Recently, I attended a Hearts-At-Home Conference for moms in Minnesota. If you are a mom that needs practical advice and encouragement – it’s the place to be – I came home feeling recharged and educated because I learned from experts. Experts that have done research, are authors and speakers that have the goal of helping other moms be their best. While there, I met expert professional farm women at the Find Our Common Ground booth.
These women are volunteering their time to provide accurate information about the food they grow to moms who buy that food. That information is based on science and research, as well as their own experience as farm women. Walking through the grocery store, it’s easy to start thinking of a recent news clip that might affect what foods you buy for your family, but what’s the real deal? Here’s a few common questions I receive as a registered dietitian:
- Do I need to be buying organic?
- What does the word “natural” mean and should I be looking for it on foods I purchase?
- What about hormone-free?
- What is GMO and do I need to worry about it?
There are so many choices – literally tens of thousands – at the grocery store, but how to sift through them all to feed our family the best foods? And by best, I mean food that is wholesome, nutritious and tastes delicious without worrying about sensationalized terms like “hormone-free”, “all-natural”, “non-GMO”, or “organic”.
Helping families understand their food from the farm to the table is something I can’t share enough about – and Find Our Common Ground provided me with this infographic to help me help you: What to know before you buy: 5 Things Moms Get Wrong at the Grocery Store.
For more information on GMOs, which is really food biotechnology, check out my blog series.
Still have questions? Comment with your questions about food so I can help make your next grocery shopping experience worry-free! (Disclaimer: I can’t help the worries about carts that might inadvertently hit you in the heels #KidShoppersInTraining.)
Another great blog, Jen. I actually did a webinar for Common Ground last February to help them deal with the HFCS issue.
Thanks Neva! Appreciate your support. Common Ground is an amazing organization. Glad they rely on experts like you! 🙂
Hey, love the nutritional advice but the wording of this article seems very wrong to me — why is it only aimed at moms? Ignoring all caretakers without the title “mom” erases legal guardians, as well as stay-at-home, single, or just plain grocery-shopping-loving fathers of America. It also perpetuates the stereotype that women must do the grocery shopping for their children. A very 1950s idea, do you think? Me and my dad went to Hy-Vee together every Saturday until I graduated from high school.
Hi Jane,
Thanks for reading the post. By no means am I trying to exclude any demographic. Of course, any of those you mentioned are great caretakers and shoppers at grocery stores. This article is based on research to show what moms tend to worry about at the grocery store (as stats say moms are still the primary shoppers of food in the home) and can apply to others too. Find Our Common Ground, those responsible for the infographic, is an organization featuring conversations between farm moms and moms who aren’t on the farm that have questions and concerns on their food. A great organization based on science and research. Fun memories of you and your dad shopping together, I’m sure.
Thanks for visiting.
Jen