It couldn’t get any harder knowing what food is healthy and what food is not. As moms we try our best to make sure that our family is eating as healthy as possible. Us moms can sometimes forget about ourselves all together. We substitute coffee for breakfast and eat our kids snacks as if they are going to fill us up. Today we are going to talk about 10 nutrition mistakes we make as moms and how to fix them. Let’s go!
Mistake #1 Eating too much added sugar
The first nutrition mistake we make without realizing it, is that we consume way too much sugar. The average intake of sugar for an American is 17-22 teaspoons a day, which is two to three times the daily intake limit according to AHA’s limit for adults. The recommended limit for women and children is 6 teaspoons of sugar a day.
That number is very alarming because sugar has been found to lead to many health issues. These health issues could be weight gain and obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, inflammation, and more. The sneaky part is these food companies add sugars to foods under names other than sugar.
You can check out more info about added sugars on AHA.
The fix
As moms one way we can help decrease our sugar intake is by reading all ingredients of a product. Reading the ingredient list is very important because it tells you if there are added sugars in the product and how much of it. Another way to decrease sugar intake is to add more natural whole foods such as fruit to your daily diet. Remove or lessen the amount of juice, soda, and kool aid you and your family drink.
If you can make the snack or food instead of buying it in packaged form this is also best. You know what ingredients you are using and control the amount of sugar that goes in. Another way is to cut your juice or kids juice with water. Don’t forget to give candy and sweet treats on occasion. This will help cut back your everyone sugar intake.
Mistake #2 Thinking “healthy” means low calorie
Many women believe that eating healthy means you should cut back on your calories. Eat as little calories as possible. Unfortunately, this nutrition mistake couldn’t be further from the truth. If you cut back your calories, you won’t be getting the proper nutrients your body needs.
The best way to think about this is that you should get your daily intake of calories through natural, whole foods. These are foods that contain vitamin and minerals, protein, and healthy fat. According to the dietary guidelines, girls ages 2-4 should consume 1,000-1,400 calories. Boys ages 2-4 should consume 1,000-1,600 calories a day. Girls who are ages 5-8 should consume between 1,200-1,800 calories, while boys this age should consume 1,200-2,000 calories a day.
For boys with ages 9-13 they should consume between 1,600-2,600 calories per day, and girls between 1,400-2,000. The amount of calories children should be consuming is high. This is necessary for proper growth and development. For women ages 19-30 1,800-2,400 calories is suffice. For women 31-59 consuming 1,600-2,200 calories is sufficient. More information can be found using America’s dietary guidelines.
The fix
How can we make sure we are receiving our daily calorie intake? We can create balanced meals. This means including fiber, protein, healthy fats, and lots of colors on our plates at meal times. Making sure we have food from these different categories will make it easier to hit our calorie goal, along with helping us get certain vitamins and minerals our body needs.
Mistake #3 Avoiding ALL fats
A long time ago studies came out and told us that any type of fat was not good for our bodies. We were told to avoid all kinds of fats for various reasons. This nutrition mistake is no longer true. There is such thing as eating healthy fats. Fat is actually an essential fatty acid that the body cannot make itself. Fat also helps the body absorb vitamin A, D, and E. These vitamins need fat in order to be absorbed.
Fats that aren’t healthy are called trans fats or saturated fats. Examples of saturated fats are fatty cuts of meat, butter, ghee, cheese, cream, chocolate confectionery, biscuits, cake and much more. Examples of trans fats are fried foods, baked goods, margarine, shortening, microwave popcorn. And some processed snacks.
Fats that are considered healthy are avocados, olive oil, and nuts. Eating healthy fats can help lower the risk of developing heart disease,improve blood cholesterol levels, it helps protect your organs and supports cell growth. There are a lot of benefits to fat that we weren’t aware of, that we now have information on.
The fix
So how can we fix this? We can add a healthy fat to every meal. A handful of nuts, olive oil for cooking or on salad, and using avocados when we can. I know sometimes it can be hard to add in healthy fats to our diet, but it can be done. You can also add nut butters and some fish to your diet.
Nutrition Mistake #4 Relying on kid snacks as meals
Life gets busy and sometimes as a mom you feel like you don’t have the time to sit down and make a good meal for yourself. So you grab one of your kids snacks or eat their left overs.That is considered your meal. This is unhealthy in so many ways. For one we aren’t going to reach our calories with their snacks. Second a lot of snacks are no good and have too much sugar, fat, or both. Many of the snacks are missing protein and fiber which can lead to crashes.
The fix
This one may not seem like it but it is a simple fix. You will have to make time for yourself and fuel your body right. Just like you want your children to be healthy, you should want that for yourself too. Us moms are still human and need the correct amount of vitamins, minerals and essential nutrients to help our bodies.
You can stop relying on your kids snacks and make a grown up snack of “meal”. All you need to do is pair a protein with a produce and whole grain. This could be humus, veggies, and a pita bread. It could be boiled egg, paired with berries, a protein smoothie with spinach and chia, or whole grain crackers and tuna.
