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Did you know a food scale is a great tool to have in your kitchen? Food scales are not just for portion control.
If you are packing school lunches for a child with special dietary needs, you might consider purchasing one of these handy machines.
Here are 3 reasons why you should own a food scale:
- Helps calculate carbohydrates. My son has type 1 diabetes, so the main thing I’m looking to get from my food scale is the carbohydrate count. Of course, I want to offer my son fresh fruits and vegetables, but most don’t come with nutritional facts on the packaging.
A food scale takes out the guesswork. All I do is find whatever fruit or vegetable I need measured, in the scale’s pre-set database, and put my portion on the scale. I am instantly given all of your basic nutritional information (calories, carbohydrates, fat, protein, etc.). This makes adding sides to the delicious MOMables school lunch ideas a quick and painless task. - Helps with portion control. A food scale teaches you a lot about portions. It shows you what 4 ounces of protein looks like and what 1/4 cup of pasta really is. Let’s face it, how often have you wondered what one serving of spaghetti as stated on the box really is? Now you can find out!
- Helps you make sure your family doesn’t have nutritional deficiencies. If your family follows a vegetarian or vegan diet and you are concerned if you are getting the right amount of protein in your day; then this little gadget is for you! A food scale helps you monitor your protein intake by calculating the amount of protein in your meals. Even if you’re not vegetarian, you might have a child who doesn’t eat a lot of meat and want him to get more iron in their diet, for example.
Initially, I purchased my food scale out of necessity, but I’ve since found that it’s uses go far beyond giving me carbohydrate calculations. Now it has become one of my favorite gadgets in the kitchen! If you fall into any of the above categories, I’m confident you’d find a food scale beneficial as well.
Do you use a food scale? If so, what are some of the reasons why you use it?
Weighing baking ingredients is so much easier than using measuring cups! The recipe is much more accurate, too.
Another great use is to be more accurate when measuring ingredients for baking. Most professional chefs will use a scale, not cups or spoons, for measuring.
ditto on the baking recommendation. Using the tare feature is also terrific when putting together a salad or other combo dish.
So how do you use the scale to get more iron in the diet of a child who doesn’t eat a lot of meat?