Potential health benefits of millets as dietary supplement for diabetics

Nardev Singh, Pankaj Nainwal, Archana Dhyani, Shatakshi Lall, Sanjay Kumar

Graphic Era Hill University, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India

ABSTRACT

Whole grains like millet, brown rice, oatmeal, barley is part of the human diet since long, and they are shown to have a rich fiber content in them that results in slowing down the process of digestion which further helps in maintaining optimum level of sugar in the blood. They are rich source of phenolic acids, flavonoids, phytosterols, dietary fibers which help in the prevention of diabetes. The bioactive compounds present in millets could improve health by means of their antioxidant, antimicrobial and anti-carcinogenic activities. It is also alkaline forming grains that play an important role in the body immune system. Millets are underutilized grains despite the presence of high nutritional components as compared to other cereals. It would be worth to add millets in our daily diet to improve the health of diabetics of developing as well as developed countries. As millets have potential for preparation of healthy foods it required a promotion regarding their utilization. The objective of the present study is to collect the available information related to benefiting properties of millets to manage the diabetes.

Keywords:

Whole grains, Millets, Nutrients, Bioactive compounds, Diabetes