Kodo millet calories, protein, carbs and fibre per 100 g

The table below is the IFCT 2017 entry for kodo millet, filed under the name Varagu as food code A017, with whole wheat and raw milled rice set beside it. Rice is the grain kodo stands in for on the plate, and wheat is what its flour gets measured against when roti dough is kneaded, so those two make the useful reference points. Every language name of the grain is on the varagu in english page.

Three notes for reading the table straight. The values are for raw grain: once cooked, kodo is swollen with water, so a 100 g scoop of the cooked pot carries only a fraction of what the table shows, and the next section works the servings out for you. Whole kodo flour milled with the bran carries the same composition as the whole grain, while a sieved flour loses part of the bran and some of what sits in it. Pack labels can print values a little different from these, since batches vary; every figure quoted on this page comes from IFCT 2017.

Per 100 g raw, edible portion. Composition: IFCT 2017 (ICMR-NIN). GI: University of Sydney GI database. — means not reported. These are average values for the food; the label on a pack gives the values for that product.

A 100 g helping of raw grain is nobody's portion. These are the amounts Indian kitchens measure instead, each worked out from the table above: a katori of cooked kodo starts as 40 g of dry grain, the kodo millet khichdi recipe gives one bowl 50 g of dry kodo plus 25 g of moong dal and its share of ghee, a kodo roti is patted from 30 g of flour, and a standard measuring cup of dry kodo weighs 200 g, the same measure that recipe cooks with. Water, salt and spices add nothing to these counts.

So a katori of cooked kodo holds about 133 kcal before anything goes on top, and two katoris, from 80 g of dry grain, come to about 266 kcal. The khichdi row counts the dal and ghee too: one bowl works out to 315 kcal with 10.4 g protein and 5.5 g fibre, of which the 50 g of dry kodo in the bowl contributes 166 kcal on its own. A kodo roti sits at about 100 kcal with 2.7 g protein and 1.9 g fibre before the ghee goes on.

Kodo millet calories for a cup have two answers. The cup you scoop before cooking is 200 g of dry grain, 664 kcal. Once cooked, that cup is swollen with water, so the same cupful holds less grain and fewer calories; count by the dry grain that went into the pot, and the 664 kcal of a full dry cup is what you are cooking, split across however many cooked servings it makes.

Does kodo millet have protein? Yes: 8.9 g per 100 g, which beats raw milled rice at 7.9 g and sits behind whole wheat at 10.6 g. A katori of cooked kodo carries about 3.6 g, and the khichdi bowl's 10.4 g counts the moong dal beside the grain, which is the point: kodo's protein, like most cereal protein, is short of the amino acid lysine, and a pulse, curd or milk in the same meal rounds it out, the pairing the khichdi recipe is built on.

Fibre is where kodo beats the grain it replaces. Total dietary fibre is 6.4 g per 100 g, more than twice the 2.8 g in raw milled rice, though whole wheat carries more at 11.2 g. The ICAR-IIMR review calls a millet's bran a rich source of dietary fibre, so a whole or unpolished grain keeps it and a polished one sheds part of it. If kodo is new on your plate, bring it in gradually with more water on the side, since the jump in fibre can upset a stomach that is used to less. Fat is low at 2.6 g per 100 g, and carbohydrate is 66.2 g, about 12 g under the 78.2 g in the same weight of milled rice. Each nutrient's job in the body is laid out on the kodra benefits page.

There is no kodo millet glycemic index to quote for the plain grain, and any site that prints one is guessing. IFCT 2017 reports no GI for kodo millet, and the University of Sydney GI database holds no entry for kodo cooked on its own; its only kodo entries are varagu pressure cooked together with green gram, whole or split, which measure a millet-pulse meal rather than the grain.

What the millet evidence does print is a band. In the 2021 meta-analysis of millet studies by Anitha and colleagues, kodo millet sits in the intermediate GI band, 55-69, with the millets in that band testing 13 to 35 per cent under high-GI controls; the review's millet average of 52.7 sat against milled rice at 71.7 and refined wheat at 74.2. In that review, people with diabetes who ate millets long term saw fasting glucose drop 12 per cent and post-meal glucose 15 per cent, while pre-diabetic subjects moved from an HbA1c of 6.65 to 5.67. That is the millet group's record, not a kodo-only promise: portion size and the dal and vegetables around the grain still decide the plate, and anyone with diabetes should fix portions with their doctor first. The practical side lives on the is millet atta good for diabetes page.

