A pancakes a Sunday stable in your household. When you ask the kids what they want for breakfast, do they say, Mom, Dad, make me pancakes. Well, there are a growing range of pancake mixes that you can find in the supermarkets today and today on the Nutrition Couch, we're going to take you through three personal ones that we have found quite in love with. Hi Only and Lord and I'm Sissy Burrow and a swo of Astraas are leading dietitians who
specialize in evidence space nutrition. We bring you the Nutrition Couch or Product Well you a weekly chat on new products and old favorites that you can find in our Aussie supermarkets. So, Susie, big question, are the Twins pancake lovers?
The Twins love pancakes.
Now.
I'm not a pancake eater. I think because I didn't grow up with them. I think sometimes some of those sort of breakfast type traditions come from the family, and my parents never made pancakes. I couldn't even tell you when, but my boys love them now. My efforts at pancakes are pretty ordinary, Like it's like an omelet. I kind of call it a pancake, but it ends up being more like scramble. You just never know how it's going
to turn out. And I use a very simple, basic recipe with a bit of homeal flower and very very simple when I do do it. But if we go out for breakfast, they will always order it. They really enjoy it. So I'm actually finding these really fascinating today because I hadn't really looked at them in the supermarket, and there's actually some really good one. So I'm glad we're covering this because I know a lot of families do enjoy pancakes on the weekends.
Yeah, And I must say, like growing up, my mum was very very healthy and very occasionally, you know, a couple of times a year, I'd say we would have pancakes on a Sunday, and I think for ease you would buy you know, the bottle, and I just remember, I have these vivid memories of every time, you know, you get the powder stuff in the bottle, you add your water to the top, then you're supposed to shake it up, and it would always like get stuck at the bottom. So Dad would turn it over and he'd
like hammer it on the bench. Then the lidd would fall off and pancake mix would explode everywhere and he's like, nover again, We're not doing this crap again. Mydad gets so annoyed every time because the lid would fly off the pancake bottle. So I always find it very amusing when I see these, like, you know, shaken bait kind of pancake mixes. But that's what we've gone with today.
And I must give a shout out to a lovely student, Amy, who's been helping us find some awesome supermarket products, and she has come up with three rippers today, Susie, and for any of our international based followers, we're like, what does a ripper mean? Like just really good quality products. It's an all the sort of sang three ripper products,
and I'm really excited to go through these today. So the first one, Susie, I would probably say, looking at the front of packet marketing, marketing would be more like something someone would pick up, more like a health halo. So we're going to start with the Greens Protein pancake mix three hundred and twenty five grams retails for three dollars sixty eight coals and wolves, and on the front
of packaging, it says forty percent less sugar and protein. Now, if you were just to pick that up off the shelf, you would think that's a pretty good option for pancake mix, right, like more protein, forty percent less sugar and Today for ease, we're going to compare via one hundred grams because I
think it makes sense to compare the pancake mixes. So this mix, when we look at the ingredients, it has wheat flour as the first ingredient, followed by sugar, wheat starch, soy protein isolate which adds a little bit of protein in their molted extro, some raising agents, non fat milk solids, anti caking agent, thickener, and some natural flavors from the milk, and a tiny bit of salt to round us off.
So ingredient lists I would say fairly standard for a pancake mix, with a few things to make that sort of shelf stable. And of course allergens being wheat, gluten, soy and milk and are ma contained walnut allergen in there as well. So looking at the Nutrition information panel, per hundred grams, we've got seven hundred and ninety five kilodules,
which is one hundred and ninety calories. We've got six point four grams of proteino points seven grams of fats are very low fat, with point one of that being saturated, thirty eight point three grams of carbs, which seems hyber. That's per one hundred grams, nine point two grams of sugars and four hundred and seventeen milligrams, So that's the
per hundred grams. And if you were just to do what they recommend in terms of the serving size, which is one fifty grams in three pancakes, that's nine point six grams of protein, which yeah, for a pancakes, quite high. You've got two hundred and eighty five calories, which is pretty decent for pancakes. And the shocking thing to me, Susie, is thirteen point eight grams of sugar if you follow their recommended serving size on the packet. Now this is
a forty percent less pancake sugar option. We've got thirteen point eight grams of sugar going in there. To me, that's incredibly high, and six hundred and twenty six milligrams of sodium, considering salt is the last ingredient on there, that's pretty hot. Like I wouldn't expect to find that much salt in a pancake mix, right.
