At this point a food scale seems like an additional intrusion, but I’d love to know what the general forum consensus is on it.
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I think everyone with diabetes should have one. I found it very useful to learn better what was in the food I was eating. It gave me a much better idea of how much carb was in the fruit I eat (I now buy fruit of a particular size since I know how much it will raise my BG). And its also very useful for mixed meals - getting a sense of how many carbs are in what size slice of pizza, or artisinal loaves of bread where slices aren’t a fixed size, or rice dishes, etc. For me it was useful mostly to train my eye to improve my ability to predict the impact of foods I eat.
I don’t use it much anymore, but I will pull it out occasionally for example if I am trying a new food I don’t normally eat and want to figure out the portion size. It isn’t an intrusion if you only use it when you think you need it.
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We purchased a great digital scale that goes up to 13 pounds. It sits on the counter and we use it every day. We often tare a dinner plate, then add the vegetables that contain carbs.
I will admit we are science geeks, but I am able to do so much towards getting the carbs right, that I wouldn’t live without it.
When making recipes, I have everything converted to weights and rarely use volume measurements anymore.
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I used a food scale long before my diagnosis (really improves baking quality) and continue to rely on it to portion out carbs every day. I have some small glass bowls to use with the scale, too–very handy.
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I find it quicker/easier and more accurate to measure serving sizes on a food scale than messing around with volume measurement (cups, tbs, etc). A decent electronic scale with a “tare” setting takes the guesswork out of serving sizes and carb counts for recipes.
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Definitely. Baking by volume is a very inaccurate way to make bread and pastries.
King Arthur Flour has a great conversion chart.
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We use the scale for every meal, and every recipe, and for almost everything my son eats.
I am like @Chris, I totally converted to weight.
FYI - last trip we took, I really missed the scale – I now want to buy a couple of travel scales to take with.
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King Arthur Flour is wonderful. I remember when he pulled the rolling pin from the stone.
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After that, he made French pastries, and predicted the arrival of the Normans as the end of terrible British food.
But he was wrong there.
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Agreed. Scooping ice cream on a scale - quick and easy. If you are counting carbs then I would highly recommend a nice scale. Functions we use are:
tare, grams, ounces.
That is it - don’t bother with any of the other bazillion things it can do.
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@ Chris: What is the brand scale you are using? I am looking to buy one, and not sure which would be the best. Amazon has so many to pick from and the reviews are mixed on many of them. Thank you in advance for information.
If you are not looking for a food database then it really doesn’t matter. I would suggest go with a reasonably cheap one that has a bunch of reviews. Here is just an example @ $12.
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I only paid like $5 on mine on eBay and it shipped strait from China. It works great although I don’t really use it all that much anymore for bolus decisions i do use it for all sorts of things in the kitchen still… they are well worth their low cost
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Mine is an A&D. I got a smoking deal on it at my local Fry’s. I think it was originally designed for mail and such, but it is accurate easy to use, and super stable on my counter top and has a removable stainless steel top so you can wash it.
Things I use - Tare, Grams, Ounces, cleanable top. Other than that everything else is not needed in my opinion.
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Same here: I’d get one with a flat SS top that covers the whole thing: easy to clean. We use something like this (not the one exactly):
I also use exactly the same features as everyone else: tare, ounces, grams.
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Love ours!!! Bought it for baking. Use it for carb counting and all sorts of stuff. Mail, food, portion sizes. I swear I barely use measuring cups anymore as I’ve also converted a bunch of stuff to grams. You can ask Siri (if you’re an apple house) how many grams are in x number of tablespoons of whatever too. That’s helpful. I use a piece of parchment or wax paper on top to keep it clean.
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I asked Siri that exact question this morning. She said, “Here’s what I found on the web for how many grams of next number of tablespoons”.
She was not really helpful.
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You should ask Google and you’ll get your answer… Siri is a bit simple-minded:-)
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I’m probably a bit simple minded at the time I posted that too!!! EH’s BG was headed south and he was snoozing. I was waiting for it to level out. So maybe my reply didn’t make the most sense. And the thread was old! 
But I do love my scale and I do love Siri or google. Technology is amazing, and the ability to have any question answered (admittedly, not always correctly, because there’s such a thing as Yahoo answers) is pretty cool!
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