Sattu nutrition per 100g: protein, calories and glycemic index

Sattu nutritional value per 100g starts with an honest gap. IFCT 2017, the Indian food composition tables of ICMR-NIN, prints no entry for sattu, and the USDA's FoodData Central lists no roasted chickpea flour record, so no per-100 g values — energy, protein, fibre or minerals — are published for sattu itself in either record. The numbers below are not invented. The glycemic index database has no sattu entry either.

What does carry numbers is the FSSAI standard for chana sattu. It fixes the flour's identity and its limits: moisture not more than 8 percent, crude fibre not more than 3 percent on a dry basis, the whole batch fine enough to pass a 35-mesh sieve, and — the one hard nutritional figure — crude protein (N x 6.25) of not less than 20 percent on a dry basis. In plain terms, every 100 g of dry sattu holds at least 20 g of protein. That is the whole of chana sattu nutrition the standard prints: one protein floor, plus the limits.

The two published foods closest to sattu are bengal gram dal (chana dal), the split pulse IFCT 2017 does cover, and bengal gram flour (besan), the raw gram flour in the USDA record. The table below sets them side by side for context. Neither column is sattu: the dal is raw and split, and besan is dehusked gram ground without roasting, so their numbers describe their own foods, never the roasted flour.

Per 100 g raw, edible portion. Composition: IFCT 2017 (ICMR-NIN); USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy), FDC ID 174288, NDB 16157. 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.

Sattu calories are the most searched number on this page, so the answer deserves to be exact: no published calorie figure exists for sattu. IFCT 2017 does not list the flour, and neither does the USDA FoodData Central, so no sattu calories per 100g figure can be quoted, and any calorie count you see for it online is a guess or a borrowed number. For the search written as 50 gm sattu calories, the same holds: 50 g of sattu has no published energy value.

The only figure that does apply to a 50 g serving is the protein floor. Since the standard asks for at least 20 g of protein per 100 g of dry sattu, 50 g of dry sattu holds at least 10 g of protein. That is the whole of the arithmetic the standard gives for a 50 g serving; nothing else about it can be counted from a published table.

The neighbours show why borrowing would mislead. Chana dal carries 329 kcal per 100 g and besan 387 kcal, but both are raw foods, and the two flours sit under different moisture caps — 12 percent for besan and 8 percent for sattu. Neither neighbour's calories can be moved onto sattu. A sattu drink sweetened with jaggery adds the jaggery's own energy on top; the sattu drink recipe counts only that, because the flour has nothing published to count.

Sattu protein per 100g has one published number: at least 20 g, on a dry basis, set by the FSSAI standard for chana sattu. The floor is a minimum for the finished flour, not an average of one batch, and it is the reason a protein-minded cook can lean on sattu at all. Beside it sit the two published neighbours: chana dal at 21.55 g of protein per 100 g (IFCT 2017) and besan at 22.4 g (USDA). Those are whole foods' averages; sattu's floor is a quality line, so the three figures are not directly comparable — what they agree on is that gram is a protein-heavy pulse.

In servings, the floor does real work. A 50 g serving of dry sattu carries at least 10 g of protein, and the drink recipe's half cup of sattu, 60 g, carries at least 12 g across its four 250 ml glasses, about 3 g a glass. For quality, the gram family has a good record. The 2012 chickpea review by Jukanti and colleagues (British Journal of Nutrition) ranks its protein quality ahead of the other pulses: the seed carries meaningful amounts of each essential amino acid save the sulphur pair, which the day's cereals can supply. The ICMR-NIN dietary guidelines put the pairing in kitchen terms — pulses are higher in lysine and lower in methionine and cysteine, and cereals combined with pulses in the ratio of 3:1 by raw weight can meet the requirement of all the essential amino acids. A 2014 review of pulses adds the class-level line: pulses provide protein and fibre. Sattu, worked into a wheat dough or served beside a cereal meal, plays the pulse half of that pairing; the sattu benefits page works through each use.

The sattu glycemic index question has a short, honest answer: the University of Sydney glycemic index database has no entry for sattu, and neither does it list plain besan, so no GI figure can be given for the roasted flour itself. What the database does hold for the gram family is boiled Bengal gram dal: a glycemic index of 11, the mean of one entry from a test done in India on boiled Bengal gram dal (Dilawari and colleagues, 1981, six subjects). On the Sydney bands, where 55 or under counts as low and 70 or above as high, 11 sits deep in the low band.

The 2021 international GI tables agree at the class level: legumes are usually low-GI foods, with values that stay consistent around the world. That statement is about legumes as tested, not about sattu, for which the Sydney database holds no entry; the family's pattern is reported, and the flour's GI is left unanswered rather than guessed. Whatever the flour's true value, the portions stay the same: the drink recipe's glass carries 15 g of sattu. The sattu hub carries the flour's names and uses.

