At least one day on the weekend, my son and I will make breakfast together.  Typically, this will involve making either pancakes or waffles.  Not to get all “If You Give A Pig a Pancake,” on you, but if you give a child a pancake, they’ll want some syrup to go with it.

Well, one day, I did not check the fridge or the pantry, and after I made the pancakes with my son, I realized there was no maple syrup.  While I didn’t have maple syrup, I did have a bottle of Hershey’s Chocolate syrup in my fridge.  My son loved the chocolate syrup on his pancakes, and he loved it even more when we made waffles.

Now, the natural inclination upon reading this may be to question why you would give a child chocolate syrup for breakfast.  Well, as I discovered, the chocolate syrup was actually the better nutritional choice.  If you don’t believe me, take this into account:

Looking at the information, the Trader Joe’s Agave is arguably better than the chocolate syrup as it has 10 fewer calories as well as less sodium and carbs.  Conversely, Hershey’s has less sugar, and unlike the Trader Joe’s Agave, the syrup has some calcium and potassium.  If you buy the calcium enriched Hershey’s, you will get even more calcium.  That said, there still may not be that much to make that much of a difference.

What would make some difference is the Hershey’s Lite Syrup.  On a 1/4 cup basis, that syrup only has 80 calories, 60 mg of sodium, 24 g of carb, and 20 g of sugar.  The sodium does offset some of the benefits of a lower caloric or sugar count, but it is still not enough sodium to move the needle on it being unhealthy, at least as far as syrups go.

Ideally, you would make your own syrup using fruit, but for a variety of reasons including spoilage and expense, that is not always an option.  More than that, it is the time to make the pancakes or waffles while simultaneously making a quick syrup.  Many times, when you are a parent, you just need a quick way of doing things.

With that being the case, give your child chocolate syrup instead of maple syrup with their breakfast.  It is the ever so slightly healthier option, and really, it is a much more fun option.