Ragi nutritional value per 100 g: calories, protein, calcium and GI

The table gives ragi nutrition per 100 g of raw, uncooked grain as reported in the Indian Food Composition Tables 2017 of ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition, beside whole wheat and raw milled rice from the same tables so that you can read the numbers in context. Energy is 321 kcal, in the same band as wheat at 322 kcal and below rice at 357 kcal; the differences that matter are in the mineral rows.

Three things to keep in mind when you read it. First, these are raw values: cooked mudde or porridge weighs far more than the flour that went into it because of the water, so a 100 g spoonful of cooked ragi carries only a fraction of these numbers; the per-serving section below does that arithmetic for you. Second, ragi flour and whole ragi grain have the same composition when the flour is milled whole; a sieved or 'refined' ragi flour loses part of the bran, and with it fibre, polyphenols and some of the minerals. Third, the figures on a pack label may differ from these; every number on this page uses the IFCT value.

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.

Nobody eats 100 g of raw flour. These are the servings Indian kitchens actually use, worked out from the IFCT values above and the flour weight in each: a ragi roti is patted from about 30 g of flour, a medium ragi mudde (ragi ball) from 50 g, a bowl of ragi porridge from 22.5 g, and a glass of ragi malt from 15 g, sprouted or plain. Water, salt and the ghee on a roti or mudde are not counted, and neither are the jaggery, ghee and milk that go into a sweet porridge or malt, which add their own energy and calcium on top.

So ragi mudde calories come to about 160 kcal for a medium ball made from 50 g of flour, before any ghee, and two mudde use 100 g of flour, the full 321 kcal in the table above. The ghee in the ragi mudde recipe brings one ball to about 220 kcal. Ragi ball calories are moderate and the fibre is high: the 5.6 g in one mudde is five times the 1.1 g in a katori of cooked rice made from 40 g of raw rice. Two ragi rotis (60 g flour) give 193 kcal before ghee, with 4.3 g protein, 6.7 g fibre and 218 mg calcium. Ragi malt calories depend on what you add: the 15 g of flour in a glass gives 48 kcal, and made the sweet way with 1.5 tbsp of jaggery, as in the ragi malt recipe, a glass comes to about 128 kcal before any milk. Porridge works the same way: 72 kcal a bowl as a plain base and about 170 kcal made sweet with jaggery and ghee, as in the ragi porridge recipe.

Does ragi have protein? Yes, but it is not a high-protein grain. Ragi protein per 100 g is 7.2 g, against 10.6 g in whole wheat and 7.9 g in raw milled rice, so the 30 g of flour in one roti gives about 2.1 g. The quality matters as much as the amount: ragi protein is short of the amino acid lysine, as most cereal proteins are, and dal, curd, milk or sprouts supply what it lacks, as when mudde comes with bassaru and ragi roti with dal. Anyone counting protein should think of ragi as a calcium-and-fibre grain and get their protein from the pulse beside it.

Does ragi have fibre? Yes. Total dietary fibre is 11.2 g per 100 g, level with whole wheat at 11.2 g and about four times raw milled rice at 2.8 g. Most of that fibre sits in the grain's outer layer, as the ICAR-IIMR review points out, so a whole flour keeps it and a sieved one loses part of it. People who jump from a rice diet to two ragi meals a day may feel bloated at first; add it gradually and drink more water. Fat is low, at 1.9 g, and carbohydrate is 66.8 g, the ordinary profile of a whole grain. How these numbers play out for hunger and portion size is on the is ragi good for weight loss page, and what each nutrient does for you is in the full list of ragi benefits.

The glycemic index of plain cooked ragi is 68 in the University of Sydney GI database, from a test done in India on the whole grain. On that scale anything up to 55 counts as low, 56 to 69 as medium and 70 or above as high, so ragi sits in the medium band, above whole wheat kernels at 47 and white basmati rice at 50 in the same database. That surprises people who have read that ragi is 'low GI'. It is not, on the plain grain; the roti and flatbread entries for finger millet tested in India and Sri Lanka scatter widely, and they differ in how the flour was milled and what went into the dough, so there is no single ragi flour glycemic index to quote.

In a real meal the portion counts: the 30 g of flour in a roti carries about 20 g of carbohydrate, and the 50 g in a mudde about 33 g. A 2021 meta-analysis of millet studies (Anitha and colleagues, Frontiers in Nutrition) placed finger millet among the intermediate-GI millets and reported lower fasting and post-meal blood glucose in diabetic subjects who ate millets long term. So the practical advice is portion and company: one or two rotis or one mudde, eaten with dal, vegetables and curd rather than with a sweet, and no second helping. With diabetes, settle the portion with your doctor or dietitian first. The detail for people with diabetes, including which forms of ragi to prefer, is on is ragi good for diabetes.

Calcium in ragi is 364 mg per 100 g. Whole wheat has 39.4 mg and raw milled rice 7.5 mg, so ragi carries over nine times the calcium of wheat and close to fifty times that of rice, and ICAR-IIMR ranks finger millet first among the cereals for calcium. A roti's 30 g of flour supplies 109 mg, and two rotis (60 g of flour) supply 218 mg, with no dairy involved. Puranik and colleagues, in a 2017 review of finger millet and calcium deficiency, name the challenge: turning the high calcium content of the grain into an adequately bioavailable form. Ragi is rich in phytate, which the ICAR-IIMR review lists among the compounds that bind metals, and the ICMR-NIN Dietary Guidelines note that phytic acid hinders mineral absorption and falls sharply with boiling or pressure cooking.