The mineral column is where kodo separates from rice. Iron is 2.3 mg per 100 g against 0.7 mg in milled rice, more than three and a half times as much, and magnesium is 122 mg against 19.3 mg in rice, over six times. Folate runs 39.5 mcg against 9.3 mcg in rice, and calcium about double at 15.3 mg against 7.5 mg. Zinc is 1.7 mg and potassium 94 mg; on potassium, rice at 108 mg actually edges kodo out and whole wheat at 366 mg is far ahead, so do not file kodo under high-potassium grains. Sodium is only 3.4 mg per 100 g, so nearly all the salt in a kodo meal is what your hand added to the pot. Vitamin C is not reported for kodo in IFCT 2017.

For the iron to do its work, the ICMR-NIN Dietary Guidelines pair plant iron with a vitamin C food eaten in the same meal, guava, pineapple, citrus fruits or a coriander-and-chilli chutney, and they keep tea at least an hour away from the meal, since tea binds dietary iron. The same guidelines flag phytic acid, the compound in cereals and legumes that blocks mineral uptake, and record that boiling or pressure cooking cuts it to a great extent, which is how kodo is always cooked. What the mineral column means in daily use, nutrient by nutrient, is on the kodra benefits page.

Cooking does not remove the minerals, but it dilutes them with water, so the counts on this page use the dry grain that went into the pot. Soaking, popping, puffing, sprouting, malting and fermenting are methods the ICMR-NIN Dietary Guidelines list for whole grains and pulses, because they lift how much of the nutrients the body can take in; sprouted whole grains also keep their original bran, germ and endosperm. A 2018 review in Food Science & Nutrition (Nkhata and colleagues) describes how fermentation and germination switch on the grain's own enzymes, which degrade antinutritional factors and break complex macronutrients down to their simpler, more digestible forms. A 2015 review by Gupta and colleagues adds that fermentation, soaking and germination are among the processing steps that reduce phytic acid in grains.

The kodo millet khichdi recipe puts two of those ideas to work, a 30-minute soak and a pressure cook, and the guidelines note that boiling or pressure cooking cuts that phytic acid a great deal. The grain itself, its names and how to buy it are on the kodo millet hub.

Does kodo millet have protein?

Yes: 8.9 g of protein per 100 g of raw grain (IFCT 2017), between milled rice at 7.9 g and whole wheat at 10.6 g. A katori of cooked kodo, made from 40 g of dry grain, gives about 3.6 g, and a bowl of the site's khichdi about 10.4 g with its moong dal. Like most cereal protein, kodo's is low in lysine, and the dal or curd eaten beside it supplies that amino acid.

Does kodo millet have carbs?

Yes, it is a carbohydrate food like every grain: 66.2 g per 100 g of raw kodo (IFCT 2017), about 12 g under milled rice's 78.2 g. One katori of cooked kodo carries about 26 g of carbohydrate, and one cup of dry kodo about 132 g. Portion kodo the way you would rice, as the grain of the meal, with dal and vegetables around it.

Is kodo millet good for diabetes?

There is no plain-grain GI figure for kodo millet, so judge it by what is known: in the 2021 millet meta-analysis, kodo sits in the intermediate GI band of 55-69, and people with diabetes who made millets a long-term habit had lower fasting and post-meal glucose. Kodo has 6.4 g of fibre per 100 g, more than twice rice's. Portion it like rice and keep dal and vegetables on the plate; settle the exact portion with your doctor or dietitian.

Is kodo millet good for weight loss?

As a swap, not an add-on. Kodo millet has 332 kcal per 100 g against 357 kcal in milled rice, with 6.4 g fibre against rice's 2.8 g, so the same katori comes with fewer calories and more to chew. The ICMR-NIN guidelines put millets among the fibre-rich whole grains that improve satiety. A katori of cooked kodo is about 133 kcal; the comparison across millets is on the best millet for weight loss page.

Can kodo millet be cooked like rice?

Yes, and that is its everyday use. Rinse the grain, cover it with water and simmer until the grains turn tender and the water is gone, then serve it where rice would sit, with dal, curry or curd rice. A katori of the cooked grain counts as 40 g of dry kodo, about 133 kcal, which keeps portioning simple.

What is kodo millet?

Kodo millet is a small husked millet, the grain IFCT 2017 lists under the name Varagu with the botanical name Paspalum scrobiculatum. It is one of India's indigenous cereals, grown in Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and it cooks like rice. Per 100 g it carries 332 kcal, 8.9 g protein and 6.4 g fibre; the full IFCT 2017 profile is the table on this page.