Millets for Food and Nutrition Security: A Review

Millets are a species of grass plants with small grains that have a remarkable ability to endure severe drought and play an important role in many regions of the country's dietary patterns. Millets possess an abundance amount of minerals, dietary fibre and phytochemicals which makes them nutritionally superior to conventional food grains. Millet also has a high antioxidant capacity and nutraceutical content, which can help prevent oxidative stress-related disorders like diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. Millets have been shown to provide a variety of physiological benefits such as free radical scavenging activity, anti-inflammatory, antitumor, and anti-diabetic properties. Soaking, germination, malting, decortication, and boiling of millets serve to reduce anti-nutritional elements while improving digestibility and nutritional content. Millet is a potentially tremendous crop but under-explored as compared to cereals. Enhancing the consumption of millets would help in addressing the problem of nutritional security, hidden hunger and combating oxidative stress-induced disorders in developing countries.