources and culturally acceptable as appropriate and desirable foods. Traditional plant foods have also been defined as those plants which are accepted by a community through customs, habit and tradition as appropriate and desirable foods. They are grown for food within the farming system in any particular locality or gathered in wild or semi wild condition. They can be divided into two groups: those consumed as traditional dietary staples and those consumed as components of accompanying relishes and sauces. They include a large variety of legumes, oils seeds, fruits and vegetables (FAO, 1995). Kuhnlein (2003) also reported that traditional foods contain a wealth of micronutrients that have been poorly described and reported in scientific literature. Understanding the micronutrient contents of species in our traditional food system would be an essential step towards the goal of building health promoting activities that could incorporate these foods into commonly used staples, thereby alleviating micronutrient malnutrition that constitute the most wide spread form of malnutrition in the world.

In Nigeria there are lots of cheap nutritious and readily available food crops (e.g. mushroom) which could be adequately processed and used as food fortificant to improve the already existing recipes such as porridges, snacks or even soups. Nutrition transition is taking place very much faster and in some cases with extreme rapidity (Reddy & Yusuf, 1998). The nutrition transition is marked by a shift from relatively monotonous diets based on indigenous staples towards more varied diets that include more preprocessed food, more food of animal origin, processed drinks and foods.  This is inevitable consequence of urbanization. The effect of relatively dense diet and physical inactivity has increased the incidence of obesity and other diet related chronic diseases (Reddy & Yusuf., 1998). 

1. 1. This material content is developed to serve as a GUIDE for students to conduct academic research work
2. 2. As a source for additional understanding of the subject.
3. 3. As a source for ideas for your own research work (if properly referenced).
4. 4. For PROPER paraphrasing (see your university definition of plagiarism and acceptable paraphrase)
5. 5. Direct citing (if referenced properly)
Thank you so much for your respect to the authors copyright.