Ever since 2023 was declared as the ‘International Year of the Millets’ by the United Nations, following a proposal by India for the same, there has been a heightened interest in knowing about the advantages of this unique family of cereals. While some of the advantages of millets are better known, some of them are unknown to even people of India and Africa, where these small-seeded grasses are found as native crops. The three main millets grown in Africa, India, and elsewhere in Asia are sorghum (jowar in Hindi), pearl millet (bajra in India), and finger millet (ragi).
Dr. Biju K S Senior Medical Officer, Vieroots Wellness Solutions discusses the lesser known benefits of millets.
Millets are Lectin Free
This is one of the most profound but lesser known benefits of millets. Unlike our staple cereals like rice and wheat, millets like jowar, bajra & ragi have little to no lectin content. Lectins are a natural family of compounds found in most cereals, which evolutionary science says have been put there to discourage insects from eating them. Lectin content in high-consumption foods like rice and wheat has been implicated in recent studies as a prime reason by which even pure vegetarian foods can act as pro-inflammatory agents inside the human body, by causing a leaky gut. The biohacking bestseller, ‘The Making of a Superhuman’ by noted biohacker Sajeev Nair has extensive information on lectins and why you should avoid or limit their consumption.
Millets are Prebiotic
This is also one of the lesser known benefits of millets like jowar, bajra & ragi. Prebiotics are those natural compounds in diet which act as food for our beneficial gut microbes. The main prebiotic is fibre and millets are especially rich in dietary fibre, with one serving of jowar and ragi enough to meet nearly half of a person’s recommended daily intake of fibre. Unlike probiotics, which we may not need regularly, we need such prebiotic fibre on a daily basis. More and more studies are coming up regularly that shed light on how a thriving gut microbiome is a most powerful defence against a host of lifestyle diseases, both physical like diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular diseases, as well as psychological issues like depression and anxiety.
Millets Fight Diabetes
Most millets are of low glycemic index compared with staple cereals like rice and wheat. Low glycemic foods release their glucose content or calories only slowly, and hence help in avoiding the sugar spike in diabetics that happen soon after a meal. Two of the common millets, bajra and ragi, are especially beneficial for diabetic patients, prediabetic patients, as well as those ardent about avoiding type 2 diabetes in their lives. Even though jowar has a glycemic index comparable to wheat, it is still superior for diabetic patients as its carbohydrate content is mainly as slowly digestible starch (SDS). No wonder then that there have been studies that show that people who consume millets regularly in place of other grains, have HbA1c levels that are nearly 20% lower than those who eat rice and wheat.
Millets are Heart Healthy
Replacing grains with millets is heart healthy in quite a few ways. They inhibit the absorption of excess cholesterol from food and can also lower the triglyceride levels in the body. They also fight weight gain and obesity as they deliver a high level of satiety compared with rice or wheat based foods. Millets are also relatively dense of heart healthy nutrients, compared with the more commonly consumed grains, especially rice. Their low glycemic index, prebiotic nature and lectin free status also augur well for reducing the risks of developing heart disease.
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Millets are Great for Personalized Diets
Diets that have been personalized according to each person’s genetic and metabolic uniqueness have the most profound impact among all lifestyle modifications. Today it is possible to discover the perfect personalized diet for yourself through geno-metabolic assessments like EPLIMO, which formulates diets according to the principles of nutrigenomics. And dieticians and nutritionists have a great ally in millets, when formulating such diets. For instance, a person who is geno-metabolically at risk for both osteoporosis and cardiac disease can be advised to take ragi instead of milk, as it is one of the richest sources of calcium and heart healthy too. As another example, someone who tends to get bloated with high fibre content but is susceptible to iron deficiency can be suggested bajra as it has relatively low fibre content among millets and the highest iron content.
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