Is millet/ragi a low glycemix food

you know, really I don't think so since I read that the glycemic index is rather high and even higher than some grains like rice whcih I found surprising. Anyway - I found that on the web and can't swear 100% that everything you read on the web is correct.

 

Please read here also something else I found on the web:

 

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Every morning, hundreds of thousands of diabetics in India have a bowl of ragi porridge, made with hot milk or buttermilk, as a pre-breakfast snack.Ragi porridge has a fanatical following among Indian diabetics that insulin would envy. Indians belie ve fervently that ragi is a wholesome food for diabetics.

Many treat it on par with drugs and insulin for diabetes.

Is ragi worth all this adulation?

The truth is ragi is just another grain like rice, wheat or jowar. Like all cereals, it is rich in carbohydrate. A 100 gm of ragi contains around 370 Calorie, with nearly 88 gm of carbohydrate, 3 gm of dietary fibre, and some calcium and phosphorus. Wheat and rice have similar calorie and fibre counts.

Ragi does not have any special benefits for diabetics. Compared with wheat or rice, ragi does not score higher in any way. In fact, wheat is the better cereal by far. There is no evidence that ragi leads to better control of diabetes or lowers the requirement of insulin or oral hypoglycaemic drugs when compared with wheat or rice.

So how do we explain the ragi fan following? The likely explanation is that most diabetics live in denial: they cannot accept that, barring a minor miracle, they will be diabetics for life requiring diet control, exercise, and either insulin or oral drugs or both.

They cling to the hope that some natural painless remedy can cure diabetes, and this awakens the craze for ragi, bitter gourd, fenugreek seeds and other herbal cures for diabetes.

There is no doubt that a healthful diet is important in the management of diabetes. However, food is never a substitute for prescribed medications. The ragi diet would be a joke if it were not also harmful. Ignoring the calories delivered by ragi has negative consequences for blood glucose levels and overall control of diabetes.

Ragi is not a saint or a sinner as far as diabetes goes. If you like ragi for breakfast, treat it as plain breakfast and not as some mythical pre-breakfast medicinal godsend for diabetes control.

Just like any other food in diabetes, it requires insulin or drugs to handle the calories it contains. No food is ever a substitute for insulin, drugs, exercise or weight control.

RAJIV.M