• Removing the bran from millets results in decreasing the protein, dietary fibre, fat, mineral and phytate content in them while increasing the carbohydrates and amylose content, a recent paper in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Springer has shown. This could squander away the benefits of eating millets.
  • The article, Impact of debranning on the nutritional, cooking, microstructural characteristics of five Indian small millets, by Shanmugam Shobana et al makes a case for consuming millets as whole grain without de-branning. “Dehusked millets are nutritious and should be promoted in Indian diets to improve diet quality, debranned millets are nutritionally inferior, can increase the glycemic load of Indian diets,” the authors say.
  • The study was conducted by the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation (MDRF), Chennai, and the Indian Institute of Millet Research, Hyderabad.
  • Millets are high in minerals such as calcium, iron, phosphorus, and potassium, and they are an excellent source of phyto-chemicals such as phenolic compounds when compared with other major cereals (rice, wheat, maize), conferring a range of health benefits such as anti-aging, anti-carcinogenic, anti-atherosclerogenic, antibacterial, and antioxidant effects.
  • The Food and Agriculture Organization recognised 2023 as the International Year of Millets and the Indian government went all out to celebrate it.