For the fuller sattu nutritional value per 100g, the micronutrient side has to be read the same careful way. No mineral or vitamin figure is published for sattu itself, and the one line the standard prints about fibre is a ceiling, not a boast: crude fibre of not more than 3 percent on a dry basis. Crude fibre is also a different measure from the total dietary fibre in composition tables, so it cannot be set beside the neighbours' fibre figures as if they were the same thing. IFCT 2017 lists 15.15 g of total fibre per 100 g for chana dal, and the USDA record lists 10.8 g for besan; those belong to the raw foods.

The raw foods' mineral figures, for anyone who wants the family picture: chana dal carries 6.08 mg of iron, 46.32 mg of calcium, 118 mg of magnesium, 957 mg of potassium and 182 mcg of folate per 100 g (IFCT 2017), while the USDA record for besan lists 4.86 mg of iron, 45 mg of calcium, 166 mg of magnesium, 846 mg of potassium and 437 mcg of folate. The 2012 chickpea review also counts folate among chickpea's vitamin strengths. Two cautions belong to those numbers. First, they are the raw gram's, and sattu is roasted; no composition values are published for the roasted flour, so what the roasting step changes cannot be read off a table. Second, the ICMR-NIN guidelines note that phytic acid in cereals and legumes hinders mineral absorption, and that its concentration drops to a great extent with boiling or pressure cooking; the gram for sattu is roasted rather than boiled, and no figure for that step is published either.

Neither the FSSAI standard nor the ICMR-NIN guidelines set a daily sattu amount, so there is no figure to stand in for one. The nearest published anchor is the pulse slot on the ICMR-NIN reference plate, where the 2000 kcal day allots 85 g to pulses and legumes, beside 250 g of cereals. Sattu is one way a share of that 85 g can appear — as the flour in a drink or a dough — and the rest of the day's pulses and energy still count. A dietitian can fit a chosen sattu portion into that slot; the is sattu good for weight loss page applies the arithmetic to a deficit.

For concrete servings, the numbers that exist are the floor arithmetic. The sattu drink recipe uses 60 g of sattu — half a cup — for four glasses of 250 ml, so one glass carries 15 g of sattu and at least 3 g of protein by the floor. A 50 g serving of dry sattu carries at least 10 g of protein. All of this counts only protein, the single nutrient the standard quantifies; energy, fat and fibre for sattu remain unpublished, which is exactly what the table at the top of this page shows. The flour's own making, from pan to mill, is on how is sattu made.

What is sattu?

Roasted Bengal gram flour: chickpea — Cicer arietinum — cleaned, washed, dried, roasted, and ground only after that roast, the FSSAI standard's definition of chana sattu. No composition values are published for the flour itself in IFCT 2017 or the USDA FoodData Central, so its nutrition is read through the standard's protein floor and the two closest published gram foods.

How much sattu per day?

Neither the FSSAI standard nor the ICMR-NIN guidelines set a daily sattu amount, so there is no honest number to give. The closest published anchor is the 85 g of pulses and legumes on the ICMR-NIN reference daily plate, of which sattu can take a share. How large that share should be depends on the rest of your day; a dietitian can set it against your energy needs.

Does sattu have protein?

Yes, and it is the one nutrient sattu's standard quantifies: crude protein of not less than 20 percent on a dry basis, which means every 100 g of the dry flour must carry at least 20 g of protein. A 50 g serving therefore holds at least 10 g of protein. No other protein figure is published for the flour, since IFCT 2017 and the USDA FoodData Central both skip it.

How many calories in 50 gm sattu?

No published calorie figure exists for sattu, so 50 gm sattu calories cannot be answered with a number. IFCT 2017 and the USDA FoodData Central both lack the roasted flour, and borrowing the raw foods' figures — chana dal at 329 kcal and besan at 387 kcal per 100 g — would be a guess. The only arithmetic the standard gives for 50 g is the protein floor: at least 10 g of protein.

What is the glycemic index of sattu?

There is no published glycemic index for sattu; the University of Sydney database holds no entry for the flour. The closest tested food is boiled Bengal gram dal at a glycemic index of 11, the mean of one India-tested entry, which sits in the low band. The 2021 international GI tables file legumes as usually low-GI foods, but a class pattern is not a sattu value.

Is sattu high in fibre?

There is no published fibre figure for sattu, and its standard's fibre line is a ceiling: crude fibre not more than 3 percent on a dry basis. That ceiling is a quality limit, not a fibre claim, and crude fibre is a different measure from the total dietary fibre in composition tables. Sattu's fibre content, honestly, is unpublished.