Millets gets a shot in the arm with patients at Apollo Hospitals finding it useful in the process of recovery. This, however, has not happened overnight.

The process that began eight months back, the Indian Institute of Millets Research (IIMR) has worked on a menu to suit the patients’ palate. The elaborate menu include both the South and North Indian dishes.

From traditional items such as idli, dosa, vada, ragi mudda and Pongal, it also has soups and non-vegetarian items.

Health benefits

Due to the high proportion of healthy nutrients, millets offer multifarious health benefits to curb several lifestyle ailments like hypertension, diabetes, obesity, heart, kidney and liver ailments, cancer and enhance the immunity levels.

With patients liking the nutrient-rich food and results indicating good recovery rates, Apollo Hospitals has decided to introduce millet-based foods across all the group hospitals in the country.

The group has claimed it had set up the country’s first cloud kitchen to prepare and distribute millet-based cuisine for its patients.

Nutrihub, an arm of the Hyderabad-based IIMR that works on technologies and processes to make millets kitchen-friendly, has worked with the hospital’s Food and Beverages team on this initiative.

“Millets are rich in fibre, non-starchy polysaccharides, carbs, proteins, anti-oxidants, multiple vitamins and trace elements, highly alkaline and gluten free,” B. Dayakar Rao, Chief Executive Officer of Nutrihub, ICAR-IIMR, said.

Special care has been taken to make these millet cuisines easily digestible and healthy, as they form the diet for patients often with weakened and compromised digestive system,” he said.

Encouraged by good results, Apollo Hospitals is planning to source millets directly from the farmers. “Apollo Hospitals will popularise super food millet diet among patients across all our hospitals, says Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director of the group, said.

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