Millet can actually lower blood sugar and prevent type 2 diabetes?

India, China and the United States have the largest number of people with diabetes. Africa will see the largest increase in the number of people with diabetes from 2019 to 2045, at 143%, with the Middle East and North Africa at 96% and Southeast Asia at 74%. Asia and Africa as a whole are hard-hit areas for diabetes.

On July 29, researchers from India, the United Kingdom and Japan found in the largest analysis to date of different types of millet and other grains that millet is very effective in managing and preventing type 2 diabetes, controlling blood sugar levels better than other crops.

At first glance, this result is a bit unexpected. After all, millet has a relatively high glycemic index and contains a lot of starch.

Millet (also known as millet) is the earliest crop originated in the Yellow River Basin of China. It is also one of the "five grains" of my country's traditional grain crops. It has a 5,000-year cultivation history and has always been the main grain crop in ancient my country.

Millet is drought-tolerant and therefore very easy to grow. As the saying goes, "If you plant a grain of millet in spring, you will harvest 10,000 grains in autumn."

With the development of technology, millet has long been removed from the position of staple food, and has been replaced by rice, wheat and corn.

However, millet’s high fiber, polyphenol and antioxidant content cannot be replaced by other crops. This property helps control blood sugar levels.

Many studies have shown that millet is particularly effective in improving glycemic control, reducing fasting and postprandial blood sugar level rise, lowering insulin index and insulin resistance, and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels.

Compared to other grains like corn, rice and refined wheat flour, millets have a lower glycemic index.

[How was this study conducted? Are the results credible? ]

For the study, the researchers reviewed 80 published human studies, 65 of which were eligible for meta-analysis and involved approximately 1,000 human subjects, making it the largest systematic review on the topic to date.

The results of 21 studies using millet as experimental food all showed that short-term consumption had no significant effect on fasting blood sugar levels, but postprandial blood sugar levels were significantly reduced. However, long-term consumption of millet has a positive effect on lowering fasting blood sugar levels, with patients reducing their average fasting blood sugar levels by 16 mg/dL (from 134 mg/dL to 117.9 mg/dL) and their postprandial blood sugar levels by 30 mg/dL (from 202 to 172 mg/dL), a 15% decrease, close to the normal level of diabetic patients.

In six long-term studies, long-term millet consumption in patients with diabetes reduced glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) compared with a control group consuming rice or with baseline levels during the intervention period.

However, this study is actually a meta-analysis, not an experimental verification, so the credibility of its results is questionable. Also, it should be noted that most of the studies counted here were conducted after an overnight fast, and millet and control food were introduced at breakfast, and fasting and postprandial blood sugar levels were measured.

Obviously, this approach cannot provide information on possible changes in glycemic responses after adaptation to millet.

[Why can millet lower blood sugar? 】

1. Some studies have shown that the formation of resistant starch in millet and the high fiber content in millet delay the hydrolysis of starch, thereby showing a low GI and its potential to lower blood sugar levels.

2. Compared with rice and wheat, millet contains a large amount of non-starch polysaccharides (such as dietary fiber), which reduces the activity of enzymes in the intestine, resulting in the inability to completely hydrolyze carbohydrates, proteins and fats in the millet diet.

3. These polysaccharides delay the absorption of starch polysaccharides and reduce the absorption rate of monosaccharides and disaccharides, thus showing a hypoglycemic reaction.

[So how should we eat millet? 】

The researchers also found that all cooking methods increased the GI value of millet. In particular, steaming, baking and boiling increased the GI value by 18.4, 16.3 and 11.3 units respectively.

This may be due to the fact that different cooking methods add other ingredients, such as fats and oils. Nevertheless, millet's overall GI value of 52.7 is still relatively low.

This analysis suggests that millets may help control blood sugar levels and reduce the risk of diabetes.

In the early years, when the Chinese people were in a difficult period, they relied on millet and rifles. The older generation survived healthily by eating millet. We also look forward to the new role that millet can play in the new era.

Are you still eating millet?

Reference: doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2021.687428