It's so funny because it's like sometimes we're just the same person. That's exactly what I thought. So I think the thing that stands out for me with pancakes is that if the only sugar you were getting was from the pancake itself, but let's be honest, people will then add loads of sugar, whether it's syrup, honey, ice cream, the fruit itself, so they end up being really high sugar. So I don't like that there's just nine point two grams per serve. I think that's more than two tea
spoons in a couple of pancakes. That's thirteen point eight person. It's nine point two per one hundred pard. So yeah, so per one hundred, and I'm with you. I did think it was incredibly high amount of sodium for pancakes. It's not a salty product. So there's really nothing that I would say is outstanding with this product. I don't love the ingredient list. I think there's quite a few heavily processed ingredients. There's two forms of added sugars. For example,
there's already sugar and multi dextrin. You know, I just feel there's nothing that would encourage me to buy this product. It's not good, it's not bad. I'd give it like a I don't know, five or six out of ten. It wouldn't be on my grocery list. I think it's too high in sugar for a product that will have added sugars with it. I don't love sort of soup protein isolate just to bump up the protein. I'd rather it be cleaner on the ingredient list. I think it's way too high in sodium, so it's a bit of
a health halo. I reckon with the protein.
With you description on it, I'm with you, and I think you're paying more for that health halo as well. Like three dollars sixty. It's not expensive, but it's also not inexpensive for what it is. Let's be honest, it's
protein pancake. There's not much to it. Three dollars sixty, I would say you're paying more for the fact that it's marketed as protein and forty percent less sugar, when in reality we're not really getting that flowing through as a better ingredients or better macronutrient distribution In my opinion.
Well, also, let's be honestly, and you can rip out pancakes with some very simple ingredients at home. Absolutely, you know, a bit of flour, a bit of egg, bit of milk, and off you go.
That's all.
I really need a process variety. There's no real benefit to that, and there's certainly no benefit from adding protein to it. I agree, you know, not at those amounts for anybody. I would argue, you're better to do your pancakes at home and then add a Greek yogurt as a side to it. So yeah, I wouldn't. I'd give it a five out of ten. It's not good, it's not overly bad. It's sort of middle ground, but I wouldn't be buying it or recommend them.
Yeah, i'd completely agree. But the next one quite surprised me and shout out to Amy. You know, I probably would have just looked straight past this on the shelf, but she's done really well finding it. So this is the Coals and I must say, and we're saying this off air, this is not sponsored by Coals. We are in no way affiliated with them. We really wish we were sponsored by Coals. If we're being honest, but we're not.
But they do have some really good quality products. Like if you look at between Coal's Wooers and Aldi, Coals for Us regularly comes out on top when it comes to when we're comparing things like pancake mixes or you know, frozen meals, all the different types of soup and that sort of thing. So they've actually done well. And I know that they do have a dietian on staff. Shout out to whoever that dietian is. You're doing quite well. So this one is the Coal's pancake shake mix, no
ouded sugar, buttermilk pancake. So originally you think buttermilk, all that's got to be a little bit more energy dance. It's a bit fancy, I can't be anywhere near as healthy.
But let's actually check out the ingredient list. So the first ingredient is wheat flour, followed by buttermilk powder at four percent, then some baking powder, some oat fiber which is a lovely addition, some way powder which bumps up the protein a little bit, some egg powder which I think bumps up the protein plus helps bind it together, and some natural vanilla flavor. So that's a really nice
clean ingredient list. It's made from forty nine percent Australian ingredients, so you know, fifty percent, and the allergens obviously contains oats, egg and then cereals containing gluten, milk and wheat, so not exactly an allergy friendly product, but a really nice
clean ingredient list. And again comparing via one hundred grams, we've got seven hundred kilo duels or one hundred and sixty eight calories, four point nine grams of protein, one point four grams of fat with only point five of that being saturated, thirty two point four grams of carbs with two point eight of that being sugar, so very very low amount of sugar in this product, and two point one grams of dietary fiber with one hundred and
forty six milligrams of sodium, so significantly less than the Greens product, like, you know, five hundred milligrams less of sodium. The sugars the Greens one was thirteen point eight per hundred grams, compared to two point eight in the Coal's buttermilk pancake mix. The protein in the Greens was nine point six grams and the Coals was four point nine grams. But let's be honest, we're not eating pancakes for the protein. Here eating pancakes because they're delicious and the kids love them,
and you know, adults love them too. And as you said, so you can add protein on the side if you put it with a little bit of Greek yogurt or something like that. So for me, this one ticks all the boxes. And it retails for a dollar eighty in coals. That is a very affordable product considering you're going to get a few serves out of that. Like you could probably feed half the family, if not the entire family, depending on how big your family is, with just this
one bottle of pancake mix. So this is a great product. I actually would really recommend this for my clients.
