Nov
While watching a video discussing the pros and cons to a drill, I stumbled upon a gem of an idea. Perhaps it was an attempt to distract myself. I know little about power tools, and I didn’t understand many of the words he spoke. While I still have not purchased a power drill, I searched out this gem and purchased it right away!
I purchased the GreaterGoods Nourish Digital Food Scale, provides the calories and macronutrients for a whole food based upon its weight and food type. In this article, I will review the good and the bad of this scale. I will provide for you an idea of who should purchase one who could benefit by spending money elsewhere.
In my book “Rethinking Fitness” I discuss the need for us to food journal and learn what foods contain. I firmly believe each of us needs to become our own nutritionist as it pertains to being aware of what foods contain what. Most people know that a banana has potassium but have no clue about its protein, fat, and carbohydrate content. Ok, since I brought it up, I’ll just answer the question in your head. A banana consists almost entirely of carbohydrates, half of which come from sugar. This does not make the banana evil because it has sugar, but it is important for you to know.
Writing things down makes things real. Food journaling, is one of the most important things you can do to bring awareness to your eating habits. It gives you the opportunity to learn about your habits and learn about the foods you eat regularly.
As you begin, you may only write the names of the foods down. Continuing forward with your nutrition education will require you to write the ingredients that these foods contain. The problem is that grabbing your phone and searching the internet can become the distraction that stops you from writing it down. This is one reason I purchased the GreaterGoods Nourish Digital Food Scale.
You can use this scale to determine the calories, proteins, carbohydrates, and fats of food. It is a far less distracting process than searching an ad based app or website for the information. The scale comes with a booklet that you can use to find the code for the food you will eat.
With this scale you can still track prepared foods. You can do this by setting up a unique food code as described in the directions. Once you have determined the weight of the packaged food you save it with the unique macronutrient information you provide. The macros will change accordingly if you were to adjust the size of this prepared food.
The scale comes with a unique code booklet. While you may have no problem with the little code booklet, I found it annoying. The size was too small, as were the fonts. Also, the organization of the foods did not work for me, and at first I thought many foods were missing from the book. There is a solution, but only use it if you have set up your phone in a way that notifications will not distract you.
The PerfectPortions Nourish app works with the scale is a much faster way to identify food codes. Because I have all notifications turned off and minimal social media interactions, it works for me. If it does not work for you, then you will need to come up with another solution.
One such solution is to take the time to write the food codes that you most commonly use and place them on your fridge. Yes, this will take time but look at it as yet another way to familiarize yourself with your food habits. This visible sheet of paper will put whole foods at the front of your mind. Perhaps it will spark a desire to diversify your plate and introduce more whole food options.
Quick visibility of the codes is important, but so is visibility of the scale. After my children and I went through our first round of understand foods and what they contain, the scale went back in the box. A week went by and it remained in the box like a toy that no longer gets played with. Continuing in this way would lead to a future thrift store contribution. And while that is not necessarily a bad thing, I want to get my money’s worth out of this tool.
The scale itself is actually visibly appealing to the eye. So what I did to solve the visibility problem was purchase a square wire stand which proudly displays this work of art. Even when not in use it speaks to me, saying, “nutrition is important, whole foods are important, you are important!” Ok that last part may be a little much but I think you get the point.
As great as this scale is there is a flaw I hope they fix. In the fitness community the awareness of macronutrients is prevalent, but we do rarely pay attention to an equally important factor. We do not give as much attention to micronutrients as we should. The average overweight person is over-nourished in macronutrients but undernourished in micronutrients. When many people go on a diet, they cut the calories but do not increase the vitamins and minerals. It would have been great if they would have included basic information about the micronutrients that foods contain.
The other half of the reason I purchased the GreaterGoods Nourish Digital Scale is for the education of my children. As a homeschooling father, I believe that our children’s understanding of nutrition starts young. This is a fantastic way for kinesthetically educating kids about foods. We use this scale as a starting point to teach them about mass, density, proper macronutrient portions, and much more.
The average adult is not that far off from the level of education about nutrition that children have. I hope that does not appear offensive, but it is true. Schools do not adequately prepare us for something we will do many times per day, for the rest of our lives. This scale is a great way to begin a grade-school level education about whole foods and what they contain. Hopefully, by the time we reach the middle grades, the GreaterGoods Nourish Digital Scale will include vitamins and minerals so we can continue our education.
I would recommend this scale if you want to learn about the foods you eat and what they contain. I would also recommend this scale if you are interested in tracking your macro’s without being forced to do yet another thing on your phone.
I would not recommend this tool if you are someone who has not yet learned to appreciate calories and how important they are for our body. If you have a calorie “fear” then hold off on this until you learn to overcome this emotional response to foods with a lot of “healthy” calories.
Given the few improvements this device could benefit from, I rate this scale as an 8 out of 10.
Click Here to Purchase the GreaterGoods Nourish Digital Food Scale
