Pancake rant!

[Cheese Thief]

Before I have my little rant I want to point out that in general I absolutely love SW. It's helped me to lose 3st 11lbs in 6 months, without feeling hungry or deprived, so I don't hesitate to recommend it to anyone looking for sustainable and healthy weight loss. Sometimes though I think the SW plan has to be taken with a pinch of salt and good dollop of common sense.

This morning I made pancakes with just 2 eggs and a banana. It was the first time I've tried this recipe after seeing it online, and as I've never cooked any kind of fruit before I thought it was syn free, apparently not. As I'm cooking the banana it's 5 syns.

I completely get that when fruit is mashed or cooked it loses its volume and isn't as filling, so you can eat more and it needs a syn value. Fair enough, I guess cooking fruit isn't optimising the calories and uncooked fruit will satisfy you more. But if you're still eating the same amount of fruit as you'd have raw, does it really matter? Calories wise everything is the same after all and that's what really matters when it comes to weight loss.

This isn't really the bit which bugs me though, I can see why SW has to protect people's weight loss by not allowing them to eat unlimited smoothies/OJ/pancakes. BUT what I DON'T agree with is when I get told about a 'syn free alternative' that's incredibly unhealthy in comparison! Now just so you can see here are the ingredients in the 2 pancake recipes:

1. 2 eggs and a banana - 5 syns
2. 1 egg, 6 tablespoons of sweetener, vanilla extract - syn free (Slimming World Syn Free Pancakes! | Baking Bad)

Does anyone else see the problem here?!! I mean bloody hell, SIX TABLESPOONS of SWEETENER! I'm sure anyone would agree that recipe 1 is a million times healthier than the second one, yet is has 5 syns as oppose to none!

Now I'm no nutritionist, but anyone can see the first recipe contains healthy natural ingredients and the second has such a high aspartame content it'd send our blood sugar levels crazy. So why is it syn free? With pancake day just around the corner I imagine loads of people will be trying this syn free recipe and missing out on a much healthier alternative.

Just my two-penneth anyway! I'm not so much annoyed about having to syn the banana pancake, just the comparative unhealthiness of the syn free one! Overall the plan is great, but things like this make me question the logic of it sometimes... It'd be interesting to hear what people think!

 

[Blueway]

Before I have my little rant I want to point out that in general I absolutely love SW. It's helped me to lose 3st 11lbs in 6 months, without feeling hungry or deprived, so I don't hesitate to recommend it to anyone looking for sustainable and healthy weight loss. Sometimes though I think the SW plan has to be taken with a pinch of salt and good dollop of common sense.

This morning I made pancakes with just 2 eggs and a banana. It was the first time I've tried this recipe after seeing it online, and as I've never cooked any kind of fruit before I thought it was syn free, apparently not. As I'm cooking the banana it's 5 syns.

I completely get that when fruit is mashed or cooked it loses its volume and isn't as filling, so you can eat more and it needs a syn value. Fair enough, I guess cooking fruit isn't optimising the calories and uncooked fruit will satisfy you more. But if you're still eating the same amount of fruit as you'd have raw, does it really matter? Calories wise everything is the same after all and that's what really matters when it comes to weight loss.

This isn't really the bit which bugs me though, I can see why SW has to protect people's weight loss by not allowing them to eat unlimited smoothies/OJ/pancakes. BUT what I DON'T agree with is when I get told about a 'syn free alternative' that's incredibly unhealthy in comparison! Now just so you can see here are the ingredients in the 2 pancake recipes:

1. 2 eggs and a banana - 5 syns
2. 1 egg, 6 tablespoons of sweetener, vanilla extract - syn free (Slimming World Syn Free Pancakes! | Baking Bad)

Does anyone else see the problem here?!! I mean bloody hell, SIX TABLESPOONS of SWEETENER! I'm sure anyone would agree that recipe 1 is a million times healthier than the second one, yet is has 5 syns as oppose to none!

Now I'm no nutritionist, but anyone can see the first recipe contains healthy natural ingredients and the second has such a high aspartame content it'd send our blood sugar levels crazy. So why is it syn free? With pancake day just around the corner I imagine loads of people will be trying this syn free recipe and missing out on a much healthier alternative.

Just my two-penneth anyway! I'm not so much annoyed about having to syn the banana pancake, just the comparative unhealthiness of the syn free one! Overall the plan is great, but things like this make me question the logic of it sometimes... It'd be interesting to hear what people think!

I agree, it does seem ridiculous.
I also struggle to see how things like muller lights and pasta n sauce are free when they've probably got very little nutritional value and are quite high calorie but an Avacado has syns!

 

[Tetris]

I totally agree it is barmy- especially as for the same calories we can have a 'free' mugshot packed full of preservatives, additices, msg making us crave stuff, etc!

However the second recipe can be made with natural sweetner, I think most people realise the benefits of splenda/stevia over aspartame pretty quickly and choose that, which would make the other option less unhealthy. I tried it and it was GROSS though!!
As I said on your diary, puréd and juiced fruit I understand the synning of but mashed/cooked should have an allowance.... hexC allowing one banana/apple/etc to be mashed or cooked a day? I'd have it raw otherwise so what bloody difference if I can get more enjoyment out of it for the same calories by cooking thr blooming thing?? Fried banana is SO NICE and would make me less craving of chocolate!

