Diabetes is not something anyone wants, but incorporating a healthy lifestyle helps control this disease.
A healthy lifestyle includes measuring food portions to ensure that you are getting the right nutritional data.
Overlarge portions and too many carbohydrates can directly affect the blood sugar of persons with type 2 diabetes, so measuring food is absolutely necessary for these people.
Using an old-fashioned, conventional kitchen scale to do this, though, simply just takes too much time. It takes about one minute to measure just one food item at a time. You also have the extra burden of subtracting the weight of the food container to get the net weight of the food itself.
Another thing you would have to do if using an old-fashioned scale is find the food you are measuring in fitness apps via a keyword search, barcode scanning, or choosing from a list of frequently eaten food in order to calculate nutritional data correctly.
All of these steps are eliminated with the use of any of the diabetic food scales in this in-depth review. Some models even include a database with thousands of food items, while others have them listed in handy manuals so you won’t need to go online and spend precious time researching.
With just a push of a button, you can track single or multiple items in your diabetic diet. Most of these scales have a tare function, which subtracts the weight of your food container and therefore gives you the net weight of the food automatically. They also convert weight units instantly.
Choosing the perfect diabetic food scale may be overwhelming to people with type 2 diabetes. We review diabetic food scales that are user-friendly and with truly useful and helpful features.
In a hurry? Here’s our favorite diabetic food scale from Amazon.
| Best Diabetic Food Scales | Why We Like It |
|---|---|
| 1. Reflex 3000g / 0.1g Digital Pocket Wireless Smart Food Kitchen Scale | includes free IOS and Android app and is multilingual |
| 2. EatSmart Digital Nutrition Scale | tare feature automatically removes weight of measuring bowl |
| 3. Greater Goods Nutrition Food Scale | calculates the nutritional data of whole meals, not just one item |
| 4. Folind Digital Kitchen Scale | model is easy to operate with only two buttons |
| 5. Etekcity Smart Food Nutrition Scale | pairs with a free fitness app and tracks and saves your food intake |
| 6. OXO Good Grips 11-Pound Stainless Steel Food Scale | includes pull-out, back-lit digital display for easy reading; is user-friendly |
| 7. IDAODAN Smart Food Scale | factors in how food was cooked to calculate nutritional data more correctly |
| 8. Ozeri Touch Waterproof Digital Kitchen Scale | totally washable and submergible scale is also user-friendly |
| 9. Mackie Food Scale | automatically measures and tracks your carbohydrates, calories, fat, sodium, protein, and fiber intakes |
| 10. Nicewell Food Scale | auto-off function saves battery life |
Reflex 3000g / 0.1g Digital Pocket Wireless Smart Food Kitchen Scale
The idea of a mobile phone-connected food scale to instantly measure food is useful for people with type-2 diabetes. This way, they can log their meals and track their macros accurately and regularly.
The Reflex 3000g comes with a free IOS and Android Smart Chef app with a multi-lingual database for calorie, macros, and nutritional calculation. Your phone can be used as an external pull out digital display.
The app also enables you to hear current weight readings via your mobile devices. This is especially useful for people whose eyesight has been affected by diabetes.
The app may crash and may need resetting when you use it. However, several updates have addressed some of the problems.
PROS:
- Comes with free IOS and Android app
- Multi-lingual database for macros and other nutritional calculation
- Smart Chef app enables you to hear current readings
- Mobile phone serves as pull-out display
CONS:
- App may crash and need resetting
EatSmart Digital Nutrition Scale
For diabetics who need to compute their daily carbohydrates and calorie intake, this scale should be a big help. Aside from these two calculations, fiber, sodium, fats, Vitamin K, and six other nutrients from thousands of packaged and 999 whole foods can also be calculated.
The food scale has a memory mode that can save up to 99 entries for easier tracking. The white backlight LCD screen has an auto power-off after 2-minutes to conserve battery life.
We found the instructions on how to measure calories and the nutrients of the food that are not in their database hard to follow. The directions could have been written more clearly.
