Choco chip and banana pancakes

Two weeks ago, I was at the supermarket and I walked away from a Ghirardelli chocolate sale. 70% off and I walked away because I am on a low-sugar diet. A few days ago, I was back at the same supermarket and the Ghirardelli chocolates were still there. 50% off. I caved in. I bought a bag of semi-sweet chocolate morsels, baked huge chocolate chip cookies using half and, with the other half, I made these choco chip and banana pancakes.

There’s no real recipe to write about here. You prepare your usual pancake batter, you stir in chopped bananas and chocolate morsels and you cook them as you would any regular pancakes. If you’re using a non-stick cookware, don’t worry about the chocolate sticking to the pan.

Does the addition of chocolate morsels to pancakes classify them as junk food? If it’s the sugar content, well, you add chocolate morsels and there’s no urge to pour syrup all over the pancakes.

Perhaps, the real question is whether chocolates are junk food and whether they are unhealthy.

Controversies surrounding claims that chocolate is a health food

You must have read or heard about it — the research study that says chocolate bars are actually good for the heart. But note that the study says it is dark chocolate and cocoa that contain significant amounts of antioxidants. Cheap chocolate bars which contain very little of the flavanols found in cocoa will do your health no good.

The study does not say either that dark chocolate bars with nougats, caramels, nuts and all those trimmings will keep your heart healthy.

Finally, before jumping into the chocolate-as-health-food bandwagon, know that flavanols are not unique to cocoa and dark chocolates. They are found in tea and wine too. And eating dark chocolates for health also means cutting down on some other foods to offset the caloric intake. So, the study is not exactly a license to indulge in unlimited amounts of chocolates everyday.