BANGALORE: How about replacing rice with millet for your dinner? If you want to discover the health benefits of millets, a visit to the Millet mela being held at Lalbagh till April 15th will be enlightening. Millets are especially useful to keep diseases like diabetes and high cholesterol levels under control. However, the most interesting part of the mela was the variety of receipes put on display.
In Karnataka, millets are extensively produced in the northern part that includes Vijaypura, Raichur, Gulbarga and Chitradurga. However, Andhra Pradesh is one of the predominant producer of millet in India. Suresh
Sreedhar, one of the organiser of the event said, “One can witness a great variety of health benefits of millets in the mela, from gestational diabetes, Cardio vascular diseases, Fibromyalgia, Back Pains and the list goes on. Millets are highly nutritious, non-glutinous and non-acid forming foods. Millets also releases lesser percentage of glucose and over a longer period of time.”
To witness the variety of dishes prepared with millet was a visual treat, it ranges from pongal, bhangi bhat, rotis, popcorns, ladoo, chikli and variety of rice items. Murthy J, a visitor said, “I have been experimenting with millet for a long time now. Today I have prepared Udal pongal, for which all you need is one cup moong dal and millet.”
The mela witness a huge gathering. Dinesh, another associate with the organisation said, “The response has been phenomenal. Many housewives have come forward to showcase what one can cook with millet. We are also showcasing spot receipes so that people can learn to make millets a part of their daily life. We want to show its process from seed to plate.”