PROS:
- Contains nutrients of thousands of food in its database
- Allows easy calculation of daily carbohydrates and calories intake
- Tare feature that automatically subtracts the weight of the bowl from measurement
- Memory mode of up to 99 entries for easy tracking
CONS:
- Instructions not easy to follow
Greater Goods Nutrition Food Scale
The Greater Goods food scale is for those who take tracking of macros seriously. It makes living with type 2 diabetes easier. It has a built-in nutrition tracker that weighs and calculates the nutritional values of food.
This food scale comes with a database containing the nutritional facts of over 2,000 foods. You can also create up to 99 entries customized to your diet.
If you want to know the total nutritional value of a meal, simply enter the code for each ingredient on the touch screen keypad. A nutrition fact label will appear on the LCD. After encoding all the ingredients of the meal, the scale will then calculate the total nutritional value.
The preprogrammed codes of food could be improved to remove junk or sugary processed foods. People with diabetes and others who count macros know very well to stay away from these.
PROS:
- Built-in nutrition tracker that weighs and calculates nutritional values
- Database contains nutritional facts of 2,000 foods
- Easy calculation of the total nutritional value of one meal
- Tare function to get an ingredient’s net weight
CONS:
- Junk and sugary food items included in preprogrammed foods
Folind Digital Kitchen Scale
We all know how important portion control is to diabetics. The Folind Multifunction food scale comes in very handy for this purpose. It has a tare function that gives an accurate measurement of the ingredients.
It is a simple kitchen scale with only two buttons. One to switch on, the other to tare. The scale is stylish yet sturdy. You won’t need to replace it every so often.
This food scale comes with a detachable bowl. This also serves as the scale’s cover when storing it in the kitchen drawer. The bowl doesn’t snap into place and it falls off if you’re not careful.
PROS:
- Tare function makes it perfect for portion control
- Simple to operate with only two buttons
- Stylish yet sturdy
- Comes with a detachable bowl to put your food in
CONS:
- Detachable bowl also serves as a cover but it doesn’t snap into place
Etekcity Smart Food Nutrition Scale
This is another digital scale that pairs with a free fitness app, in this case, the VeSync app. It gives you access to nearly 270,000 food items. You can also add and customize your food data as needed.
You can track, save, and analyze your daily eating habits with this scale that can display 12 nutrition facts, such as calories, total carbs, and protein. People who want to pursue a healthy and balanced diet like diabetes patients can strictly monitor their food intake.
Although the scale itself is wonderful, the software is lacking. It doesn’t sync with any other app aside from the VeSync app.
PROS:
- Pairs with a free fitness app VeSync
- Can add and customize your food data
- Can track, save, and analyze your daily eating habits
- Displays 12 nutrition facts like calories, carbs, and protein
CONS:
- Scale cannot sync with any other fitness app
OXO Good Grips 11-Pound Stainless Steel Food Scale
The best thing about this food scale is its pull-out backlit digital display for easy and clear reading. You can pull out the display from the base and later tuck it back in for easy storage.
The OXO Good Grips food scale has only two simple buttons that make it user-friendly even for diabetics who will be using it for the first time. The power button also serves as a zero function that resets the scale in between readings.
The second button is a conversion button that switches between ounces, pounds, grams, and kilograms. The food scale can remember the unit of measurement which was last used. If you set it to grams and then turn off the scale, the weight will still be in grams.
PROS:
- Backlit digital display can be pulled out from the base to avoid obstructions
- User-friendly with just 2 buttons
- Can remember the unit of measurement from the last time you used it
- User-friendly with just 2 buttons
CONS:
- No instructions on how to remove scale platform for cleaning
IDAODAN Smart Food Scale
If you don’t want to be bothered with connecting online to measure food, we recommend using a food scale like this. This can calculate weight and nutrition directly without having to connect to an app.
It is very useful for those on a diabetic-friendly diet. It comes with a comprehensive manual that lists almost 1,000 foods. Also included in the manual are multiple modes of cooking, such as boiling, broiling, and baking. This enhances accuracy and provides you with more correct data.
It is very easy to use. Simply enter the code of the food you are weighing and it will show all kinds of nutrients of the food.
One set back for not being connected to an app is that you need to look into the manual every time you need the codes for the food. You must not throw it away.
