Vol. 5, Issue 8 (2016)

Author(s):
Sarita and Ekta Singh

Abstract:
Millet is used as animal and bird feed but limited consumption by people in rural areas at household level due to lack of knowledge. To avoid malnutrition and certain chronic diseases, make improvement of the nutritive value of food and diet is best approaches with low-cost and locally available food formulations. For successful improvement of these attributes would be a crucial key to expand the spectrum of applications of millets. Millets have been found to have high nutritive values and are comparable to other major cereals like wheat and rice. Millets have uniqueness because of its richness in carbohydrate, protein, calcium, iron, dietary fibre, antioxidants and anti-nutrients. Millets can be used as nutraceutical and to produce healthier food for nourishing. Millet contains tannins, phytates, polyphenols, trypsin inhibitors and dietary fiber which considered as “anti-nutrients. Polyphenols considered as “life span essential” due to their role in maintaining body functions and health throughout end phase of the life. These have no known direct role in nutrition but have some health friendly properties like anti-oestrogenic, anti-mutagenic, anti-carcinogenic, antiviral effects, anti-inflammatory, platelet aggregation inhibitory activity that might be potential benefit in minimizing and preventing the incidence of diseases. Millet’s food can contributed to anti-oxidant activity, which play important role in health, aging and metabolic diseases. This study showed that millets are used as “food medicine”.