Eating millets can boost growth in children by 26-39%, says study

The children studied consumed millets over 3 months to 4.5 years

The humble millet has long been considered a rich source of nutrition but a new cross-country study has found that it can boost growth in children and adolescents by 26-39 per cent, when they replace rice in standard meals.

The study, published in the journal ‘Nutrients’, was done by seven organisations in four countries and was led by S Anitha, a senior scientist-nutrition at the Hyderabad - International Crops Research Institute of the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).

It is a review and meta-analysis of eight prior published studies, ICRISAT said in a statement today.

Among the children fed with millet-based meals, a relative increase