Nutrient mineral content of white flour versus whole grain and seed pancakes

The following is great information for mothers with young children.

In the previous post entitled “Nutrient dense gluten-free crepes“, we looked at the mineral content of a very tasty nutrient packed crepe. The analysis was done for a adult women.

After trialing these super pancakes on 3 young children and having a great response, I wanted to look at comparing the minerals in say a plain white flour pancake versus our super crepes. The analysis was done using the RDIs for children aged 4-8 years of age.

Even though the portion size is estimated for adult women, the young children had no problem eating this amount.

The results were astounding. The only difference between the two recipes was that white flour replaced all the grains and seeds on a weight basis. All other ingredients and quantities remained the same. Both recipes are shown below.

The chart next compares mineral content in the two recipes using the percentage of the recommended daily intake (RDI) for young children.

minerals-crepe-comparison

The biggest surprise was the difference in magnesium. A huge difference. Actually, the whole grain crepe supplied greater than 100% of the RDI of magnesium for a child aged between 4-8 years of age. That’s good. And that’s from 2 medium sized pancakes. We tested this on children down to 2 years of age – and they ate them all up.

There are many further examples showing that the whole grain/seed crepes far out-performed the plain whites. Links to full nutrient analysis of both is at end of the article. Note that selenium content of foods is very dependent on soil content.

Selenium soil content is overall quite poor in Australia, so these values could well be over-estimated. Brazil nuts are a more guaranteed super source of selenium, so grinding a few of these into the recipe would leave no room for doubt.

Nutrient-dense-gluten-free-crepes-Recipe-and-Nutrient-Analysis

All the grains and seeds were whole and organic. A simple coffee grinder turned them all into flour. The grain/seed mixture was allowed to soak overnight in water, so as to aid digestion. To further enhance digestion, experimenting with a sour culture would further enhance digestibility.

When you look at the full analysis of both recipes, the wholegrain seed pancake also had significantly more vitamins, protein, fibre and especially Omega 3 fats – all important for growing children.

Finally, the white crepes used unfortified flour in the recipe. In Australia, all non-orgainc flours are fortified with iodine and folic acid (a form of folate) – so folate levels would be higher if using this sort of flour.

Note that in Australia only non-organic flour is fortified with these nutrients. Meanwhile in America flour is also fortified/enriched with several B-group vitamins like thiamine, niacin, riboflavin and folic acid.

Would love to hear any comments and happy to take any questions.

White-crepes-Recipe-and-Nutrient-Analysis

Whole gluten free grain and seed pancake © foodsynergy.com.au

Full analysis of both recipes are at these links.
Full analysis as PDF of the Nutrient dense gluten-free crepes.
Full analysis as PDF of the White flour crepes.