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We live in the day and age of diets. With the breakdown of any sort of unified, heritage-based cuisine to maintain sanity in the US food scene, the people comprising its melting pot have migrated through the decades from one dietary fashion and fad to another. The 1960s and 70s especially ushered in the era of unending dietary upheaval. Macrobiotics, low fat, vegetarianism, veganism, whole wheatism, and the list goes on and on to the present day.
One of the latest newcomers to the scene, introduced in 2012, is the food philosophy known as Trim Healthy Mama. While not noteworthy enough to make US News top-ranked diets (like the Dash Diet, #1 for 7 years straight), this weight loss approach has a pretty fair sized following. So let’s take a look at THM in depth – its creators, rules, benefits, and pitfalls.
The Trim Healthy Mama Dynamic Duo
Trim Healthy Mama – usually referred to as THM by most followers – is the brainchild of Pearl Barrett and Serene Allison. The sisters at one point practiced veganism! After experimenting with numerous different dietary systems trying to find something healthy and workable, they ultimately developed their own approach to healthy eating.
After a number of years of research and personal experimentation, they self-published their first successful book in 2012, Trim Healthy Mama. They followed up with the THM Cookbook, the THM Plan, and THM Table to provide support for their rapidly growing following.
What Exactly is the Trim Healthy Mama Diet? (basic rules)
The THM diet has a number of good facets. In a nutshell, there are two main kinds of meals on the diet. The first is an E meal – e for “energizing.” These meals are high in carbs and contain little to no fat (5 grams or less). The other type of meal is an S for “satisfying. These are moderate to high fat (above 10 grams), low carb meals.
Both meal types encourage significant protein intake – usually in the form of meat, nuts, eggs, or dairy. Beans are also consumed, but only with E meals because of their carb content.
THM does not encourage soy consumption.
Two other meal types are worth noting. The first is a “fuel pull” (FP). This does not contain enough fat or carbs to count as an E or an S. It is a high protein, low carb, low-fat meal. The second is a “crossover” (CO), which contains higher amounts of fat and carbs. These are either used for an extra weight loss boost, for pregnant and nursing moms or once you reach your goal weight. Neither of these secondary meal types is the norm.
These are the basic rules, but there are a number of nuances, caveats, and qualifications that go along with them.
Trim Healthy Mama Meal Plans: Traditional or Modern?
The books all talk about good sourcing and proper preparation. At the same time, there is a great deal of leeway given and an overall lack of emphasis/push for people to obtain ingredients from the best possible, preferably local sources. Most of the THM products (more on these below) seem to be carefully sourced – grass-fed, non-GMO, etc.
The books discuss the benefits of raw milk, soaking nuts, legumes and grains, sourdough bread, fermented vegetables, bone broth and a number of other traditional food approaches and principles. Yet, there is also a fair share of recipes in the Trim Healthy Mama Cookbooks that are based more on convenience foods and quick, easy preparation.
In essence, the Trim Healthy Mama Diet is a bit of a “ride the fence” approach, casting a wide net to gain popular appeal but perhaps diluting itself in the process.
THM Cookbooks and Products
As THM caught on, more books followed. After that, a line of THM products was introduced. It appears the authors have set aside and replaced the original book with a smaller book (the first was over 600 pages!). This smaller book focuses on the diet, menu plan, and principles. Then, Trim Healthy Mama cookbooks (which are far more user-friendly) fill out the approach.
The main difference between the original book and the cookbooks is a greater inclusion of a large number of THM branded ingredients. Examples include:
- collagen
- gelatin
- a baking blend (a flour substitute)
- pressed peanut flour
- sunflower lecithin
- psyllium flakes
- glucomannan
- konjac noodles
- stevia sweeteners (3 or 4 total), among a few other items.
Is THM a traditional foods diet?
There is no doubt that Trim Healthy Mama is not even close to a traditional foods diet. Followers can (sort of) make it a traditional food diet if they have the knowledge and desire to do so.
