The month of January brings us a few more excuses to relish sweets like laddoos. Whether you celebrated Lohri, a Punjabi festival, or Makar Sankrant, or neither, I am sure you have been sampling the laddoos exchanged between families on the occasions.

Earlier, winters used to be really cold and people thought it essential to 'fatten up' in order to survive the cold. Now, of course, there are several ways to stay warm and cosy sans the calories -- that is why most of these foods earlier thought of as 'wholesome' are now on the 'eat as less as possible' list.

Let's have a look at two of them.
 
2 Til (sesame) laddoos = 292 calories (15.7 fat grams) = Walking at 5.5 km/hour for 52 minutes
 
Til laddoos are made by roasting the til in a dry pan, melting jaggery in another, and then mixing the two and rolling them into balls by hand. Some people add a little ghee too, before rolling out the final product.

However, with or without the ghee, it is a high calorie and high fat food, both til and jaggery being contributors to the calories. Til is a highly nutritious nut and is a very rich source of calcium, protein and iron. However, it is an equally high source of fat too, so no matter how much you compromise on the added fat or jaggery, this laddoo is a high calorie food and you must try to not go overboard eating this.
 
2 Kurmura laddoos = 88 calories (2 fat grams) = Walking at 5.5 km/hour for 16 minutes

Kurmura laddoos are made by heating jaggery till it attains semi-liquid consistency and then adding puffed rice to it. Going by the calories and fat content, these are a dieter's dream come true, to satisfy sweet cravings!

Nutritionally, of course, kurmura does not compare to til as far as protein, calcium and iron content go, but fat wise, these laddoos are a far better option than the til ones. However, just because a food is low on fat, it does not translate into 'eat as much as you can', as excess calories from sweeteners like sugar and jaggery too, get converted to fat by the body. So enjoy these, but within a limit!