 

[Rochelle1]

Yep I find this annoying too! X

 

[jaylou]

Okay, so say cooked fruit was free, you could have these pancakes for breakfast, as a snack, for pudding and you would not be as full as if you ate the bananas whole.
Question the plan as much as you like, there has to be some rules and restrictions, there are on all diet plans.
They may be free on WW for example, but you can't have masses of pasta and potatoes.

Enjoy them and take the syns hit, or eat them and count them as free, a lot of people do.

 

[Blueway]

Okay, so say cooked fruit was free, you could have these pancakes for breakfast, as a snack, for pudding and you would not be as full as if you ate the bananas whole.
Question the plan as much as you like, there has to be some rules and restrictions, there are on all diet plans.
They may be free on WW for example, but you can't have masses of pasta and potatoes.

Enjoy them and take the syns hit, or eat them and count them as free, a lot of people do.

I don't think the OP was saying she was bothered about synning them or not - I think it was more the fact that other less "healthy" recipes would be classed as free.

 

[Cheese Thief]

Okay, so say cooked fruit was free, you could have these pancakes for breakfast, as a snack, for pudding and you would not be as full as if you ate the bananas whole.
Question the plan as much as you like, there has to be some rules and restrictions, there are on all diet plans.
They may be free on WW for example, but you can't have masses of pasta and potatoes.

Enjoy them and take the syns hit, or eat them and count them as free, a lot of people do.

Yeah I agree there has to be limits and can see why it'd be syned as obviously anyone could wolf loads down. The real problem I have is with the other recipe I found which has loads of sweetner and is syn free. Just seems so much more unhealthy than a basic eggs/banana mix.

 

[Roxy101]

Sorry to intrude on your post but iv noticed you have said about fruit e.g bananas being cooked or mushed up being syns. Does this make a milkshake with my healthy extra a milk and bananas have syns? X

 

[jaylou]

It is a lot less healthy, I do agree, I guess it's all down to choice. I choose not to eat mugshots, pasta in sauce etc although they are free, and I certainly wouldn't use that much sweetener in a recipe.

 

[jaylou]

Sorry to intrude on your post but iv noticed you have said about fruit e.g bananas being cooked or mushed up being syns. Does this make a milkshake with my healthy extra a milk and bananas have syns? X

Yes. All fruit is synned when blended. Syn values are in the book.

 

[Roxy101]

Seriously? I really don't get that, think it's rather silly x

 

[Snozzberry]

I'll have the odd muller light and an occasional diet coke but I refuse to add spoonfuls of artificial sweetener to recipes generally. Partly because when I'm cooking for the family I don't really like the idea of my children having it. But also because last time I joined SW (about a year ago) I used loads of the stuff and one day I was in the loos at work and ***TMI*** my wee smelled so sweet that I had a real panic for a few minutes that I had diabetes or something. Then I remembered all the Hermesetes and a quick google revealed that sweeteners are expelled from the body via urine. The relief was massive! But it has put me off randomly bunging them in stuff.

 

[AnnaFaraday]

I can see the point of synning bananas if several of them are whizzed up into a smoothie. But when it is just one banana, which I was going to have anyway, and it just happens to get a little squashed in the process, then I am not going to worry about it.

I agree about the sweetener - 6 tablespoons to 1 egg!! That is just ridiculous and I can't imagine what it would taste like.

Your post does bring up something which does bug me - SW recipes which are pretending to be what they aren't. Whatever the two recipes you mention turn out to be, they certainly won't be anything like a pancake! Same with quiches, cheesecakes, etc. They may be nice, but a SW quiche is actually a type of frittata and a SW cheesecake is jelly set with yogurt. I actually like the "cheesecakes" but don't call them that!

 

[Rochelle1]

I think if people want to not syn this banana pancake, as a one off, then go for it, it's your choice. If you're having them every day and they start to affect your losses then it's definitely something to stop doing. We all have personal choice and nobody is going to shoot you because you choose to mash a banana up one day and not syn it lol

 

[littlemissslim]

Just a thought-where do these recipes come from? Are they from clever, inventive members or from the official Slimming World recipes? Like any plan-Sw can be used in a way it was not meant to be-so the syns are there to protect your weightloss. That's possibly why the one with sweetner is free-lots of different recipe pages and that's where it's come from?

 

[Cheese Thief]

Just a thought-where do these recipes come from? Are they from clever, inventive members or from the official Slimming World recipes? Like any plan-Sw can be used in a way it was not meant to be-so the syns are there to protect your weightloss. That's possibly why the one with sweetner is free-lots of different recipe pages and that's where it's come from?

Good point, the sweetener recipe was given to my by another member of my group who posted the link. Would be interesting to see what SW's take on it would be!

 

[jaylou]

Can't see this on the SW website. The pancake recipe on there uses 3tbsp sweetener and serves 6.

 

[BlodynAur]

I totally get what you mean! Sometimes people tweak the plan in an unhealthy wan, but others tweak them healthily. Why punish the ones that do it healthily?! Anyway, I know it's a set plan and all, but I don't take every word to heart. Not following every word isn't going to have a huge effect...

 

[SMD]

I agree with you it seems silly you can have all that sweetner and it be free when we all know sweetner is not good for us!

I saw somewhere on here that there's another receipe for syn free pancakes - 35g oats mixed with a vanilla muller light overnight and then in the morning add two eggs. I haven't tried it yet but apparently they are nice!

 

[Minimunchkins]

The only one who will punish you, is you! You are the master of your own future and if tweaking the plan works for you then fine, go with it & enjoy.

The long & short of it is that SW works, it's worked for 1000's over the years but some people just don't have the willpower to do it any other way than 100%.