And the cinnamon rolls and French toast too…although I think we need a new name for French toast, non?

I don’t know if this is a Maritime thing or simply something that reflects the fact that my mother was raised in a poor foster family.  A family where the money from the government went into the bank and the foster children were fed watered down canned soup and canned moose meat.  Anyhoo.  In our house, we had bread and molasses for dessert more times than not.  I guess it probably happened more in the winter months, than in the summer months when berries were plentiful.  According to our household tradition, we also put molasses on french toast.  But we put maple syrup on our pancakes.   

Molasses, except for blackstrap (ugh), has generally been thought to have little nutritional value.  Likewise the more expensive maple syrup.  However, this is a relatively new belief.  In the past, molasses was thought to have many benefits and was used to “cure” stomach aches and colds.  For the past 30 years or so, we have been made to feel very guilty about all that nasty sugar we were putting on our breakfast pancakes and french toast.  And yes.  Refined sugars are bad.  Come the 21st Century however, and Lo!  We find out that maple syrup AND molasses are rich in polyphenols.  You know polyphenols.  The antioxidants that are also present in green tea.  The stuff that supposedly protects against cancer, prolongs life and in the case of cinnamon and other spices, lowers cholesterol and improves insulin sensitivity.  Yup.  ALL those good things.  I guess our great great grandparents wern’t so stupid, hmmm? 

Oh.  And by the way.  The sweet, sticky raisins that you were told caused tooth decay?  Nope.  Not so much.  And the apple juice that had low nutritional value compared to orange juice?  Nope.