Okay, so how the heck can cornbread be healthy?
You may argue that corn is nutritionally devoid; a lackluster grain of the midwest.
Perhaps corn in the way we think of it, lacks nutritional value.
But what if I told you that you can prepare corn in a way that actually gives you access to the micronutrients that we need?
In other words, how to make healthy cornbread!
Is Cornbread Good For You?
To answer the question, ‘is cornbread good for you?:
Let me take you to the South circa – the early 1900’s.
Pellagra was becoming a way of life in the southern states.
The diet there consisted of cornmeal and grits, soda biscuits, corn syrup, and fat salt pork.
They developed sore skin and mouths and suffered from depression, hallucinations, and other mental disorders.
It wasn’t until 1937 that the cause of Pellagra was determined to be a deficiency in the compound nicotinamide (vitamin B3).
Something about their diet rich in cornmeal was making them sick.
However, the indigenous of the Southern Hemisphere had a solution to this, long before southerners started consuming corn products.
How Can You Make Cornbread, The Healthy Way?
Interestingly, poor Mexicans lived mainly on Maize also.
Yet they did not suffer from Pellagra.
How could this be?
Hang tight, because I promise this relates to making cornbread the healthy way.
Mexican women had a custom taken from traditional Native Americans that involved soaking the corncobs in lime and water before making their tortillas.
This is precisely what released the vitamin that was bound in the corn, thereby preventing the nutritional deficiencies!
The Indigenous Secret to Healthy Corn
These indigenous people had a secret to making corn, the healthy way.
Their knowledge could have saved thousands of lives in the South.
We now understand that grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes contain a compound called Phytic acid.
Phytic acid and Phytate have a strong binding affinity to the dietary minerals and vitamins, inhibiting their absorption.
The indigenous people used lime, but we will use a different acidic solution that serves the same purpose.
In order to deactivate this Phytic acid, all you have to do is soak the corn in a little bit of acidic medium such as yogurt, whey, or vinegar!
The result is more bioavailability of the minerals and vitamins from your food and hence the bomb healthy cornbread.
After reading the following section, you will know how to successfully make cornbread, the healthy way!
Can You Eat Cornbread on a diet?
Oh and by the way, you can eat my healthy cornbread recipe on a diet!
Remember, dieting is about energy balance.
As long as you are consuming the correct amount of calories for your diet needs, there is no reason not to eat this healthy cornbread!
If you want to find out how many calories you should be eating for your diet – I recommend that you check out this article .
It tells you exactly how many calories you need to consume and the best way to diet for fat loss!
Recipe for Healthy Cornbread in a Pan
Now, onto the cornbread recipe!
Ingredients:
-2 cups cornmeal
-½ cup unbleached white flour
-½ cup whole wheat flour
-1 cup yogurt
-1.5 cups water
-3 eggs lightly beaten
-¼ cup maple syrup
-1 teaspoon sea salt
-2 teaspoons baking soda
-¼ cup melted butter
Directions:
1.) Soak the flour mixture in yogurt and water and let stand in warm place for 24 hours.
2.) Blend in remaining ingredients.
3.) Pour into a buttered and floured 9 inch by 13 inch pyrex pan.
4.) Bake at 325 degrees for about 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean from poking it.
That’s it!
I love to serve this cornbread with some jam on top for a sweet treat!
It can also be eaten savory!
Serving Size: 1 piece (cut the pyrex into 6×3 so that you have 18 pieces total)
Total kcal per serving: 127kcal
Protein: 3.7g
Carb: 19.5g
Fat: 4g
Weight Watchers Corn Bread Recipe vs. My Healthy Cornbread Recipe
Weight Watchers uses a calorie based system to dieting except they don’t have you think about the math and instead color code everything for you.
If you are used to the weight watchers system of dieting, have no fear because my healthy cornbread recipe has the nutritional information listed above.
I even broke it down into each serving so that you know exactly how much you are eating and how many calories each piece of cornbread will have.
Does This Cornbread Need Sugar?
You may have noticed that my healthy cornbread recipe doesn’t have cane sugar like most cornbread recipes have.
This is because the maple syrup serves as a form of sucrose and will not change the flavor of the cornbread.
In fact, maple syrup is a much healthier form of sugar as it is packed with micronutrients!
Make sure you are buying real maple syrup for this recipe because a lot of brands will hide high fructose corn syrup in their product but still label it as maple syrup.
What’s Next?
After reading this ‘how to make healthy cornbread recipe’ article and you want to learn more about diet, exercise, and weight loss – check out these articles!
Who is Jakob Roze?
Jakob Roze is a Strength and Conditioning Coach and founder of RozeFit. His practice centers around empathic communication and relationship building. With an emphasis on pain free, functional movement patterns and strength training, Jakob Roze assesses each individual’s needs and prescribes exercise modalities appropriately in order to facilitate long term gains in strength and health. He draws from evidence based approaches and applies the knowledge in a personalized fashion to facilitate body and lifestyle transformation amongst his clients.
