Millets, Fermentation, and Health

Millets are small grains or cereal crops cultivated in many parts of the world categorized into major and minor millets. These are grown in hilly, semi-arid, and mountainous regions and these are pretty resilient to many agroclimatic conditions like poor rainfall and soil fertility. Millets are embedded with adequate amounts of nutrition such as macronutrients and micronutrients, including vitamins, polysaccharides, phytochemicals, and dietary fibers, because of which they are called nutri-cereals. Of late, there is a significant surge in attention towards millets due to its nutritional values and bioactive molecules embedded with health benefiting properties. Fermentation of millets, on the other hand, with single organism or in combination with other organisms would yield specific or diverse bioactive peptides and metabolites, which would promote health. Besides, fermentation is a low-cost process which augments nutritional value of the food and indirectly presumed to protect the environment. Millets are also used in production of distilled beverages, targeted for consumers looking for gluten free and low caloric drinks. High content of polysaccharides, phytochemicals and dietary fibers in millets has beneficial effects on lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, gastrointestinal issues, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, cardiovascular diseases, and even good weight loss. Furthermore, millets could be exploited by pharmaceutical and nutraceuticals industries. Hence, millets can be called as “savior” of human from malnutrition related illnesses and lifestyle diseases.