The 4 Mistakes most Moms make at the Grocery Store

A popular article recently came out on a strong organic website, Organic Authority, with the shocking headline “Moms care more about their healthy weight goals than their children’s, study finds.” The information in the article came from a study that was fielded in May-June 2014 by the Womens Forum Media Group as an online survey. The study was conducted across the womensforum.com family of sites.

Working with families in my practice every day, I wasn’t sure what to think of this article.  I have often seen the opposite occur where parents do so much for their kids that they let their own health go to the wayside.

In one sense, I thought, perhaps moms are more concerned about their weight over their kids, because as time has passed, they just have more weight to worry about.

I honestly thought the title and the article were a little harsh on moms and after reading it I had to read the actual study and dig deeper into the information on Womens Forum, where I was able to get the full picture from the media release and the study that was posted on August 2014. I quickly came to the realization that, unfortunately, 

The survey reached out to a little over 1,000 women and found that over a third of moms (36%) are regularly concerned about childhood obesity in their home. However, twice as many (70%) are more worried about their own weight. This number is pretty on par with women, moms or not, who are concerned about their weight (73%).

So, while moms appear not to be as concerned about their kids’ weight, they do keep their families’ nutrition in mind when filling their cart at the grocery store. Unfortunately, they aren’t necessarily filling it with the right things. There is a major misinformation campaign out there about what is healthy and what isn’t. The study points out that moms still appear to be gravitating towards chemical laden frankenfoods which are low in calories (70%) or low in fat or fat free (69%). 79% were also more interested in high protein foods. What they don’t appear to realize is that the best solution is fueling your body with whole foods that best help your body to operate on its own.

While it is a good thing to opt for locally sourced or locally manufactured foods (which was a priority for 68% of those in the survey, one must ask: “Does that include organic foods and naturally and ethically raised meats?”

 In some cases, I’m more concerned that foods are Maximized, as opposed to just “local.”

From the numbers above, it appears that moms go for protein rich foods, and this may be a terrible flaw.  In the Maximized Living Nutrition Plans, we have always emphasized that our bodies need substantial healthy fats, and we therefore advocate adding more healthy fats to each and every one of our meals, to truly maximize results.  Increasing healthy fats in the diet is essential to hormone production, cancer prevention, metabolism regulation, fat burning, brain development, weight loss, cellular healing and anti-inflammation.

The 3 Principles of the Maximized Living Core Nutrition Plan

1.          Fats: Eat more healthy fats and eliminate all damaged fats.
2.          Animal Proteins: Go organic and natural for all animal products.
3.          Carbs: Eat more vegetables, and eliminate refined grains & sugars.

Mistake: Low Fat

Fix: High Healthy Fat

Mistake: Low Calorie

Fix: High Quality (read your labels!)

Mistake: Locally manufactured

Fix: Locally and ethically grown

Mistake: High Protein

Fix: Moderate and Quality Protein

While it is noted that the study demonstrates that moms are making the wrong choices as a result of horrible mass misinformation teaching archaic health practices, the study also reveals many of those sources of failed guidance.

 46% of moms go online for the same information for adults.  There’s plenty of good sites out there, but obviously some bad ones, as well — and the bad ones are winning.

So what is the cause of the mass of nutrition misinformation still out there? One can speculate on the many reasons. There is no question that marketers work very hard to fool us all into buying processed foods by making us think that they are healthier.  We all share the duty to help spread the right information on eating a clean, hormone- and individually-based based nutrition plan.

The first step is picking the right foods at the supermarket — 

Please share this with any moms you know.  7 in 10 need to hear it.