It is so sad that dieticians in hospitals still have not heard about the deleterious effects of carbs. So people like your mother and my mother were fed a diet high in carbs and low in proteins. Also cheaper.
On the other hand, because our national dietary guidelines continue to push a high carbohydrate diet as "healthy" and require all organizations that receive federal funding to comply with their dietary guidelines or lose their funding, no matter what dieticians know, they cannot change managements' policies.
When I look back over my life and that of my family when we ate all the "healthy" foods like "Breakfast of Champions" I can see how we were destroying our metabolic systems thinking we were OK. All these decades later we are reaping what we sowed.
What upsets me the most is that our committee that creates these guidelines is creating another generation that will feel the effects as they age. Personally I see it as criminal.

Thank you for your story about your mom. It took me back to the days when My mom was in similar circumstances.