Little millet vs White rice: nutrition per 100 g

Little millet is a tiny grain, eaten like rice in Tamil Nadu as samai, in the tribal belts of Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, and in the hills. Per 100 g raw it has 346 kcal against 356 kcal for white rice, so swapping one for the other barely changes energy. Little millet has less carbohydrate, 65.5 g against 78.2 g, and more protein, 10.1 g against 7.9 g, which meets 19 per cent of a man's daily need against 15 per cent.

Fibre is the clearer gain: 7.7 g per 100 g against 2.8 g, about 2.8 times as much. Little millet also has more fat, 3.9 g against 0.5 g, ranking 4th of 14 cereals and millets for fat. That fat is mostly unsaturated, but it means the grain keeps less well once dehulled.

Millets are often sold as iron-rich, but IFCT 2017 lists only 1.26 mg of iron per 100 g of little millet, ranking 13th of 14 cereals and millets. It is still about 1.9 times the 0.65 mg in white rice, which ranks last, yet it is no match for bajra or ragi. Little millet's mineral strengths lie elsewhere. It has 91 mg of magnesium, about 4.8 times the 19 mg in rice, and 40.4 micrograms of selenium against 1.0. Zinc, calcium and phosphorus are also higher. Potassium is the one mineral where the two are level, 105 mg against 108 mg.

Little millet has 0.26 mg of thiamine per 100 g against 0.05 mg in white rice, about 5.2 times as much, and 36 micrograms of folate against 9, four times as much. Vitamin E is 0.28 mg against 0.04 mg, ranking 3rd of 14 cereals and millets. Rice keeps a lead on two B vitamins, niacin, 1.69 mg against 1.29 mg, and vitamin B6, 0.12 mg against 0.04 mg. Riboflavin is the same in both.

Little millet cooks quickly and fluffs up much like rice, so it slips easily into samai pongal, samai curd rice, lemon rice, upma and even biryani-style dishes. It is gluten-free. IFCT 2017 records it as sama in Bengali and Kannada, chama in Malayalam, sava in Marathi, kuri in Gujarati and shavan in Hindi. Rice remains cheaper and more widely available. Values here are for raw grain; both swell when cooked.