Calories in Suji Halwa

Three ingredients carry all the calories in this recipe: 25 g of suji, 20 g of sugar and 20 g of ghee, cooked with water into one bowl. The suji swells as it absorbs the water, so 25 g of dry semolina becomes a modest katori of halwa. It is small in volume and dense in energy. Only kesari bath, at 432 kcal, comes out heavier among the 20 sweets in this set, which puts suji halwa 19th from the lightest. Halwa made with milk in place of water, or with cashews and raisins, goes higher still.

Fat supplies 53% of the energy, carbohydrate 43% and protein only 4%. Almost every gram of that fat is ghee: the bowl has 21.4 g of fat, and 20 g of ghee went into it. The carbohydrate is split between the semolina and the sugar. With 3.5 g of protein, suji halwa has less protein than any other bowl-sized sweet in the group, so it is close to pure energy: starch, sugar and fat, with very little else.

A bowl of suji halwa takes up about 17% of a sedentary man's daily energy requirement and 22% of a woman's. With puri and chana at a festival breakfast, the halwa is a substantial part of the plate's energy, and two bowls reach 720 kcal. It has 3.5 g of protein and 3 g of fibre, so it does little to keep anyone full. The practical approach is a few spoonfuls: half a bowl is about 180 kcal. If halwa is the main sweet of the day, it helps to keep the rest of that meal low in fried food.

Fat is the figure that stands out: 21.4 g in one bowl, nearly all of it from 20 g of ghee and so largely saturated, along with 22.3 g of sugars. Fat alone supplies 53% of the bowl's energy. People who have been advised to limit saturated fat for a heart condition, or sugar for diabetes, should ask their doctor or dietitian how much halwa suits them; a prasad-sized spoonful and a full bowl are very different amounts.