However, many of the recipes in the THM cookbooks are flat out incompatible with ancestral eating.
Is THM a whole foods diet? For the most part, yes.
Heavy Reliance on Pseudo-Sweeteners
One of the main issues with the diet is the heavy use of what they call “stevia-based sweeteners.” The problem is, these are really alcohol sugar sweeteners that contain stevia. Swerve would be a common example available at the health food store. Moreover, the stevia is also not whole leaf stevia, but a stevia extract.
These alternative sweeteners are used in all the sweet recipes, but also in many other surprising places. For example, the meatloaf recipe includes 2 teaspoons of the “super sweet blend.” Why does meatloaf need sweetener?
My wife actually likes a number of their main dishes. Unfortunately, many of the bread, shakes, desserts, and other items are heavily dependent on the THM products some of which are not traditional.
Trim Healthy Mama vs. Real Food Diets
There are a few other issues with THM that are best described in contrast with other dietary systems that truly are traditionally based such as the 21-day bone both diet or the Zoe Harcombe diet.
The Harcombe diet, in particular, serves as a great comparison with THM. First, note that my wife and I have tried both diets extensively. Also, note that we have read multiple books from both systems, so we are not speaking out of a lack of firsthand experience!
On the THM side, we have read three of the four books (all but one cookbook). On the Harcombe side, Zoe has produced an incredible amount of material. We have read or reviewed four of her books as well. In addition, we’ve read numerous articles and other materials she has produced.
Similarities
What makes the two diets similar? Both seek to segregate carb and fat consumption. So you will have meals that have carbs and protein or meals that have fats and protein, but rarely a meal that has BOTH. Meals are generally either low carb or low fat in both systems.
But how they achieve this differs dramatically at times. Why? I think it is because the two diets have a very different focus and overall goal. This is also in my view the best way to contrast the two diets.
Differences
Harcombe focuses on helping people to eat REAL FOODS in wise ways to produce health. Her three main goals are helping people to overcome food intolerance, deal with candida overgrowth and gut dysbiosis, and resolve hypoglycemia. Fixing this has the end result of helping people reach vibrant health and healthy body weight.
Alternatively, THM appears to focus on GETTING PEOPLE TO LOSE WEIGHT and providing all sorts of compromise and semi-real foodways to do so. Again, you can follow it using fewer cheats and more healthy, whole, traditional foods, but there is an emphasis that you do not have to do it that way.
For Harcombe, the goal is to teach people to eat and enjoy foods in their natural and traditional form. THM wants to ensure that people do not feel like they are deprived or “missing out.”
Trim Healthy Mama is Less “Real Food” Based
Ultimately, these two diets have very, very different objectives. With Harcombe, there is freedom, but the diet itself isn’t built on and around pseudo-real foods – erythritol, xylitol, oat fiber, the baking blend, protein powders – so prevalent on THM. Instead, the goal for Harcombe is to learn to enjoy real food itself.
Traditional sweets are allowed in moderation and on occasion, especially as you reach your goals under Harcombe. On the other hand, THM talks about “eating cake for breakfast.” This isn’t encouraged every day, but frequent sweets are a main part of the diet for most people who follow it.
In the THM books, there is an emphasis on making sure you don’t “feel deprived.” Thus, they include large numbers of recipes under the headings “more sweet treats,” “desserts,” candies and bars,” “cakes and muffins,” “cookies, brownies, and pies” (sweetened with THM sweeteners) “shakes” and the like.
In one of the THM cookbooks, the number of pages devoted to veggie sides (15 pages) is tiny compared to the number of pages (175 or so) devoted to categories of sweet recipes. Now, there are many veggies included in the main dishes, but the imbalance and emphasis on sweets, shakes, etc. are still concerning!
Trim Healthy Mama: A Step in the Right Direction
Overall, THM is a step in the right direction. It is worlds better than the Standard American Diet (SAD). In the hands of the right person – who uses the principles of real foods, properly prepared and carefully sourced – THM would possibly be an effective and healthy way to lose weight.