I've never seen it, and I can't believe how strong it is nutritionally. The sodium is where you would want it to be for a pancake mix, you know, just one hundred maligrams. You know, it probably could be a bit higher in fiber, but it's for that price, pointly, and like a dollar eighty, Like what is a dollar eighty in the supermarket these days? Nothing Melitias the good protein very minimal sugars, which is what you would expect. It's actually got nothing except the core ingredients in there.
And I'm with you one hundred percent. I would actually recommend this product wholeheartedly. And I'm really impressed that that Coals have put together such a strong nutritional profile of a pancake mix, like outstanding.
Yeah, And honestly, I would have just brush straight over that, you know, Bami hadn't recommended it and turned over the nutrition label and had a look, I wouldn't have battened an eye lid. It's something that says Coals branded buttermilk pancake mix. So it's a really it's a stellar find. And then the last one to round us out is I've been seeing this brand a little bit because I was in the baking yard the other day looking I was making a Greek yogurt choclate banana bread for my
Instagram profile. I was looking at this. I think it's called land Canto. They do monk fruit like types of sweetness, and you know, it's like an alternative. It's a liquid based sweetener. It's sort of alternative to using honey or maple syrup. And I thought, what an interesting product and now they've come out with their own pancake mix as well. So the last one we're going to review, I believe it's available in Coals and Wolwas. It's the land Canto
Monk Fruit pancake mix. So it's low carb, high protein, ninety nine percent sugar free. So looking at the front of the packet, you're like, well, it's a whole lot of health halos, but does it stack up? So the first thing to note is that this is an expensive product when it comes to a pancake mix. It's six dollars for two hundred grams compared to the Coals one which was a dollar eighty for three hundred grams, and the Greens one which is three dollars sixty for three
twenty five grams. So absolutely, you know, two three four times a price of some of the other ones on the market. But nutritionally it actually does quite well. So ingredients, our top ingredient is chickpea flour, followed by egg white powder and pea protein isolate, so both of those are adding extra protein in. Then we've got some of their Lencanto monk fruit sweetener, which is a mix of both rethritol and monk fruit extract. Then we've got some flax
meal which helps to add a bit of fiber. We've got some inilin, which is chicken root fiber, which helps to add some natural prebotics which helps support our gut health. We've got some coconut flour in there, some tapiogre starch, and some bicarbonate soda. So again what I would call, you know, a pretty clean ingredient list. They're obviously adding particular ingredients to boost particular macronutrients, like we're bumping up the fiber, we'll bumping up the protein. We're keeping the
sugar is very low. This is more of an allergy friendly product, but not if you have an egg not if you have an egg allergy. So the only allergy in here is actually egg and it's made from sixty eight percent Australian ingredients. So I mean, I quite like this. It's a particular product for somebody who needs lower carbohydrate
following perhaps even a kido based diet. I mean, we've only got eight percent carbs in it, so per one hundred grams, we've got six hundred and five kilo jewels, seventeen point four grams of protein, which is significantly higher than the other two brands. We reviewed four point one grams of fat, with one point six being saturated, so for a touch higher in terms of saturated fat because we have got some coconut flour in there. Eight point six grams of carbs, which is very low for a
pancake mix. One point seven grams of sugar is very low, and four hundred and ninety five milligrams of sodium, so again a decent whack of sodium for a pancake mix. I'm not really sure why they have added sodium in there, you know.
What I'm going to say to dull the taste of the pea protein.
Yeah. And also the sweetener may be the ariosotol. Yeah. So I mean, this wouldn't be my top recommendation purely based on the price. I think for a lot of people, a lot of families are you know, suggling financially at the moment, and six dollars for a pancake mix is pricey, let's be honest. But if you're happy to you know, you've got the money to spend and you're happy to do it, and you're someone that has those specific health concerns where for whatever reason, you needed higher protein, you
needed lower carbohydrate. This is a good product. I mean, I can't I can't really fault it besides the fact that it is pretty expensive. But a lot of these additions in terms of the ingredients are expensive. Chick pea flour is expensive, and quite powder is expensive. Pea protein isolate is expensive. So you know, I think the cost sort of reflects some of the quality of the ingredients as well.
