Functional foods in the northwestern Himalayan Region of India and their significance: a healthy dietary tradition of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh

The Himalayan mountain range in India is home to some of the most diverse ethnic communities and tribes, especially in the northwestern Himalayan range, which spans between the Indian provinces/states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. The rich and diversity of the local flora offers nutritional diversity and ensures therapeutic certainty for the local communities (e.g., Garhwali, Kumaoni, Bhotiya, Jaunsari, Gaddi, and Kinnauri). The local varieties of millet, legumes, leafy vegetables, tubers, and ferns in different forms (fresh, sundried, flour, pickled, or fermented) are commonly used to prepare different dishes and locally produced beverages (e.g., soor/sur, pakhoi/paakuyi, chhang, jann/jan, jhol, lugdi/lugri, etc.). This centuries-old indigenous experience, the knowledge of local flora, and the traditional food preparation are key to meeting the dietary demands of local communities. In addition, these local delicacies are also rich in health-benefiting bioactive molecules and have functional food properties, which are not documented yet. Therefore, this review closely examines the functional food properties of the traditional food prepared in the Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh regions and provides the scientific evidence to preserve this rich dietary traditions.