Calories in Aam Panna

The recipe boils 100 g of raw mango, mashes the pulp with 3 tablespoons of sugar and seasons it, and this makes 2 tall glasses once water is added. Each glass therefore holds the pulp of 50 g of mango and 1.5 tablespoons of sugar. That is a moderately sweet panna. Bottled concentrates and the panna sold at stalls are often sweeter, because sugar is what balances the sourness of raw mango and also what preserves a concentrate. How strong the glass is mixed matters as much as the recipe: the same concentrate can make a light glass or a syrupy one.

Carbohydrate supplies 97% of the energy, with protein at 2% and fat at 1%. Of the 24.3 g of carbohydrate, 20.1 g is sugars, most of it from the 1.5 tablespoons stirred in; the raw mango supplies a little sugar of its own, the remaining carbohydrate and the 1.6 g of fibre. So the fruit gives aam panna its taste and the sugar gives it its calories. The recipe's salt adds no energy, only the salty edge the drink is known for.

One glass of panna is about 5% of a sedentary man's daily energy requirement and 6% of a woman's. It brings almost no protein, 0.4 g, and no fat to speak of, so it is a sweet, salty drink and not a snack. In summer it is easy to have two or three: two glasses come to 192 kcal and three to 288 kcal, with 72.9 g of carbohydrate across the three. Between meals on a hot afternoon one glass does its job. With a meal, it adds sugar to a plate that already has rice or roti.

A glass carries 20.1 g of sugars and a good pinch of salt, and both multiply with every refill. For most people one glass on a hot day is a small matter. People with diabetes, and people asked to limit salt for high blood pressure, should check with their doctor or dietitian before making sweet, salted summer drinks a daily habit; a panna made with very little sugar is the version to ask about.