I have used the Lecanto sugar replacements. They've got a brown sugar in my baking. I think that, you know, the brand has got an increasing range. They've also got a great icing sugar. Because you know, when you if you're a baker and I quite enjoy baking, and you go to make a cake that requires icing sugar, like a syrup cake. They for a long time you didn't have any real alternatives to full sugar. So to have it icing sugar makes it's fantastic. And monk fruit is
a great alternative sweetener. A bit like you, I think it's expensive, but I think that it's got a reasonably good protein load on it. I don't have any real issues with the ingredients. Yeah, the sodium is a bit higher. As I said, I think it's more to master flavor of some of those sort of more brutal flavors through it.
I think you'd have to be careful with the chicory root, as we've described before, a lot of people can be sensitive to that in the tummy, and I do think perhaps that group of people who react to legumes and those fibers might find it that it bloats them. But I'm not against it, you know, I think it's expensive, but these products are because of the sugar replacement as well. They're not an inexpensive product. But yeah, I wouldn't be against my clients using it, especially for a relatively low
carb diet. I think that with this one, you know, it says a service one pancake. I don't know how many adults ever eat one pancake, like I would be hastened to say that people would eat three times that amount. But it's still relatively low in calories overall. And then if you had three of those end your protein's getting up to about twenty gram with a ten gram carbohydrate load. So if you then had that with a btarana, it's
a pretty well balanced breakfast overall. So for people. I would use this product actually with my insulin resistant clients who really loved pancakes, and I would then team it with a little bit of fruit and a bit of yogurt, and it's actually a high protein breakfast if they if that was in their budget and they love pancakes, That's exactly who I would use that product for. But I wouldn't recommend it for families because I just don't think they need those specific insurance requirements.
I'm just looking where this company is made. It's Leancando, is a registered trademark of Japan, which I found interesting. And I was just looking at the fiber because I was curious because I thought, you know, chickpea flour pea protein isolate with the addition of the flax meal and the inuland I thought the fiber would actually be quite high. So per one hundred grams, it's four point seven grams,
which often says it's pretty high. It's be honest, not overly high though, And per serving, which is eighteen grams of the dry mix, it's one point nine grams of fiber. But I think you make it good. Point like in that pancake bottle, you're supposed to get ten servings per pack, and show me any adult who's going to get ten pancakes out of that. It's not possible. So you would absolutely be eating definitely more than one serving, if not
two to three of this. So I agree with all the points that you made, but I just thought it was a really interesting product to review because you know, we are just seeing so many of these smaller brands popping up where you know, they do specific health concerns or they have made a conscious effort to improve the macro nutrient profile of something that you would traditionally think, you know, quite an unhealthy breakfast option, being pancakes. I mean to give you bought it out at a cafe.
You've got you know, a ton of sugar in the pancake mix itself. It's served with ice cream, it's generally got some sort of syrup all over it, some fresh fruit or some like fruit kuol a or something, and then you've got you know, chocolate shavings on top or honeycomb pieces. It's traditionally not a healthy breakfast option. So to see these sort of options in the market for people that do love protein that are a lot lower in sugar and higher in protein to help balance out
those blood sugars. It's really nice to see. I think we've come a long way in the pancake, you know, shaking bake category.
Mix it is, and I think a recommendation for all pancake lovers is just watch how many arch added sugar, and perhaps it is a good time to use some of the no sugar syrups you can now find. So you can find just a maple syrup that's got to sweetener through it rather than letting kids add loads and bucket loads of extra sugars through their breakfast. And you can even find an ice cream that's got less sugar
and low sugar. So keep an eye out for those products, because yeah, the kids I do find can really go heavy on the syrups and sauces. So as I said with my own clients, i'd be encouraging them to do it with some Greek yogurt and some berries and maybe passion fruit as opposed or a sugar free syrup, rather than going heavy on the banana and then the honey and really getting those carbs up around sixty eighty grams
a serve. I'd really be trying to keep them much lower using some of those other products.
And if you're a bit more sensitive to like I can't handle things like all the you know, no sugar sweeteners and syrups and that sort of thing, like they just do my tummy no favors, So I stick to just a small amount of natural based honey. I make my own pancake eggs, just as we said, whole meal flour milk eggs, and then I put a little bit of higher protein yogur and some fresh fruit and the smallest drizzle of honey and cinnamon on top, and to me, it's like just a more natural sort of way of
sweetening it. So I think that their last product we reviewed for sensitive tummies might not be the most ideal, but people can see how they go true. What is it? Well that brings us to the end of the Nutrition Couch product review for another week. Amazing to believe that we are now at one hundred and three episodes, So thank you so much for your support, and we absolutely cannot wait to meet everybody in Melbourne for our live and last final event Melbourne's coming up. We're very very excited.
We'll see you guys very soon. In a couple of days in fact and final tickets are available on the website nutritioncouch dot com under the event's tab have a great week.