Jowar is how most Indian call sorghum. Yes, jowar is that cream or light brown tiny grains with many health benefits. People might not know about what are the health benefits of jowar yet. But people have already known that this kind of grain is rich with carbohydrate.
This is the reason why most Indian especially in the southern and western part love jowar better than rice in term of staple food. Jowar go very well with many kinds of food.
We can also use this in any kinds of cooking, such as cereal, porridge, and bakery.
Nutritional Information of Jowar
Jowar is considered to be healthy as it contains beneficial value. From a single cup of jowar, we can gain health benefits of jowar as it is composed by:
Calories 651 kcal
- Carbohydrate 143 g
- Protein 21.7 g
- Fiber 12 g
- Fat 6.3 g
- Magnesium 316.8 mg
- Phosphorus 551 mg
- Potassium 672 mg
- Calcium 53.8 mg
- Iron 8.4 mg
It also contains zinc, copper, and B vitamins including thiamine.
The Health Benefits of Jowar
After you read these health benefits of jowar, you might rushing to the market and substitute your staple food with jowar as it contains amazing benefits for our health. Here are the health benefits of jowar:
- Lose weight
Jowar is high in dietary fiber and considered to be fewer calories than rice. Therefore, replacing our rice dishes with jowar may support your weight loss diet without too much suffering from hunger as we still get carbohydrate, yet in the lower calorie.
- Gluten free
Some carbohydrates contain gluten which may harm someone with gluten hypersensitivity. People who tend to be allergic to gluten may experience side effect when consuming wheat as wheat contains high level of gluten. The side effect may vary from nausea, vomiting, itching, or bloating.
But when they consume jowar, they won’t experience such thing. They will get what they need from carbohydrate without the side effect of gluten. For your information, jowar flour is very good to be used as baked product.
- Aid healthy digestion
Jowar contains high level of dietary fiber. The fiber in jowar is the excellent helper for your digestive system. It helps you avoid some digestion problems such as bloating, vomiting, and constipation. It is also able to maintain bowel movement excellently.
- Aid cell regeneration
All we need for cell regeneration is protein. Jowar is enriched with high level of protein. Therefore, the consumption of jowar is able to quickly regenerate the damaged cell. This way, we might avoid many kinds of diseases and able to quickly recover from the sickness. The benefit can also be obtained from beans such Health Benefits of Cluster Beans and Health Benefits of Barlotti Beans.
- Prevent anemia
A research proves that jowar or sorghum contains high level of iron. Iron perform very good to aid the red blood cell production. The insufficient iron intake may lead us into anemia. Therefore, the regular consumption of sorghum or jowar will effectively prevent anemia.
- Reduce ADHD symptom
Iron from jowar can also reduce ADHD symptoms such anxiety, hyperactivity, and temper tantrum. It is possible since iron is able to soothe the nervous system which further calms the kid with ADHD syndrome. The symptom can also be reduced by employing Health Benefits of Fish Flaxseed and Borage Oil.
- Control blood sugar
Jowar also contains tannin which prohibits starch absorption by the body. Further, it can also regulate insulin and blood sugar level. This way the regular consumption of jowar as staple food to replace white rice tend to be safe for diabetics as jowar prevent the sudden raising of blood sugar level in diabetics.
Or else, diabetic patient can also substitute the regular rice with corn rice as it provide the Health Benefits of Eating Corn Rice .
- Strengthen bones
One of the high concentrated mineral in jowar is magnesium. Magnesium increases calcium absorption within the body. As we know, all we need to support the bones health calcium. Both calcium and magnesium also accelerate the healing of bone’ tissues and also slower the aging process. Further, the consumption of jowar can also prevent some bone-related diseases such arthritis and osteoporosis.
- Prevent cancer
Who knows these tiny grains contains abundant antioxidants in each grain? The antioxidant from jowar has anti-carcinogenic effect which effectively inhibits the growth of cancer cell. There are some types of cancer which can be effectively prevented by jowar. One of these is colon cancer.
- Prevents melanoma
Melanoma is also known as special type of cancer which spread a thick dark spot over the skin surface. In this case, jowar is very good in preventing the growth of the melanoma. It is contributed by the cancer-fighting antioxidant in jowar which inhibit the free radical to change the healthy cell into cancer cell.
- Boost energy
One of the health benefits of jowar is the ability in energizing our body. Besides mineral, jowar is packed with high level of vitamins, especially B vitamins. Niacin or vitamin B3 from jowar is able to aid metabolism. In this case, niacin is able to instantly turn foods into energy. Therefore, consuming jowar will top up your need of energy during the working time or exercise.
- Improve circulation
Just like how magnesium aid the intake of calcium, copper in sorghum or jowar aid the absorption of iron. Iron is not only beneficial during the red blood cell production. It also takes the role to maintain proper blood circulation. Therefore, the iron we get from the sufficient consumption of jowar will make sure the red blood cell distribute the oxygen to the tissues very well.
- Lower cholesterol
Jowar is enriched by the abundant dietary fiber. The dietary fiber is very good in controlling the cholesterol level. It helps us reduce the bad cholesterol level. As we know, the high cholesterol level may lead to some health problems such coronary heart and stroke.
- Improve heart health
The consumption of jowar may provide us the sufficient dietary fiber. Dietary fiber is effective to reduce LDL or the bad cholesterol. As we know, the high level of bad cholesterol in the blood is the worst factor of heart diseases.
In addition, jowar can also improve the heart health by controlling the blood pressure. Â Therefore, consuming jowar in any kinds of foods may help you maintain the healthy heart.
- Lower neurodegenerative problem
As jowar is packed with thiamine, the consumption of jowar may reduce the risk of some neurodegenerative problems. The neurodegenerative problems we can avoid by regular consumption of jowar are Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
- Prevent eye problem
Besides reducing the neurodegenerative problems risk, the consumption of jowar will be able to prevent us from getting some eye problem because of the macular degeneration problems such catarct. It is because jowar contains antioxidant which slower the process of aging.
Recommendation in Consuming Jowar
To get the health benefits of jowar, we need to consider some points. For example, we need to pay attention to the recommended daily intake of jowar. In this case, nutritionists recommend us eating jowar for one or one and a half serving twice daily. The single serving worth 1 cup of jowar. This way, we can accommodate to eat jowar twice a day at breakfast or lunch.
About the way we serve jowar, we can cook jowar just like how we cook rice. Sometimes our children get bored with the typical white rice, yet cannot be satiated with other carbs such bread. In this case, we should make another variation of rice, for example combining black beans and brown rice to get Health Benefits of Black Beans and Brown Rice. Or else, we can also make porridge from it.
Children would love this kind of porridge as it is gentler than wheat. You can also cook jowar porridge from jowar flour. Jowar flour can replace wheat flour as the main ingredients of some foods such cake and bread, yet without gluten. Therefore, the health benefits of jowar tend to be friendlier for everyone.