real food abcs - millet

M for Millet

Millet is a gluten-free grain that can be used in many recipes to help you on your real food journey. 

We have made it half-way through our real food abc series. This week I will be talking about millet. On my real food path I am taking the first step with millet. Before writing this post I was very unfamiliar with this grain. In fact, I am not even sure I had ever eaten it before. I decided to start researching, buy some, and experiment.

What is millet?

Millet is an ancient grain that predates rice. Apparently, millet goes back to about 8300 BC in Asia. Although it is grouped in the grain category, millet is actually a seed. This seed is indigestible to humans, so they need to be hulled. When buying millet you will find the term de-hulled.

Millet nutrition

There are a lot of things about millet that make it a great real food to incorporate into your diet.

1. Millet is gluten free - if you have celiac's disease or are sensitive to gluten, this is a great item to add to your diet.

2. Millet is high in akaline minerals - alkaline minerals help counteract acids. Having a diet high in acid producing foods is very common in the US. This can lead to bone loss. Including alkalizing foods, like millet, in your diet can help offset that effect. The following alkalizing minerals are the amounts found in 1 cup.

• Magnesium - 19%
• Potassium - 11%
• Manganese - 23%
• Iron - 33%

3. Nutrients - Although I am not a big proponent of looking at individual nutrients of foods, I know some people do like to know things like fiber content and protein. 1 cup millet contains the following nutrients:

• Calories - 207
• Protein - 6 g
• Carbohydrates - 41g
• Fiber 2 g
• Fat - 1.7 g

How to cook it/use it?

I cooked millet exactly like I cook rice. In fact I used my rice cooker when I made it. It was incredibly easy. The package of millet also has instructions and recipes.

I will be posting some recipes later in the week to help you on your real food journey towards eating more millet!

Have you ever tried millet?

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