The global health crisis as a result of covid-19 demands fast and efficient response from global health care system. The evidence of nutrition-based interventions for viral diseases from past clinical trials, and its importance for optimizing the host immune response was reviewed in this paper. The immune system has involved in the protection of the host from pathogenic organisms, communicating molecules and functional responses. It is a known factor that nutrition plays key role in supporting the immune system as the role of nutrients feature prominently in a number of scientific literatures. Several clinical data showed that micronutrients like vitamins, including vitamins A, B6, B12, C, D, E and folic acid; trace elements including, zinc, iron, selenium, magnesium, copper and the omega-3 fatty acids like EPA & DHA play a major role in supporting the immune system. Inadequate intake of these nutrients is widespread resulting to a decreasing in resistance to infections and an increasing in diseases burden. Regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, the roles of nutrition for strengthening immune system for the patients to have strong resistant against the virus is also considered in this paper. It is believed that COVID-19 increases its severity or a host is susceptible to infectious disease once the immune system does not function optimally.

Legumes are important crops in human nutrition and considered as protein sources for low income populations due to the fact that they can be accessed at relatively lower price than animal products. In Ethiopia, the production of leguminous crops is increasing supported by generation of agricultural technologies by different research institutes. The improvement in the production is supported by pre-harvest information like agronomic characteristics, disease resistance, yield potentials and the like. Nutritional data are lacking in varietal selection for breeding and production and this is due to shortage of nutritional research in our country. Legumes contain sufficient amount of nutrients for both humans and animals. These crops are known for their significant source of protein, dietary fiber, carbohydrates, and dietary minerals. In addition to their proximate value, legumes also contain other very important biochemical compounds called phytochemicals which helps in either prevention or even treatments of certain chronic problems. On the other hand, legumes also contain different compounds which impair their nutritional value after consumption. These compounds are commonly called antinutritional factors and they are known to inhibit either digestion or absorption of nutrients by human body. Some of the anti nutritional factors are known to bind the different micronutrients available and reduce the bioavailability of some important minerals. Others, bind directly to the enzyme used in digestion of foods and inhibit the digestion process. This is why legumes are sometimes considered low nutritional value crops. Hence, it is mandatory for legumes to undergo certain processing like soaking, cooking, fermentation and the like before consumption so that the level of these anti nutrients will be reduced or possibly removed.

Kocho (flat bread) is one of the food products made from enset, a staple food consumed by about 20% of the Ethiopian population. It is good sources of minerals, vitamins and carbohydrate, but low in protein and fat contents. Formulation of kocho with protein and fat rich sources like soybean can makes it nutrient dense food. Thus, the study was aimed to formulate kocho with soybean flour and okara, and evaluate its nutritional value and sensory acceptance. Kocho was mixed with whole soybean and okara flours in seven different proportions. Five point hedonic scales and AOAC methods were used to evaluate the sensory quality and proximate analysis of kocho samples respectively. Sensory evaluation results showed that all the formulations were in the acceptable range. Moisture, ash, fat, protein, fiber and carbohydrate contents of kocho was

This study was conducted to evaluate the nutritional quality and sensory acceptability of porridge formulated from different proportions of finger millet (F. M.) and common bean (C. B.) composite flours. The objective of the study was to enhance nutritional quality of porridge by incorporating common bean flour in finger millet, and thus to enhance beans utilization in Ethiopia. The art of food formulation is currently the best way to complement the nutritional contents of cereals and legumes, and widely applied in developing countries. Functional properties and proximate compositions of the composite flours were characterized following AOAC method and Abiodun and Kusumayanti methods respectively. Five different porridges were prepared from different proportions of the flours using mixture design (50%F.