Millets Vs Diabetes, Obesity and Malnutrition

A land that gave Yoga to the world is now competing for the title "Diabetes Capital of the world". With 63+ million Indians suffering from Diabetes in 2012, and projected to be around 80+ million in 2030 we are just behind China which has about ~92 million patients today.

This part would try to understand the relation between Diabetes and absence of Millets from our kitchen shelves. Now lets look at some basics:

• Our body performs best when our blood sugar is kept relatively constant. If our blood sugar drops too low, we become lethargic and/or experience increased hunger. And if it goes too high, our brain signals our pancreas to secrete more insulin. Insulin brings our blood sugar back down, but primarily by converting the excess sugar to stored fat. Also, the greater the rate of increase in our blood sugar, the more chance that our body will release an excess amount of insulin, and drive our blood sugar back down too low.

• Therefore, when we eat foods that cause a large and rapid glycemic response, we may feel an initial elevation in energy and mood as our blood sugar rises, but this is followed by a cycle of increased fat storage, lethargy, and more hunger!

• Although increased fat storage may sound bad enough, individuals with diabetes (diabetes mellitus, types 1 and 2) have an even worse problem. Their bodies inability to secrete or process insulin causes their blood sugar to rise too high, leading to a host of additional medical problems.

So in short it is better to consume foods that does not vary the sugar content in blood rapidly which means foods that are with low Glycemic Index (GI) are good for our health.

The other problem we have is the sense of satiation after eating food which is often missing with certain types of junk food. Hence we tend to eat more. Invariably most of the foods are with high GI and hence we are constantly in this loop of abusing our body to produce more and more insulin and as we age, our body throws up its hand in air to produce insulin and we end up with Type 1/2 type diabetes.

So one of the secrets of healthy living is to ensure that we eat foods that offer low GI, better satiation / feeling of fullness with high nutrition. Nothing fills this requirement than Millets at a cost which much lower than any other food item in the market. Because it is pretty filling we don't feel like eating very often. Because it is very nutritious it can address the issue of malnutrition effectively. (you can refer to the 5 part article here.) Hence, Millets addressed problems of obesity, malnutrition and diabetes in one stroke.

The more i think about this, i am convinced that the secret to our ancestors healthy life  is hidden deeply with Millets in their kitchen shelves which have disappeared now. You can google about GI and the ratings of commonly available food items to convince yourself about this.

My sincere request would be to ensure that your food contains at least 50% Millets in the daily dosage and please do not consume a wholly wheat or rice based menu.

I conclude that "We are what we eat"!!

Article by Rags Gopalan...

PS; Shall recommend you this site for further reading http://nutritiondata.self.com/