The rest of the minerals are strong too. Iron is 4.6 mg per 100 g, against 4.0 mg in whole wheat and 0.7 mg in milled rice; to help the body take up that plant iron, ICMR-NIN suggests a vitamin C fruit or a coriander and green chilli chutney in the same meal. Magnesium is 146 mg (wheat 125 mg, rice 19.3 mg) and potassium 443 mg (wheat 366 mg, rice 108 mg), while sodium is only 4.8 mg, so the salt in a ragi meal comes almost entirely from the cook. Zinc is 2.5 mg and folate 34.7 mcg per 100 g. Vitamin C is not reported for ragi in IFCT 2017, nor for wheat and rice. Ragi flour, sprouted if you can get it, is the base of ragi malt for children and elders, and the next section covers what sprouting changes; what this mineral profile means in practice, nutrient by nutrient, is on the ragi benefits page.

Cooking does not destroy the minerals, but it dilutes them by weight. That is why this page counts by the flour that went in rather than by cooked weight, and why a 'per 100 g cooked' figure on a calorie app can look so much lower than the table above.

Malting means soaking, sprouting and drying the grain, as the ICAR-IIMR review describes it, and the ICMR-NIN Dietary Guidelines count sprouting, malting and fermenting among the household methods that make whole grains easier to digest and their nutrients easier to absorb. The same ICAR-IIMR review recommends sprouted grains for infants and elderly people; the effects of variety and processing on finger millet are reviewed by Abioye and colleagues in Heliyon, 2022. Fermenting a batter, as for a traditional dosa, is another of those methods; the ragi dosa recipe on this site is the instant, unfermented kind. Roasting the flour for laddu is done for flavour, and a quick ragi porridge simply cooks the flour in water. Processing does change the polyphenols: the ICAR-IIMR review notes that soaking, malting, decortication and cooking affect the antioxidant content of millets, and sieving out the bran removes the layer where they are concentrated. So for the most nutrition per roti, use a whole, freshly milled flour and lean on sprouting and fermentation rather than on eating more. The grain itself, its names, storage and buying notes are on the ragi hub.

What does ragi contain?

Per 100 g of raw grain (IFCT 2017): 321 kcal, 7.2 g protein, 1.9 g fat, 66.8 g carbohydrate, 11.2 g dietary fibre, 364 mg calcium, 4.6 mg iron, 146 mg magnesium, 443 mg potassium, 2.5 mg zinc and 34.7 mcg folate, with a glycemic index of 68. It contains no gluten, and its polyphenols sit in the red-brown seed coat.

How much protein in ragi?

7.2 g per 100 g of raw ragi (IFCT 2017), which is less than whole wheat's 10.6 g and about the same as milled rice at 7.9 g. A single ragi roti, with its 30 g of flour, gives about 2.1 g. Ragi protein is low in lysine, so pair it with dal, curd, milk or sprouts to round it out, and think of ragi as a calcium-and-fibre grain rather than a protein source.

How many calories in ragi mudde?

About 160 kcal for one medium mudde made from 50 g of ragi flour (321 kcal per 100 g, IFCT 2017), before any ghee, along with 3.6 g protein, 5.6 g fibre and 182 mg calcium. The ragi mudde recipe on this site adds ghee to each ball, bringing one mudde to about 220 kcal. Two mudde use 100 g of flour, so 321 kcal from the flour alone, before the saaru.

Does ragi have carbs?

Yes. Carbohydrate is 66.8 g per 100 g of raw ragi (IFCT 2017), similar to whole wheat at 64.7 g and below milled rice at 78.2 g. A roti from 30 g of flour carries about 20 g of carbohydrate and a 50 g mudde about 33 g. The 11.2 g of fibre per 100 g can slow how fast that carbohydrate reaches the blood, but ragi is still a carbohydrate food and is portioned as one.

Does ragi have fiber?

Yes: raw ragi has 11.2 g of total dietary fibre per 100 g (IFCT 2017), which matches whole wheat and is roughly four times milled rice. The fibre is concentrated in the seed coat, so whole ragi flour has all of it and sieved flour has less. A roti from 30 g of flour gives about 3.4 g and a 50 g mudde 5.6 g; add ragi gradually and drink more water if you are new to it.

Is ragi good for weight loss?

It can help, as a swap rather than an extra. Ragi matches wheat for energy and fibre, at 321 kcal and 11.2 g per 100 g, and has about four times the fibre of milled rice; the ICMR-NIN guidelines link fibre-rich whole grains such as millets with better satiety. Portion still decides the result. For the evidence and portion advice, see is ragi good for weight loss.

Which has more calcium, ragi or wheat?

Ragi, by a wide margin: 364 mg of calcium per 100 g against 39.4 mg in whole wheat and 7.5 mg in raw milled rice (IFCT 2017). Ragi also carries phytate, which hinders mineral absorption; sprouting, fermenting and thorough cooking help, according to the ICMR-NIN guidelines. Eat two rotis, 60 g of flour in all, and the calcium comes to about 218 mg.