However, for someone without knowledge of traditional foods and preparation methods who simply dives in and tries it, THM would likely not bestow lasting health and vibrancy at a satisfactory level.
Have you tried THM or know people who have? What are your thoughts or experiences?
I have gone back and forth between THM and Nourishing Traditions for years now. I love their baked goods recipes using a mixture of almond, coconut flour, collagen powder and a few other things. My blood sugar does not spike with those. When I was strict NT, we all felt wonderful, but I was LIVING in the kitchen, and the scale never budged. I had time for very little else but food preparation or thinking about food. However, per Weston Price recommendations, I try to get as close to a quart of full fat raw milk a day. I totally disregard their advise to chuck the full fat milk. My blood sugar does not spike with it when paired with a few eggs in the morning, however I consume it in my home made kefir form most of the time. I don’t worry about my weight. I am overweight and have been for years, but I am on pregnancy #6 in less than 10 years! There is entirely too much focus on what we look like, when traditionally it was better if you had some chunk on you as a child bearing years woman! I focus more on nutrition than mixing carbs and fats, but if I notice my sugars inching up, I eat their way for a few days and I’m back in a great range. I love their tidbits of wisdom all through the books about supplements or different foods to eat that can help with certain ailments. Who knew okra was so good for blood sugar?? I love the stuff now. We do love brownies, and their brownies with okra, although with erythritol, are delicious, and in my opinion far better than the alternative purchased in a box at the store, and more tasty than something made with honey.
I am a Weston A. Price foodie, with paleo/ketogenic leanings for myself but less of those leanings for my husband and family. THM has concerned me for reasons sited in this article, but I’ve had many friends excitedly tell me this is what they do. I have found when I share about the WAP diet they are overwhelmed but THM presents things in such a simple user friendly way that they can stick with it. We live in the country with abundant local real food available and I find most of my friends have let that and common sense guide them into using the more real aspects of THM, as well as economy…collogen can be expensive! So while I don’t recommend THM to friends, I don’t cringe too terribly when they are excited about it, just gently coach when some aspect they are using is not right. It is certainly a great way to get people off the Standard American Diet and people find it achievable for themselves and their families.
Also, I find families are a huge part of a mama’s sticking to any diet. It’s exhausting to keep cooking and everyone refuses to eat it, sneaking junk while at school or when she’s not home and they find their way to the store. THM may help reduce the sugar/junk food addiction eventually enabling a more traditional diet in a way a family will “buy in”.
THM is a great way to eat. It has been proven to work for weight loss and illnesses hundreds if not thousands of times. They are successfully helping people with more than food issues for sure. God bless them and their families.
I’ve been on THM for a little over a year. I found it because I was praying for the Lord to show me how to get my diabetes numbers down without drugs. I was eating real foods and walking every day, careful about too much sugar, but the numbers weren’t budging. Since starting THM I’ve lost 35 lbs but more importantly my glucose readings are now almost in the normal range. The main premise of Thm is to get blood sugar stabilized and under control which in turn promotes health and weight loss. For myself, i stay on the real food end of things primarily, but occasionally will use a convenience food. I appreciate that Thm allows this food freedom. There’s many testimonies that this kind of freedom makes it sustainable for people. My impression has been that their heart is to help many different types of people to get healthier not to ride the fence or gain something for themselves.
As a mother of 6 children and a traditional foodie, I have really appreciated THM. I think one of the biggest problems with traditional food is that you do put on weight, an experience Wardee Harmon (gnowflins blogger) had, along with me and many others. When you know the principles of traditional food and preparation, THM assists you in principle to not carry the raw milk butt…sorry but that is what it does. So instead of drinking so much raw milk, we may make our own yogurt. Same and more benefits nutritionally but then we don’t have to carry the negative effects of weight gain. This diet has given me the opportunity to keep my traditional diet, keep those unwanted pounds off you can get from a traditional diet and feed my family healthy. THM gives others (Drive thru Sues) a different approach, but being a purist, I stick to Serene’s recipes.
