Okay, I admit it, last week I found myself in the frozen food section of my local grocery store looking at pancakes and grabbing a box of waffles. I even made the mistake of buying the box because it’s actually fast food and the kids love it. However, I am no stranger to the fact that they are extremely unhealthy.

We have all been tempted and for many of us it is an ongoing battle. It’s easier to put breakfast in the toaster than it is to cook something from scratch. Our lives have become so busy that we just don’t have time to slow down and really enjoy life.

Unfortunately, many of the foods we eat, like ordinary waffles and pancakes, are loaded with chemicals and sugars. They don’t have any real nutritional value unless you add some fresh fruit and even then, they’re still not healthy.

Some of the ingredients you’ll find in these convenient breakfast foods are flour, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, sugar, salt, yellow #5, yellow #6, and reduced iron. All of these ingredients are extremely unhealthy and even dangerous.

Yellow #5 and 6 are both tints. So why would a manufacturer add such an ingredient to our food source? Easy. It is to give it a striking color. It has no nutritional value. Both dyes are known to cause allergic reactions in some people, including vomiting, diarrhea, and bloating. It has also been linked to hyperactivity in children.

As scary as those dyes seem, they are the only things that can do serious damage to your body. In fact, the syrup you pile on that waffle or pancake can be just as bad, if not worse. The main ingredient in many pancake syrups is high fructose corn syrup and that’s a heart stopper all on its own.

So if you must have waffles or pancakes, why not make your own? This way you will know what ingredients they carry. And if you think you’re missing the idea of ​​convenience, they can be frozen just as well as commercial brands. And the big plus is that they are not as unhealthy as store brands! So eat wisely and live healthy. Your body will thank you!