By Catherine Burns

I may be a kale-loving, quinoa-cooking, chia-embracing health nut, but I also love bacon. The irony is not lost on me, but I’m a big believer in moderation.

I don’t mean moderation in the traditional sense — because eating an FDA approved “balanced diet” can also result in a hefty dose of GMOs (for example) but I mean it in the “clean” sense.

Of all the dieting strategies that have come and gone over the years, clean-eating has resonated the most with me.

For a start, because it’s a food philosophy that guides your choices regarding food sources rather than being a restrictive diet. And in addition, with clean eating, nothing really is off the table.

You can still have treats, you just need to make the best (and least processed) version possible.

So imagine my excitement when I stumbled across bacon pancake dippers on Facebook. That’s right! Bacon, inside a pancake, dipped in maple syrup.

Oh my god! I immediately posted it to my business page and asked a very innocent question: who wants a clean version of this?

The answer was …. more than 80 of you. Putting aside my grievances that this bacon post was way more popular than something I’d just done on beansprouts (surprise!), I was excited that you were excited too! And so I set to work.

Bacon is a great example of something that from a health perspective can either be done really badly or really well.

I would never recommend bacon for breakfast lunch and dinner, but I would never say “never” either. One commenter suggested that as a nutritionist, I should really be advocating veganism.

That’s a discussion for another day, but for now let me just also say that we have a lot of plant-based meals in our house too.

So if you do choose to have bacon occasionally, how do you make a “healthy” choice? I recommend starting with buying a good quality, ethically farmed brand.

I’d much rather my bacon came without antibiotics and I also prefer to avoid the chemical nitrites that have been linked by the American Institute for Cancer Research to bowel cancer.

That means ditching mainstream brands for Applegate or Niman Ranch. It’s more expensive, so buy it less frequently.

Next you need to think about the cut. The long, narrow pancake dippers I saw online were crying out for streaky bacon.

Niman Ranch do a streaky bacon, which is a step in the right direction. However it’s also really high in animal-based saturated fats and I am a fan of keeping those on the low side.

If you go streaky, at least cut that top layer of thick rind off! But it would be best to go for a Canadian/English cut. This will change the shape of your dippers, but it’s not a big deal.

When you cook the bacon, I also recommend grilling it as another means of trimming the total fat content.

The Applegate and Niman Ranch Canadian cut bacon comes pre-cooked but I still grill it to make it crisp. If you must fry it, at least blot it with kitchen paper afterwards!

For the batter, I experimented with all sorts of options here. I even tried a paleo coconut flour pancake with hidden broccoli.

I was that ambitious! Needless to say it was a giant failure. Not because the recipe itself was bad, but because alternative pancake batters are just really hard to keep to a uniform shape — they tend to spread everywhere on the griddle and then it’s hard to make a “dipper”!

A reader sent me a great recipe for a banana/egg pancake (1 banana, 1 egg, a little cinnamon and vanilla) and although it made amazing pancakes separately, it failed the flip test with the bacon on top.

In the end, as much as I wanted to present you with a radical recipe, I got the best result by using the whole-grain Bob’s Red Mill pancake mix.

You could use any good mix or recipe for American (thick) pancakes but it will need to be thick.

Just avoid the refined boxes and pick a whole-wheat or gluten free option as per your preference. Remember to go organic too if you want to avoid those pesky GMOs.

Finally, the syrup. If you can, try and get a proper maple syrup rather than Aunt Jemima.

That way although you are getting the sugar, you are at least avoiding high fructose corn syrup and a host of other nasties.

If you are going to do it, you might as well do it properly! And although you could use a regular frying pan, I suggest using a griddle instead as the healthiest cooking method.

Then go for a modest portion size with a heap of berries on the side and you can enjoy this relatively guilt free. Oh yes! Moderation baby.

Note: the squeeze bottle is not essential but helpful for forming the dippers.

It’s hard to tell where this idea originally came from but to get a good visual on the concept, go to: www.ladybehindthecurtain.com/buffet-pancake-dippers/

Ingredients: (customise quantities as necessary)

• Applegate or Niman Ranch bacon, preferably Canadian cut

• Whole wheat or gluten free pancake mix, preferably organic

• Mix extras — usually milk, oil and eggs

• Maple syrup

• Berries, to serve.

Method:

Grill bacon and set to one side, allowing it to drain

Make your batter and pour into a squeeze bottle. You can either recycle a ketchup or syrup bottle, or buy a cheap catering bottle. You just may need to make the hole wider to allow the batter through.

Heat your griddle to approximately 300 degrees. Make a long oval shape with your batter — a little larger than the cut of bacon you have chosen. Press a piece of cooked bacon down into the batter as it starts to cook and add a thin layer or wiggle line on top of the bacon.

Flip when the underside is cooked and cook through the reverse. Keep them warm in the oven until you are ready to serve along with the berries.

The advice given in this article is not intended to replace medical advice, but to complement it. Always consult your GP if you have any health concerns. Catherine Burns BA Hons, Dip ION is the Managing Director of Natural Ltd and a fully qualified Nutritional Therapist trained by the Institute for Optimum Nutrition in the UK. Please note that she is not a Registered Dietitian. For details, please go to www.natural.bm or call 236-7511. Join Catherine on Facebook: www.facebook.com/nutrifitandnaturalnutritionbermuda.