Millet Snacks in India: Are They Really Healthier Than Your Regular Chips?

Introduction

Step inside any contemporary supermarket store or visit your favorite D2C snacking website and there is something evident about the current state of affairs in the snack food business: all over the place are products based on millets. 

Whether ragi chips, jowar puffs, or multigrain cookies, the brands in India have found a way of repurposing this ancient family of grains into the new heroes of guilt free snacking.

This is no marketing trick; Indian consumers are currently actively searching for snacking options that can be more satisfying, more suitable for the regulation of blood sugar levels, and good for the heart in the long run. Millets provide this opportunity by default, which explains why they become the basis for chips, puffs, and namkeen that promise better health status compared to regular potato chips.

The question in this situation is rather simple. Are millets-based snacks in India really healthier than your regular chips, or is the use of the word “millet” a marketing gimmick?

What are millets and what are millet snacks?

The term "millets" refer to an array of cereal grains which have been traditionally used in India since many years in areas where drought-resistant crops were grown. Millets include ragi (finger millet), jowar (sorghum), bajra (pearl millet) and foxtail millet.

When compared to refined rice and wheat, millets are nutritionally superior in terms of their greater fibre content, minerals and lower glycaemic index. Millets are good sources of magnesium, iron, phosphorus and calcium along with B vitamins and protein.

How regular potato chips are made?

Classic chips are usually prepared through the process of slicing potatoes, deep frying the slices in oil under very high temperatures, and seasoning with salt and various flavouring agents. In some cases, chips can be prepared from dehydrated potatoes or potato flour that is moulded and fried.

As chips absorb oil while frying, regular chips usually have a high fat content and many calories per serving size. Moreover, many varieties of chips are produced with refined vegetable oils and excessive amounts of salt, making them highly addictive foods. As a result, they become energy dense, full of unhealthy fats and salts but low in fibre, essential vitamins and protein.

It does not mean that potatoes are bad for one’s health. The way of preparation, such as refining, frying and seasonings, make chips one of those foods that lead to weight gain and heart disease problems when consumed frequently in large quantities.

Millet snacks vs regular chips nutrition at a glance

Comparison of millet-based chips against regular potato chips begins with the composition itself. While traditional chips contain potato flakes, the millet ones utilize millet flours such as jowar, ragi or bajra in their composition, along with pulses or other whole grains.

The analysis of the nutritional values revealed that millets naturally contain more fiber and sometimes even more protein than the refined cereals. For example, 100 grams of some millet varieties can provide about 8 to 10 grams of fiber and 10 to 11 percent of protein with minerals such as magnesium, iron and calcium. In comparison, regular potato chips provide no fiber at all, low amount of protein and high levels of fats and sodium.

The last but not least is the glycaemic index of the food products. While the potato-based snacks have high glycaemic index, millet-based ones have low or medium one.

Key health benefits of millet snacks

1. Improved blood sugar control

Studies about health and nutrition repeatedly confirm that consuming millets is useful for controlling blood sugar because of its low glycaemic index, more fibre and non starchy polysaccharides that prevent quick absorption of glucose. Therefore, snacking on millets, particularly roasted and baked, can be recommended for individuals suffering from type 2 diabetes, prediabetes and those who watch their blood sugar.

2. Digestion and weight loss

Fibre in millets serves as prebiotic. Not only does it provide the body with nutrients needed by good bacteria in the gut but also aids digestion and the development of a healthy microbiota. The latter is associated with improved immune response and metabolism. Besides, since fibre improves satiety, one may avoid eating too much between meals and overeating, especially if one swaps deep-fried snacks for millets.

Are all millet snacks automatically healthy? 

This is the crucial nuance. It is not true that all millet-containing snacks are healthy. Nutritionists have found out that “millet” is often used for “health washing” in case a snack remains deep fried, excessively sweet or made of the low percentage of millet in comparison with other, less expensive ingredients.

Thus, for instance, a deep fried millet bhujia or a cookie in which millet flour is mixed with a lot of sugar, hydrogenated fats and artificial flavorings is just a calorie-dense, excessively sugared or fatty snack anyway. In these cases, preparation procedure and composition of the recipe may neutralize the majority of the natural benefits of the ingredient.

What should be remembered is that millet provides you with a more nutritious base, yet you need to read the labels and understand what a snack is made of. Only baked, roasted or popped millet-based snacks with limited amount of oil, salt and sugar are really healthier choices.

How to read labels when choosing millet snacks in India?

Here are a few ways to distinguish between genuine millet snacks which are healthy and health washed snacks:

• Check the ingredients order: The whole millets such as jowar, bajra, ragi or foxtail millet must feature at the top of the ingredients list and not at the end. In case, refined flour, potato starch and tapioca are found first while the rest of the space in the ingredient list is taken up by millets, then the product is certainly not based on millets.

• Check fat content: Choose products which are either baked, roasted or puffed snacks. These should also include moderate amount of total fat and less saturated fat. Deep-fried millet snacks would still carry a high value of fat like normal chips.

• Check sodium content: Compare sodium per 100 g. Though high sodium snacks are dangerous for blood pressure but these can still be found in millet snacks.

• Check sugar and fibre content: Savory millet snacks must contain low sugar content and should be rich in fiber content. Millet cookies or energy bars must have moderate sugar content, fiber, protein and healthy fats.

Common misconceptions about millet snacks:

Some common misconceptions regarding millet snacks

Misconception 1: Millet snacks can never taste good

Recent recipes involve judicious addition of herbs and spices which give delicious flavours like masala, cheesy and peri peri in addition to health benefits associated with millets.

Misconception 2: Millet snacks are good for diabetics and sports persons

These snacks are ideal for all those people who require steady energy levels and better digestion along with nutritious foods. This includes parents, students and elders as well as athletes and diabetics.

Misconception 3: All snacks containing millets in their packaging are healthy

As we have seen earlier, snacks made from millets through deep frying or using lots of sugar can be as unhealthy as any other junk food available in the market.

Conclusion:

Comparing the two kinds of snack foods side-by-side, those which are made using millets as primary ingredients through baking, roasting or popping and have low amounts of oil, salt and sugar and little use of additives will be found to be much healthier than your average deep-fried potato chip. Millet snacks provide higher fiber and protein content, more minerals, lower glycemic index and better health support when it comes to digestive health, cardiac well-being and obesity control.

But simply having “millet” on the packaging does not give you carte blanche. For the actual benefits, one needs to still look at labels and select snacks that complement rather than defeat the benefits of millets with too much oil, sugar and salt. Healthy Master’s selection of millet snacks makes this much simpler for consumers by using millets as the hero ingredient in clean label and baked/roasted snacks.