We have followed the THM way of eating for 6 years! It changed our lives. It continues to be the way my husband eats 90% of the time! I have transitioned more to ketogenic diet myself. I use all most all of their products. My husband who was once on blood pressure and cholesterol medicine, and Lyrica for nerve damage has been medication free for over 5 years! No one could ever convince me that this isn’t a wonderful way to eat!
Wow very interesting! I haven’t tried either but know people that have tried THM and as far as I can tell haven’t lost any. The name itself did not appeal to me. I honestly haven’t tried any of the diets my friends have over the years Bc it always sounds like you’d have to spend so much time learning the ins and outs, dos and don’ts, and not just exhausting but confining. I’ve known people that couldn’t eat more than 1/2 an apple Bc it was too many calories on their plan, and others that ate nonfat Pringles because they were “free points”. Diets are gross and don’t address underlying food issues. We aren’t thankful to eat the food that God gave us and buy into processed man made foods. I would say television is another huge factor. I absolutely ate horribly because of being brainwashed by commercials in my 20’s. I haven’t had a television now for over 10 years, thank goodness! Then I went through a period of letting God convict me about things and then it was foods turn: I thought, “I know this (soda) is bad for me, why am I drinking it? I’ve been super thankful to be getting as full as I want on food that makes sense ever since. People tell me I’ve gotten 10 years younger. So grateful. Also, excercise. It’s good for the body and the mind. ????
I really have liked the THM book. I did not use it for weight loss since I don’t need to but I love the recipes. I take the purist approach yet I like the option for the sweet desserts since a lot of people we know do NOT want to eat traditionally. So I can have people over and feel like their children will eat. It is also budget friendly which I enjoy with a large family. If I use a “cheat” recipe I don’t feel as bad since I’m not going through drive thru or eating canned soup. I have never bought their products so I can not comment on those. I only have the original book which was an enjoyable read and covered many topics. Overall, I believe it is a balanced approach and a great starting point for many people. I know women who have lost weight on this and been encouraged to search out a more traditional diet.
Thank you for the review. I really like the THM Cookbook. I regularly make many of the main dish, casserole and soup recipes. I do enjoy that Pearl is the “drive-thru” sister and Serene the “purist” when it comes to food ingredients. I’m happy to have the option of either pure food or convenience options in many of their recipes and I think it makes the cookbook appeal to a wider audience. I’ve tried only a few of their dessert recipes, but try to avoid too many sweets or artificial sweeteners. I love that every recipe is naturally gluten free. And I am happy they’ve marked many of the recipes “NSI” for No Special Ingredients, meaning you can just use real food without the baking blends, etc that they sell. I also enjoy the cookbook instructions that say things like, “Serve over zucchini noodles or spaghetti squash. Drive-thru Sue’s might want to use Dreamfields pasta, but don’t opt for that every time.” It leaves us the option on how we want to eat and feed our families.
I haven’t really used the plan for weight loss since I really feel better when I eat my carbs with fats, but again, their recipes are delicious, easy to make and family friendly. And I tend to eat on the lower/moderate side of carbs anyway. They’ve included lots of purist recipes (that would be acceptable to a real foods eater) and lots of drive-thru recipes that would appeal so someone used to a SAD diet. Their emphasis on not depriving yourself is likely because this is a weight loss/maintenance plan and those of us with a weight problem tend not to like to be deprived as we fail to stick to yet another diet.
I do know a number of people, both in real life and online, who have used THM to maintain weight loss. I don’t often meet those who use it for weight loss, but after some alternate strict punishing diet, they use it successfully to keep weight off.
I’ve been part of a large online mothering group for close to 20 years and watched as each fad diet hit the group. Many moms would start each new diet, a few would lose a lot of weight, some would lose 5-10lbs, most didn’t lose anything and all gained back plus more by the end. I watched this year after year, every year a new diet. Then THM hit the group. I watched many of the women lose lots of weight and keep it off. Many women lost over a 100lbs. THM seems sustainable for busy moms.