Mistake #5 Not eating enough protein
Now we’ve all heard this a little too much. At one point in time, it seemed like everyone was talking about how we need to eat more protein. But why? Protein helps build and repair tissues such as muscles, bones, and skin. Protein is also known to help support immune function, transport nutrients and provide energy. Without getting proper protein your energy, metabolism, and mood will suffer.
The fix
How you can add more protein to your diet is by making sure to add 20-30g of protein per meal. I don’t do a lot of calorie counting so the way I would go about adding protein is to make sure I add a protein to every meal. You don’t have to weigh out each portion if you don’t want. But if you are someone who is a numbers person you might want to weigh it out.
Mistake #6 Confusing “organic” with healthy
This may come as a shocker to some, but just because they slap organic on the label does not make it healthy. Organic usually means they did not use any bioengineered ingredients and did their best to use foods that have not been heavily sprayed with pesticides.
Unfortunately this does not equate to healthy. Organic products can still have tons of sugar and other ingredients that aren’t healthy. An example of this would be organic chips and cookies, sweets, and processed meats.
The fix
So instead of thinking you should buy everything organic, you should still read the ingredient list and all labels. You want to identify if the food product has added sugar, or ingredients that you can’t even pronounce. If so, it’s best to find another version or try recreating it yourself.
One way to know if you should buy organic produce or not is to read the “Dirty Dozen” list from EWG. This will let you know which fruits and veggies have been sprayed the most with pesticides. If the food product has been heavily sprayed, then it’s best to buy organic.
Tip: when you buy produce the next time, look at the sticker on the produce. If it begins with a 4 you know it’s nonorganic, if it starts with a 9, that means it’s organic. Check out EWG’s dirty dozen list for what produce to buy organically. They also have a clean 15 list. This is a list of produce that has been sprayed the least.
Mistake #7 Not drinking enough water
This nutrition mistake is another obvious mistake that we as moms can make. We start our day with coffee or tea and then we are in go mode. Taking care of house chores, children, and so much more we can forget to pick up our water and drink. Dehydration feels like stress, cravings, irritability, and fatigue- mistaken for hunger or burnout.
Water has so many benefits to our bodies that we tend to overlook. Water helps with digestion, temperature regulation, toxin flushing, nutrient transport and so much more.
The fix
This is probably one of the most difficult mistakes to fix. At least for me. I’m not sure why but drinking water is difficult. One way to fix it is to drink your water from a cup and straw. Add lemons or other fruit to your water. You can set timers to remind yourself to drink your water. At the end of the day it’s something we will just have to do if we want to be healthy.
Other examples of fixing the mistake is drinking water first thing in the morning. Drink more during lunch and keep water bottle visible.
Mistake #8 Skipping breakfast
Oh, this nutrition mistake is one I’m sure us moms know all too well. When I get home from work, I don’t even think about breakfast for myself. I immediately think about what the children are going to eat. Once I end up making breakfast and sit them down to eat, I am busy doing house chores or trying to prepare for school. When we skip breakfast, it could lead to overeating later in the day.
The fix
When you make your children breakfast make yourself a plate too. Make sure to eat protein and fiber within 1-2 hours of waking up. Plan your breakfast ahead of time, maybe the night before so you know exactly what you’re going to make. You could also meal prep one day out of the week and make freezer friendly breakfast meals that you can pop in the microwave.
Nutrition Mistake #9 Thinking salads are automatically healthy
This mistake is a funny one because anyone would think salads are healthy. In actuality there are many salad brands that aren’t healthy. Depending on the type of produce being used and the sauce. Plus, some salads have no form of protein at all. A lot of the time it’s the sauce that is not good. The sauce can add extra sugar, sodium, and more unnecessary ingredients. This includes fat free dressings.
The fix
Now this is a simple fix. Limit how much dressing you put on top of your salad or use olive oil and vinegar as a substitute. Now this might be tough letting the salad dressing go, because I sure do love ranch on my salads. When picking a salad make sure the lettuce is browning and always check the date.
Mistake #10 Forgetting to prioritize your own meals
This mistake goes along with a few others on the list. As moms we don’t always put ourselves first. We are sometimes the last to eat and sometimes don’t eat but maybe one meal a day. This is not okay. We have to have energy and our minds need to be focused and on point. Not eating or not getting a well balanced diet can make it difficult to get all the nutrients we need to function properly. This affects everything from energy to hormones.
I know at the store I am constantly looking for new foods or snacks for the children to eat. But I don’t really look for myself anymore. That could also be because the food prices are going up higher and higher and the essentials are what’s necessary.
The fix
Use the mom plate rule. This means you eat what the kids eat but add protein and veggies. This could also work just in general. Planning out your meals before you go to the grocery store can be helpful. Make sure you have all meals written out and ingredients you will need. This will help you see what you might need to add to your plate.
In conclusion
You may have done one or more of these nutrition mistakes without knowing. I hope that this post has made you more aware of areas to improve when it comes to nutrition. We can all get better at what we feed our bodies, and it can get difficult. Do the best you can and make it work for your finances.
If this was helpful for you leave an encouraging comment for someone else. If you have a nutrition mistake you would add to this list I would love to hear it.
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