Millet: The Main Reasons To Include It In Your Diet

Magnesium helps your body maintain normal nerve and muscle function and plays a very important role in heart health. A diet rich in magnesium helps to decrease blood pressure, risk of heart attack especially in individuals with atherosclerotic or diabetic heart disease. In fact a diet rich in magnesium has been associated with decreasing the risk of type 2 diabetes and improving glucose and insulin function.

As a good source of phosphorus millet also plays a role in repair and building of the body’s tissues, as it is one of the building blocks of cell membrane and the structure of nervous tissue. Phosphorus also has an important role in regulating energy and fat metabolism.

Millet also provides a good source of fiber to the diet. Increased fiber intake has been associated with lowering cholesterol and blood lipid levels, maintain a good weight, and decreased risk of intestinal cancers.

The best news is that there are so many easy ways to include millet in your weekly menu. Millet can be used as a porridge, as fluffy side dish alternative to rice, or mixed with rice and other grains for a pilaf or as leftovers in a tabbouleh type of salad… and we are just getting started.

A fun way to include millet in your normal routine is to pop it like popcorn and eat it as a healthy snack. The raw grains can be added to your favorite cookies or muffins for a healthy crunch. Millet flour has almost the same protein content as wheat flour and therefore is great for gluten free baking.