PROS:
- No need to connect to an app
- Comes with a comprehensive manual with almost 1,000 foods listed
- Factors in cooking modes for enhanced accuracy
- Easy to use in getting nutrients of food
CONS:
- You always have to look in the manual to get codes of foods
Ozeri Touch Waterproof Digital Kitchen Scale
This is said to be the world’s first digital kitchen scale that’s fully washable and submersible.
Many diabetic food scales are not so simple to clean. We don’t know why, because bacteria can double in number every 20 minutes on uncleaned surfaces. A person with type-2 diabetes does not need to get sick from an unwashed scale surface.
This model is equipped with 4 high-precision sensors that can accurately weigh from 0.1 oz to 11 lbs, 7.4 oz. The food scale is so user-friendly, you won’t even need to read the manual.
PROS:
- World’s first washable and submersible digital food scale
- Touch-sensitive tare button
- Unit button to change the unit of measurement
- User-friendly
CONS:
- Battery life needs to be improved
Mackie Food Scale
This digital scale has 999 preprogrammed foods. You can customize it by adding up to 999 new foods of your own.
It shows you everything that is in your food and can even give you running totals of the nutritional values of all your food for the day. It automatically measures and tracks your carbohydrates, calories, fat, sodium, protein, and fiber intakes.
PROS:
- Internal database of 999 food items
- Can be customized to add 999 more food
- Keeps running totals of nutritional values for the day
- Automatically measures carbo, calories, sodium, etc.
CONS:
- Doesn’t seem to recognize small increments in content weight lower than 1 gram
Nicewell Food Scale
This is a multifunction precision food scale that helps you weigh ingredients accurately when you are trying to portion control your meals. It also helps you follow recipes closely.
The large platform makes for convenient reading of the weights of ingredients. It is easy to use with touch-sensitive buttons. It also has an auto-off function to save battery life.
We find this auto-off function extremely quick and when this happens, you lose the tare setting you had before the scale turned off. You need to start over again.
PROS:
- Precise measurement with 1g or .1 oz increments
- 5 weight unit conversion
- Large platform with touch-sensitive buttons
- Auto-off function saves battery life
CONS:
- Tare setting lost when scale turns off automatically
Wrap Up
When looking for the best food scales for diabetics, we found out that these features make a lot of difference: functionality, ease of cleaning, and readability.
The unit conversion function comes in handy when the food being weighed doesn’t come in your unit of choice. It saves you doing the math. The same goes with the tare function.
Especially useful for diabetics are food scales that provide nutritional data and come with a compatible app for making food logging easier.
Remember that the surface of the food scale that comes in direct contact with food should always be sanitized. Choose scales with a removable platform for easy cleaning. It is better if the scale itself is waterproof.
Lastly, a pull-out display gives the best visibility. The display must feature large and clear text.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I calculate the carbohydrate content from the food weight?
First, you need to know the weight of the food. This can be done by weighing the food on one of our recommended food scales. Food weight is measured in either grams or ounces.
Then, determine what is known as the FACTOR, or how many grams of carbohydrates there are in a given food weight. You can find this in the online databases that come with the food scales or are listed in their manuals.
If you weighed the food in ounces, be sure to get the factor that is in ounces, too.
The basic equation to calculate carbohydrate count by food weight is:
Your Food Weight X Food Factor = Grams of Carbohydrate in that food.
Why is it important for diabetics to count carbs?
People with diabetes need to practice counting carbohydrates to make managing their blood sugar easier. The benefits of doing this include improving their quality of life, preventing strokes, and delaying any future health complications.
Diabetics who already take mealtime insulin need to do this to match their insulin dose if they go over the recommended carbohydrates in their meals. They may need to take an additional dose if their blood sugar rises when they eat.
Additional Resources
- EverydayHealth: Apps to Help Manage Diabetes
- YouTube: How to Use a Food Scale
Image credits via Flickr: “Mankurad Mangoes” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by joegoauk73
Bryce is not a real professor, but he's real nerdy in the kitchen. He's been barbecuing, chopping, and generally blazing food for many decades. He thinks there's definitely a better spatula or utensil out there that hasn't been invented yet.