How to Make a Healthier Pancake

Until some nutritionist uncovers a group of beneficial chemicals in pancakes she might call crepeceuticals, it is going to be difficult to commend pancakes as a healthy food.

The problem with pancakes is that they can be delicious, but they are usually not satisfying. Plain, white flour pancakes provide simple sugars and fats in large quantity, the amount of simple sugars greatly increased by the addition of syrup. Because most people need a very large pancake or several pancakes to “fill up,” the body churns out large amounts of insulin, which stores fat in fat cells. While you are eating pancakes, your brain tells your pancreas, “There’s more, I know there’s more,” so the pancreas releases more insulin than it normally would for the same amount of carbohydrate.

There are ways you can make pancakes that are both delicious and satisfying. One way is to add buttermilk to the pancake batter (or, let’s be honest, to use a pancake mix including buttermilk). It makes pancakes slightly crumbly, so you eat them more slowly.

Buttermilk reacts with baking powder to make the pancakes lighter, so you consume less in each bite. It also gives the pancakes a tang that blunts the anticipatory response in the pancreas.

Another way you can make a better pancake is to add fiber. Use whole grain flours—but be careful not to mix them into the batter too vigorously. The more you mix a quick-bread batter, the more you develop the gluten in the flour, and the tougher the result. You can avoid lumps in your batter by dumping the milk mixture all at once into the flour mixture, then giving it a quick whisk, just a few seconds. Your batter may not be totally lump-free (everyone will know your pancakes are homemade), but your pancakes will be light and fluffy.