6 ways to add whole grains to your diet

The staple Indian diet is the right mix of fibre, vitamins, minerals, protein, and other essential nutrients. The usual plate of roti (flatbread), sabzi (curry), and dal (lentils) usually fix for the key supplements. However, when you don’t feel like eating roti, you can cut the monotony using these alternative whole grains and still gain the same nutrition.
In his recent Instagram post, nutritionist Bhuvan Rastogi said, “Rotis are a very good source of fibre, but not all of us know how to make them. Replacing it with processed grains will be useless, as they have little fibre content. Whole grains can be a better option, as the alternatives discussed in this post have high fibre content and are easy to incorporate into your diet.”
Rastogi suggests some whole-grain options that are easy to incorporate into your diet:
1. Wheat daliya or Bulgur
Wheat daliya is easily available and is a coarse form of wheat with intact fibre Bulgur, however, is available in Western countries and is already partly cooked. It's like rolled oats but made up of wheat, making it a convenient whole-grain option.
2. Barley daliya
Barley has a higher fibre content than wheat, jowar and oats. Barley daliya is a convenient way to add fibre to your meals.
3. Quinoa and oats
There are the most common whole-grain options in the West and hence the most famous. Their nutritional values are comparable to the other options like wheat, daliya and barley.
4. Rajgira/Amarnath
This local pseudo-grain is from the same family as quinoa, with comparable nutrition. It's easy to cook and digest, making it a good option for your whole grain needs.
5. Split Jowar and Sorghum
Jowar is a type of millet that is a good alternative to rotis but hard to add to your meals. But split jowar can be an easy way to accommodate the goodness of jowar into your diet
6. Samak/Vrat Chawal
Samak/Vrat Chawal is not rice but a millet with comparable fibre content to other whole grains, much higher than rice.
"Most whole grains have a comparable fibre of about 10g per 100g (including quinoa and oats). Barley has a higher fibre content of 14-17g. Choosing one over the other makes very little difference. On the other hand, processed grains will always have much less or even no fibre, so incorporating whole grains over processed ones makes a much bigger difference to your well-being,” Rastogi concludes.