Add Health to Your Diet with Age Old Millets

Millets are coarse grains and rich in protein, fibre, vitamins, and minerals. The most common millets available are Jowar (Sorghum), Bajra (Pearl Millet), Ragi (Finger Millet), Korra (Foxtail millet), Sama (Little millet) and Variga (Proso millet). They have high nutritive value. Bajra and Sama contain high fat while Ragi has the lowest fat. They are rich in iron and phosphorus. Ragi has the highest Calcium content among all the food grains present. They are rich sources of B vitamins especially in Niacin, B6, Folic Acid, Calcium, Iron, Potassium, Magnesium, and Zinc.

Here are some health benefits of consuming the different variety of millets in your daily meals:

Antioxidant-rich

Millets are rich in phytochemicals known as polyphenols, which have strong antioxidant properties. Polyphenols flush out harmful free radicals from the body and prevent several potentially hazardous conditions ranging from heart disease to cancer.

Helps in sugar control

Millets have a low glycemic index and rich in soluble dietary fiber, enabling better sugar control and making them a diabetes-friendly cereal. Finger millet is a superfood with its high magnesium content – 408 mg per 100 gm of cooked grain, which meets the daily requirement of men (400-420 mg/day) and exceeds that for women (310-320 mg/day). Magnesium also boosts the efficiency of insulin receptors and decreases insulin resistance.

Good for our heart

As a good source of magnesium, millets help lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes caused by atherosclerosis – a condition where arteries become narrower due to fatty deposits on their inner walls. Millets also contain good amounts of potassium which is a heart-friendly mineral.

Preventive against cancer

Phenolics present in millets may help prevent the initiation and progression of many types of cancer, including breast and colon cancers. The anti-tumorigenic agents in finger millet have also been found to be particularly effective against chronic myeloid leukaemia.

Helps in maintain bone health

Finger millets contain 344 mg calcium (which is more than the amount of calcium present in milk). Calcium is our body’s bone-building mineral, without which our bones may become brittle and weak.

Helps in digestion

Millets, especially pearl millet, have a significant amount of resistant starch and soluble and insoluble fibre, which regulates your digestion process and prevents the food from moving too fast or too slow in your digestive tract.

Therefore, one should add a different variety of millets in our meals so that we will get the requisite amount of carbs, fibre and minerals. It is good to keep interchanging between foxtail, pearl, barnyard, finger, and kodo millets as to keep enjoying different health benefits of these old millets.

Personalized Diet Plan will help to add to the health.

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