What is Susu?

Susu is the Korean name for sorghum grain, from the plant Sorghum bicolor. In Korea it has long been eaten as a warming food grain and used in folk practice for weak digestion and loose stools. It is also known simply as sorghum.

Most people meet it as a food rather than a medicine. The red-brown grain is cooked with rice, ground into flour for rice cakes, or boiled into porridge for people recovering from illness.

Here is the honest verdict. Susu has a real place in Korean kitchens and folk practice, but long traditional use is not the same as proof that it treats any illness, and the human trial evidence for medicinal claims is very thin.

How does Susu work?

Any effect is most likely nutritional rather than drug-like. Sorghum is a whole grain, so it is high in fibre and digests slowly, which can blunt the rise in blood sugar after a meal compared with white rice.

The darker grain also carries tannins (plant compounds with a dry, puckering taste). In laboratory dishes these act as antioxidants and bind protein, which is the usual explanation offered for the traditional use in loose stools.

This is a reasonable theory, not a demonstrated mechanism. Laboratory activity often fails to show up in people.

What forms does Susu come in?

Susu is sold as a food, not as a standardised medicine. Common forms include:

Whole dried grain for cooking with rice. Coarse or fine flour for rice cakes and pancakes. Flaked or puffed grain for porridge and snacks.

Sorghum syrup as a sweetener. Fermented sorghum liquor, which is a drink rather than a remedy.

You may also see sorghum bran extracts in supplement blends. These are not well characterised and doses vary widely between products.

Where it comes from:

Sorghum came to Korea from China and has been grown on dry upland fields for well over a thousand years. It fed households when rice was short.

In Korean folk practice the cooked grain was given for a weak stomach, poor appetite and watery stools, and susu-bukkumi (sorghum pancakes) and red sorghum rice cakes appear at birthdays and rites of passage.

It holds a similar place in Chinese, Indian and West African food traditions, where it is a staple grain rather than a formal medicine.

What does Susu help with?

• Blood sugar control as part of a whole-grain diet: This is the best-supported use, and even here the credit belongs to whole grains generally rather than to susu in particular. Swapping some white rice for sorghum adds fibre and slows digestion, which tends to flatten the blood sugar spike after a meal. Small feeding studies point this way, but they are short and mostly compare meals, not health outcomes. Do not treat susu as a substitute for diabetes medicine.
• Mild loose stools (traditional use): Korean folk practice gives sorghum porridge for watery stools, and the tannins in the seed coat are the usual explanation. No published human trial tests this. If diarrhoea lasts more than two days, or there is blood, fever or signs of dehydration, that needs a doctor rather than a grain.
• Weak appetite and recovery feeding (traditional use): Sorghum porridge is easy to eat and calorie-dense, which is why it was fed to people recovering from illness. This is sensible nutrition rather than medicine. There is no trial evidence that susu speeds recovery from anything.
• Gluten-free eating for coeliac disease: Sorghum contains no gluten, so it is a genuine option for people who must avoid wheat, barley and rye. The catch is cross-contamination. Grain milled on shared equipment can pick up wheat, so buy products labelled gluten-free if you have coeliac disease.
• General fibre intake and regularity: Whole sorghum adds several grams of fibre per serving, which supports normal bowel movements. This is a food effect shared with oats, barley and brown rice. Nothing about susu makes it better than those for this purpose.

Which foods are rich in Susu?

1. Susu-bap: sorghum grain cooked together with rice, the everyday Korean form
2. Susu-bukkumi: pan-fried sorghum flour pancakes filled with sweet red bean
3. Susu-gyeongdan: sorghum rice-cake balls rolled in red bean powder, served at first birthdays
4. Sorghum porridge: soft and easy to eat during recovery from illness
5. Sorghum flour breads and gluten-free baked goods
6. Sorghum syrup: a sweetener, so it carries the sugar without much of the fibre

Practical Tips:

Susu is a food first. Eating it in normal meals is the sensible way to use it.

What are the side effects of Susu?

• Bloating and wind when you first add the fibre
• Constipation if you eat a lot of it without drinking enough water
• A dry, astringent taste from tannins that some people dislike
• Reduced iron absorption from the same meal, with heavy regular use
• Allergic reaction such as itching, rash, wheezing or swelling (rare)
• Nausea, vomiting or worse from mouldy grain or from eating the fresh plant's leaves and shoots

Good to know:

For most people susu is simply a grain, and the common complaints are digestive and mild. They usually settle as your gut adjusts over a week or two.

The two real hazards are not about the grain on your plate. One is mould: sorghum stored damp can carry fungal toxins, so throw out grain or flour that smells musty or looks discoloured. The other is the living plant, whose young leaves and shoots contain dhurrin and can release cyanide.

How much Susu should you take?

• Recommended daily: There is no established medicinal dose for susu, because it has been studied as a food rather than a drug. As food, a typical Korean serving is 15 to 50 g of dry grain cooked with rice, or about 30 to 60 g of flour in a pancake or rice cake. Porridge made from 30 to 50 g of grain is a common single bowl. Supplement extracts have no agreed dose. If you use one, follow the label and do not stack it with other bran or fibre products.
• Best time of day: Any time. Most people eat it at main meals mixed with rice, or as a breakfast porridge.
• With or without food: Susu is a food, so it is eaten as part of a meal. Drink water with it, since a jump in fibre without fluid can leave you bloated or constipated.
• Time to effect: The blood sugar effect happens within that same meal. Any change in bowel regularity from the extra fibre usually shows up within a few days to a week.
• How long to take it: As a food you can eat susu indefinitely, the same way you would eat barley or brown rice. If you are using it for a specific complaint such as loose stools, give it a few days. If the problem has not settled within about a week, stop guessing and get it checked.