What Brings Morning Smiles Better Than Pancakes?

November 18, 2009 in Blog Recipes, Diabetes, Diabetic Menu Item, Health Claims, Mediterranean, Nutrition by Joyce Bunderson

I was recently asked about the difference between standard pancake mixes on the market and Dr. Grandma’s pancakes. To answer the question I decided to do a bit of research about pancake products. One product gave me a wholehearted chuckle, we’re talking belly laugh. I’ll save the most fun till almost the end.

I started with Krusteaz Buttermilk Pancake Mix. It’s made with enriched bleached flour (Yes, that’s white processed flour, about as processed as it gets.) with added vitamins, soy flour and may contain malted barley flour. It contains both dextrose and sugar.  You may not want to have much of this if you’re worried about diabetes, especially if you’re partial to slathering the resulting pancakes with butter and syrup.

I wasn’t very surprised with this product; I knew that it would not be high in fiber. Also, the company is not saying that it is an organic natural type of product.  It says on the Nutritional Facts panel that it has zero trans fat, but is made with partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oils.  Hummmm……  I think that this might be one of those cases of getting the oil just low enough per serving to not have to mention the trans fat.  I do not believe that they have discovered how to make partially hydrogenated oil without creating trans fat.

Lastly, it has 490 mg sodium per serving. Breads, processed foods and restaurant foods are notorious for sodium.  If you’re trying to keep your intake below 2,300 mg/day or you’re in the group (individuals with hypertension, blacks, middle-aged and older adults) it’s 1,500 mg/day, it’s pretty difficult if you’re getting 490 mg from the pancakes and possibly adding 130 from the syrup.   You’d be over 1/3 of your day’s intake with one serving of the pancakes and syrup. That’s without butter, milk or yogurt.

Next I looked up Bisquick; that’s what my grandmother made pancakes with. It was pretty close to Krusteaz, except has less sugar. (Enriched flour bleached with added vitamins, partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oil, dextrose and salt.) The same exact amount of sodium - 490 mg sodium/serving as the Krusteaz.  Same exact processed white flour – cheap and not too nourishing! Perfect if you want your blood sugar to rise fairly rapidly.

Batter Blaster is by far the front-runner for a good nutrition joke. This is such a terrific example of a hyped novelty product!  I mean a great example of food being designed to sound fabulously nutritious ……. to, well, kind of trick us into thinking it could possibly be good for us.  I like it because it’s another good example for me to illustrate nutritional atrocities – if you follow this blog, I wouldn’t be surprised if I mention it again. It’s such a good example of what ‘real food’ is NOT! It’s jogged my memory of Wonder Bread, building healthy bodies 12 ways. ☺ This was one of the super successful nationwide bakeries that got the great idea to dump in vitamins to make a nutritionally impoverished product ‘healthy.’

The Batter Blaster product’s pretense to good health is because of the big word ‘Organic’ plastered on the front of the can.  Its real appeal is novelty and ease of preparation. If you haven’t seen this product, it comes in a spray can like whipped cream. Their claim to fame is ‘Organic’.  The reason that I find it such an amusing product is that it is made from ‘organic’ HIGHLY PROCESSED’ ingredients. It is as if the use of the word “organic” atones entirely for the nutritional atrocities of processing out a long list of nutritional components from each ingredient. Seriously, Organic Cane sugar; give me a break, it’s still sugar. Organic whole egg solids; how solid are eggs?  Organic soybean Powder – who knows!. And Organic rice bran extract – whatever! Filtered water – it must be healthy to get ‘stuff’ out of the water. Unlike the Krusteaz and Bisquick, the Batter Blaster people decided to skip adding the vitamins. The word “organic” can even make unnecessary the time-honored ploy of  “enriching” impoverished ingredients with vitamins. It has 300 mg. sodium per 80 calorie serving – this should be the last choice for those not wanting to drive their blood sugar up – it’s loaded with processed white flour, sugar and salt. But hey, it’s organic. ☺

They’ve sold a ton of it! It seems as though there are many people who only care if something comes in a novelty package and looks like food – you know, food-like substances. Do people know how America and much of the civilized world suffered from Beriberi after beginning to make white flour and white rice? Unfortunately, I think that it has not been covered in health or history classes – the general public just doesn’t know.

Food should be enjoyable and tasty, and it’s nice when it’s convenient; but in addition, it should be nourishing to your body – something to support your health.

Dr. Grandma’s Pancake & Waffle Mix is made with 100% Whole Organic Hard Red Spring Wheat – that means no white flour, bleached or unbleached.  It’s a real grain that grows on a shaft …… a real wheat plant.  Nothing is removed and nothing is added; it’s got all the hundreds of nutrients that grow in organic wheat, no pesticides, and so on.

Dr. G’s Pancakes are made with Doctor Grandma's Mild Extra Virgin Olive Oil – supporting your goal of eating more like an American-Mediterranean. No trans fat, which is a by-product of partially hydrogenated oil. If you use Dr. G’s pancakes with our extra-virgin olive oil, or supply your own, there is no hydrogenated oil, partial or not. None at all.

It’s sweetened a little with our all-natural zero-calorie sweetener, Delight. It a mixture of erythritol (found in fruits and vegetables) and other fruit extracts.

It’s got a little non-fat dry milk (milk with the fat and water removed), baking powder and a little salt and cinnamon. The sodium is 185 mg per serving.  So feel free to serve with milk or yogurt and still feel that you’re not going to add to hypertension (high blood pressure.) As I’ve written before, we usually serve with Greek yogurt and pureed defrosted strawberries or other berries (loaded with potassium and many other healthy nutrients.)

Another thing about Dr. Grandma’s pancakes and waffles is that they taste better than any other pancake.  We’ve done thousands of samplings over the past 5 years and the tasters rave about the great taste.  In addition, Dr. Grandma’s Pancakes/Waffles are perfect for diabetics, who don’t want the white flour and sugar (which quickly is metabolized and raises blood sugar). Thousands of tasters can’t be wrong about Dr. Grandma’s pancakes. I wish I had a picture of little three year old Eryk, holding a leftover pancake to his heart saying, “Mom, I just love these pancakes,” as reported by his mother.

Good Health Can Be Yummy – Start with real whole traditional food! The pictures of today’s pancakes below show you that it's really easy; it only takes a minute to add an egg, the oil packet and water to the mix; then fry and serve. You can cook like your Grandma; but it will be easy and very nourishing.

Cut the mix packet open

Snip open the individual batch pancake mix packet

Pour mix into bowl.

Pour the mix into a bowl

Measure 1 1/2 cups of water.

Measure 1 1/2 cups water

Snip the oil packet.

Snip open the extra virgin olive oil

Pour the oil into the water.

Pour the oil into the water.

Add an egg to the oil and water.

Add the egg to the oil and water

Mix the egg and water a bit.

Whisk together the egg, oil and water

Pour water, egg, oil into the mix.

Pour mixed egg, water, and oil into the mix

Mix just a few stirs - don't over mix.

Whisk together, but not too much (leave a few small lumps).

Spoon batter into hot skillet.

Spoon batter into hot skillet.

Cook first side until bubbling on top: ready to flip

Cook first side until bubbling on top: ready to flip

Put spatula under pancake and flip.

Put spatula under pancake and flip.

Remove your perfect pancake

Remove your perfect pancake

Make it as fancy as you like - shown with whipped cream and blueberries

Make it as fancy as you like - shown with whipped cream and blueberries