Food Tools of the Trade

When you are creating a new, healthier lifestyle for yourself, a HUGE part of it is what you eat, and how much you eat. Everyone must determine for themselves what their nutritional needs are, and some diets will require certain restrictions, but one thing never changes: portion control.

There are basic “tools of the trade” for portion control, and there are lots of neat new tools to help you eat a balanced diet too. I’m going to show you the basics, the cool gadgets, and ways to keep it up even when there is nothing tangible available!

But first, I want to define what “diet” is. When you refer to Merriam-Webster, they offer four definitions. Here are the first three:

• food and drink regularly provided or consumed
• habitual nourishment
• the kind and amount of food prescribed for a person or animal for a special reason

And HERE is the fourth:

• a regimen of eating and drinking sparingly so as to reduce one’s weight

You know what the important thing about that definition is? Overwhelmingly, diet is more what you EAT not what you GO ON to get skinny. And the best part of it is, when your diet is healthy and balanced, you’ll never need to go on one!

Basic Tools

So, there are some basic tools of the trade that everyone should have in their kitchen, and most will cost you next to nothing:

• set of measuring cups (dry)
• liquid measuring cup (wet)
• set of measuring spoons
• a digital kitchen scale

The first three items on the list can be purchased at your local Walmart or Target for just a couple dollars apiece for your standard fare, or you can get this pretty bad-ass set with extended measurements for about $13 on Amazon. You could also buy these neat collapsible silicone cups which can be incrementally collapsed for graduated measurements (and of course they collapse and stack for easier storage!). For the liquid measuring cups, different sizes can come in handy, so a set like this Oxo nesting set with 1-, 2- and 4-cup sizes is a pretty good deal. In case you are asking yourself why you need both wet and dry measuring cups, Dave on KitchenSavvy.com explains it best:

Dry ingredients are easiest handled using a “scoop and level” technique where the cup is overfilled and then a knife or other straight edge is scraped across the top to level the amount to the right measure.  This only works if the measuring cup is filled to the brim.  If you try to measure a cup of, say, sugar using a liquid measuring cup you can’t scoop and level, and it is harder to get an accurate measure by using the line.  Dry ingredients don’t want to make a  nice straight line across their top and if you try to get them to, they settle in the cup causing error, so the cup used for liquid measures is not accurate for dry ingredients.

Conversely, it is difficult to measure  liquid if you need to fill the measuring cup to the very brim, and even if you succeed, you either make a mess or have difficulty getting the entire amount transported to the next step, so dry measuring cups are not easy to work with for liquid ingredients.

Read more about it on the blog here: http://www.kitchensavvy.com/journal/2007/02/differnece_betw.html. The long and short of it is that the measurements are similar (to a point) but won’t be as accurate. In a pinch exchanging one for the other will still get the job done.

The cost of a digital kitchen scale depends on your personal preferences. I have the Cuisinart Weight Mate, but to be honest, the only thing I like about it is the removable stainless steel plate that I can throw in the dishwasher to keep the scale clean. With larger bowls and plates, it can be difficult to read the measurements accurately. If you shop around, you can find a better one where the screen wont be obstructed (and here’s a link to the highest-rated scales on Amazon). And in case you’re wondering why I recommend a digital scale over a manual one, I have just found they are more accurate. It’s just a personal preference.

“Pro”-Tip: Put your bowls, plates, etc… onto the scale before turning it on. The scale will read at zero before you load up your dishes with food and you won’t have to do any extra math.

Cool Gadgets

So what are the cool gadgets? There are a bunch of companies out there who have designed products to make portion control easier, WAY easier. Prices vary for similar products so it all comes down to personal preference. Here are some links to sites and products I think are pretty neat:

• Healthy Steps Portion Control Tools – with tools like Dressing Lid, Cheese Grater, Starch Server, Pasta Basket you can easily control portions of some of the trickiest foods. Be cautious of the Protein Server though – it’s designed to be the right size for 3oz of protein, but a thick piece of chicken could weigh more and still be the width of the server!
• Portion Control Bowls with Measurements – you can get a single Measure Up bowl featuring 1/2, 1, 1-1/2 and 2 cup measuring lines, or a set of four like these for about the same price.

Look Ma, No Tools!

Nobody wants to carry measuring cups and spoons in their pockets, so sometimes we just don’t have the tools we need to eat healthy, right? WRONG. You can use your hands to roughly estimate some common measurements:

• 1 cup = your fist
• 1 ounce = the meaty part of your thumb
• 1 tablespoon = your thumb, minus the meaty part
• 1 teaspoon = the tip of your index finger
• 1 inch = the middle section of your index finger
• 1-2 ounces of a food like nuts or pretzels = your cupped hand
• 3 ounces of meat, fish, or poultry = the palm of your hand

“Pro”-Tip: Use the hand measurements when you are dining out to ensure you only consume a single serving of whatever you ordered. There is a serious problem with “portion-distortion” in our country as the average size of our servings has gone up, even as the actually recommended servings sizes have not changed.

So there’s your portion control primer. Find out what your portions are by joining a program like Weight Watchers, working with a nutritionist, etc…, then stock up on the tools of the trade, or wash your hands, and get started!