85+ Popular Nigerian Foods With Low and High Calories Content

Are you looking for the number of calories in Nigerian foods you eat?

You already know that to gain weight, you need to eat more calories than you burn, and to lose weight, burn more calories than you eat.

According to the National Health Service (NHS) UK, the recommended daily calorie limit is:

• For a woman = 2,000 calories
• For a man = 2,500 calories

You must know the calorie content of some of these foods you consume in order to plan your meal and diet correctly.

This table shows 85+ popular Nigerian foods, dishes, meals, stews, soups, snacks, drinks, fruits and vegetables with low and high calories.

 Nigerian Foods Calories

For conversion of some of these foods to grams, 1 Cup, Tablespoons, Teaspoon’s etc., checkout:

• Cooking Conversion Calculator
• Cooking Measurements

Note

• The portion sizes in grams (g) are worldwide standards and are included as a reference.
• However, foods without the portion size in grams (g) are not completely accurate but are close estimates.
• The “calorie” we refer to in food is actually kilocalorie. One (1) kilocalorie is the same as one (1) Calorie (upper case C).
• Most companies usually add some other ingredients, making the calories are higher.
• Always look at the food label to find the nutritional fact of some of these foods when buying from the market.

Also…

Remember that the actual calories of your cooked meal depend on what you add (ingredients).

For example, let’s look at two popular Nigerian foods.

Banga Soup

Banga Soup is referred to as Ofe Akwu by people in South East Nigeria, where “Ofe” means Soup, while “Akwu” means palm fruit. In the Yoruba land, it is referred to as “Obe Eyin”.

Banga is eaten with other carbohydrates like pounded yam, cooked starch, etc.

The cooked starch (yellow swallow mould in the above picture) is very starchy.

That cooked starch alone contains approximately 500 calories.

According to research, 1 tablespoon of palm oil contains 130 calories.

In other to cook Banga soup, you’ll most likely need 4 – 6 table spoons of palm oil.

So, assuming these are the basic ingredients of Banga soup and their corresponding calorie contents:

• 4 table spoons of palm oil (4 x 130) = 520 calories.
• 1/3 Maggi Chicken cube: 3 calories
• 1/4 of an Onion: 16 calories
• 1/10 of a Red Bell Pepper: 10 calories
• 1/4 Stockfish (cod): 45 calories
• 1tsp of cray fish: 6 calories

The soup ingredients come to 600 calories (520 + 3 + 16 + 10 + 45 + 6).

Remember that by the time you add your meat and your Iyan, you have added more calories.

So, Banga Soup (600 calories) + Starch (500 Calories) = 1,100 calories!

Just from ONE meal!

Your own Banga soup calories might be different, it depends on other added ingredients and oil used.

Akara (Bean Cake)

Akara is one of the best Nigerian foods made from beans, tomatoes, pepper, onions.

Each ball of Akara contains approximately 71 calories, but that is if you add just the basic ingredients mentioned above.

The more you add other ingredients, the more calorific it gets.

This same thing applies to foods like moimoi and okpa.

A plate of moimoi will have different calories count depending on the ingredients and quantity used in making it.

To get a more accurate count on your moimoi, you’ll have to add up the calories of each ingredient you use in making it.

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