Nigerian swallow ranked by calories

4 October 2026 · 1 min read

Swallow is the base of most Nigerian meals, so it matters more than almost anything else when you are counting calories. It is also the food most often counted wrongly.

Most calorie figures online are for the dry flour, not the swallow. Dry garri is roughly 357 kcal per 100g; prepared eba is about 95 kcal per 100g, because it is mostly water. Every number here is for the prepared swallow.

The ranking

Swallows from lightest to heaviest, per 200g wrap

Lafun (Cassava flour)

Amala is the lightest at 169 kcal a wrap, and Semo the heaviest at 234 kcal. That is a difference of 65 kcal for the same size wrap, so how much swallow you eat matters more than which one.

What actually changes the number

•
The size of the wrap. Two wraps is twice the calories, whichever swallow it is. Portion matters far more than the type.
•
The soup. A ladle of soup often has more calories than the swallow, because of the palm oil and meat in it.
•
Protein. Most swallows are almost pure starch. Semo and wheat swallow carry a little more protein than the cassava and yam ones.

Every food here has its own page in our calorie guide, with protein, carbs, fat and values per 100g. There are 91 foods in it.

Browse the calorie guide →

Figures are estimates for typical home-cooked portions, from measured Nigerian portion studies, USDA FoodData Central and the FAO/INFOODS West African food tables. Not medical advice.

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