Are Millets Panacea To World Hunger And Nutrition

Are Millets Panaceas For World Hunger And Health ? 

Millets have been part of our diets since the Neolithic period, grown along with rice and wheat. Rice came to southern India only 2,500 years ago; till then, millets were the only grain consumed.  In the literature of the Sangam period, roughly between the third century BCE and third century CE, a poem about two lovers that specifically mentions thinai or foxtail millets. “The girl has a thinai sweet for her lover and they sit down and enjoy it. “

The Government of India had  rightly sponsored the proposal for International Year of Millets (IYM) 2023 and this  has been  accepted by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). The declaration has been instrumental for the Government of India to be at the forefront in celebrating the IYM. 

Like amaranth and quinoa before it, millet – a hardy, gluten-free ancient seed – has become an "in" grain in recent years. Once dismissed as birdseed, millet can now be found sprinkled on top of mashed potatoes at top-rated restaurants, cooked into baby foods and generally extolled  its nutritious virtues. Some have even dubbed millet "the new quinoa."

This newly trendy grain was once far more prominent in human diets: It played a pivotal role in the rise of multi-crop agriculture and settled farming societies. one among many recent fervid entreaties to consume more of these ancient grains, repeats the oft-touted narrative around millets: their ability to thrive in harsh conditions with little water, the nutrition benefits they offer, their great taste and versatility, their link to ancient food cultures and traditions. 

But wait a moment, in all the boosting, what’s often overlooked is the fact that millets need to be seen as a way to expand food diversity, rather than a super grain that has to immediately displace the more prevalent rice and wheat.

It is good that millets are in the focus  these days. The Millet Mission was launched in Chandigarh to promote consumption in schools. Many  countries also offered to produce millet, for example Guyana has recently offered 200 acres to India for millet production.

Admittedly, some of the brouhaha is justified. This highly varied group of small seed grasses is more nutritious than all-purpose wheat flour and white rice, with a lower glycemic index, higher fibre content and many micronutrients and antioxidants. It is a healthful grain choice in an age of lifestyle diseases such as obesity, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and diabetes. Overall, they are an excellent choice for those looking to include more nutritious foods in their diet. Switching to millets may also help reduce the carbon footprint as their production is more sustainable and has a lower environmental impact.

Having said that, blindly substituting rice and wheat with vast quantities of millet is not advisable. There are many valid reasons why millets should be promoted. However, simply replacing other grains with millets without taking a critical perspective of nutrition will lead to more challenges than solutions. Food is an extremely subjective and individual matter; we have to realise that everything doesn’t work for everyone.

Like wheat and rice, millets belong to the ecologically dominant Poaceae, or the grass family, one of the largest families of flowering plants, occupying nearly a quarter of the world’s vegetation. Millets, mostly consumed in Asia and Africa and widely associated with birdseed in America, are extremely diverse. There are over 20 species; nine are grown in India, that includes ragi  or finger millet , bajra or Pearl Millet and thinai or foxtail millet.

The Green Revolution of the 1960s,

which leveraged technology to increase food production and make the country self-sufficient, focused on high-yielding varieties of rice and wheat, impacting grain diversity. The minimum support price (MSP) intervention for rice and wheat by the Union government to protect farmers also contributed to the decline.

Over the last decade, attempts by state governments—Karnataka and Odisha, notably—have been helping bring millets back to the table. From a global stand- point, highlighting the benefits of ancient grains like quinoa, faro and teff has been the zeitgeist of the nutrition world. And millets, often positioned as the Indian alternative to quinoa, have been a vital part of these conversations.

You might have recently noticed that Supermarket shelves are  stacked with millets, from raw to sugary cereals, but you don’t need to immediately switch to ragi dosas and bajra rotis at all meals unless you actually enjoy the taste. If you are an urban Indian looking to drop a few pounds, swapping a bowl of rice for one of millets isn’t as important as ensuring you stay in a calorie deficit. While millets do have more soluble fibre, protein and anti- oxidants than rice, there is very little dif- ference between them from a calorific perspective. A cup (174g) of cooked millets provides 207 calories, while cooked rice provides around 206, If your primary goal is weight loss, then it doesn’t matter which one you pick.

Contrary to the reigning narrative, millets are not a high source of protein, containing 6-12g per 100g, only marginally higher than rice. Multiple studies have indicated that a staggering 70-80% of hit the recommended 0.8g of protein per kilogram of body weight for a sedentary adult. Millets, like legumes, may contribute to hitting your protein macros but they are no substitute for pure protein sources like eggs, meat, fish, dairy or soy.

The best part of Millets cultivation is that these are easy to grow . So from a food security and hidden hunger standpoint, cultivating, promoting millet is a welcome move. Millets require almost no inputs, grow even in extremely low fertility soils, don’t need deep ploughing, can be sown with minimal tools or machines, need only one weeding . Further,  millets are also fairly resistant to pests. They are also way hardier in storage.

But it is equally important to examine how rice and wheat are grown and processed before jumping on to the millet bandwagon to solve the lack of nutrition in our foods. Rice and wheat, in their ancient grain forms, were diverse, hardy and nutritious too,it was its  mass production and processing that have gradually reduced their nutritive value. Polishing grains, stripping off the bran layer, which is rich in minerals, fibres and essential fatty acids, makes them whiter and brighter, but also reduces it, primarily, to a concentrated source of car- bohydrates. Historically, millets have been spared this since they are usually processed using traditional techniques. But who knows it may also change overtime.  We have recently seen that most millet rices in the market today are stripped of their bran, just like paddy rice . Unless we process millets in traditional nutrition-conscious way, we will end up falling into the same trap we did with rice and wheat.