Healthy Pancake Toppings for Amazing Skin

If you’re wanting to enjoy a few pancakes for Shrove Tuesday, but prefer to keep your toppings healthy and clean, here are a few nutritious, alternative ideas. All these ingredients are packed full of nutrients for your skin and body to maintain your healthy eating, keep your skin glowing and your body working at its best. 

Raw, organic honey and fresh lemon instead of bottled lemon juice and white sugar.

Bottled lemon juice is mixed with preservatives, has been heavily processed and therefore lost most of the nutrients. Lemons provide us with Vitamin C to give our immune system a boost, fight off free radicals and help our bodies produce collagen to smooth out fine lines. The enzyme properties in lemons also help to stimulate a detox effect in our body to flush out toxins. Avoid the bottled stuff this year and stock up on fresh, organic lemons to squeeze over your pancakes.

Drizzle a little raw, organic honey over your pancakes to provide an antioxidant boost for your skin and body, this can help protect you against diseases and cell damage. Most of the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-fungal nutrients in honey is taken away when the honey is heavily processed into bottles. Most of the honey available in supermarkets has been heated, filtered and pasteurised removing most of its nutritional content. Raw honey should be cloudy in colour, solid at room temperature, and the texture should be like very fine crystals, not the typical runny honey most of us are used to seeing. Yes, it is more expensive, but when you're also consuming all that goodness into your body, it's surely worth it!

Banana and nut butter instead of banana and whipped cream.

There are so many choices of nut butters on the market nowadays, from cashew to hazelnut to almond, all are delicious, but just be sure you check the ingredients for unwanted added extras. The best quality nut butters contain 100% nuts, avoid brands that contain added oils and sugar. If you’re stuck on which nut butter to choose, almond butter provides the most benefits for your skin. It is rich in vitamin E which can help to reduce signs of ageing, as well as providing healthy fats to keep skin hydrated.

Bananas are also packed full of nutrients for our skin and bodies, and provide us with a good boost of energy with its natural sugars and soluble fiber to keep us feeling full. Spread your pancakes with your nut butter of choice, chuck on some chopped up banana, dig in and enjoy! If you're feeling particularly fancy, you can even sprinkle over some cacao nibs for an extra sweet treat.

Blueberries, greek yogurt and chia seeds instead of ice cream and bottled syrup.

Blueberries are packed full of antioxidants and vitamins to help reduce dark spots, smooth wrinkles and neutralize free radicals to prevent premature ageing. Alternatively (or as well as!) you could go for strawberries to help brighten up dull skin and even out your complexion. Or even blackberries to give the skin a hydration boost. Sprinkle over a few omega 3 rich chia seeds to help repair damaged skin cells and revitalize dry skin.

Whilst we all love a little ice cream now and then, it’s good to keep in mind that the amount of refined sugar it contains can cause our skin to age quicker. Sugar has a damaging effect on our skin by triggering an inflammatory response that turns off its natural defence system against cell damage. If you’re wanting to stay on track with your healthy eating, avoid the ice cream and go for plain, organic greek yogurt instead.

Smoked salmon, avocado, chives and lime juice instead of processed ham and cheese.

Salmon is super high in nutritional content, choose wild caught salmon rather than farmed to get the highest amount of nutrients for your body. Salmon not only provides our skin with omega 3 fats to keep it supple and looking glowing, but is also good for our heart health, bones, joints and brain. We all know how good avocado’s are for us, they have been trending as a superfood for the past few years, and for good reason! They are a high fat food, but high in good fat, the kind of fat our body needs to help us absorb the other nutrients, as well as keep our heart healthy and lower the risk of chronic diseases.

If you prefer a savoury pancake, choose natural foods rather than processed meat and cheese as a topping. Processed ham contains a lot of added salt as a preservative that can lead to unbalanced, unhappy skin. You skin might end up producing too much oil to overcompensate for dehydration, or produce less oil and become dry and flaky.