Calories in Rajgira Ladoo

The recipe is a ghee-bound ladoo, not the airy puffed-grain ball held together with jaggery syrup. It uses 232 g of rajgira, 47 g of almonds, 100 g of jaggery and 60 ml of ghee to make 10 ladoos. One ladoo therefore carries 23 g of amaranth, which is a solid amount of grain, plus 10 g of jaggery and 6 ml of ghee. That makes it a dense, fairly large ladoo, and explains why it is the heaviest of the five ladoos in this set and 8th from the lightest among all 20 sweets. A puffed-rajgira ladoo of the same diameter weighs far less and would not match these numbers.

Carbohydrate and fat supply 46% of the energy each, and protein 9%. Most of the carbohydrate is the starch of the grain; only 8.7 g is counted as sugars, the lowest sugar figure among the ladoos here apart from the atta ladoo. The fat comes from ghee and almonds. With 4.4 g of protein and 2.2 g of fibre it is more of a grain-based snack than most sweets. It remains an energy-dense food: grain, nuts, jaggery and ghee pressed into a ball.

One rajgira ladoo accounts for about 9% of a sedentary man's daily energy requirement and 12% of a woman's. Two come to 398 kcal with 8.8 g of protein, which is a small meal. Rajgira ladoos are popular on fasting days, when they may be one of only a few things eaten; in that setting one ladoo with a glass of milk or a bowl of curd is a fuller snack than two ladoos alone. On an ordinary day, half a ladoo, about 100 kcal, is plenty after a meal.

One ladoo is counted at 8.7 g of sugars and 10 g of fat, the fat coming from ghee, almonds and the grain itself. Rajgira is often sold with large health claims; what can be said from these figures is only that the ladoo has a little more protein than a besan or rava ladoo, at a higher calorie count. During a fast, people with diabetes or on regular medication should check with their doctor or dietitian about what and when to eat.