PortionMate Inc. - Super Cute New T1D Tool

A few months ago, I stumbled across an article about PortionMate; a colorful meal and snack measuring tool made out of simple BPA-Free plastic rings called cylinders. 

 

 

Immediately, I was hooked!  This was exactly the sort of thing that I needed to help the kids measure their food in healthy portion sizes that were also easily carb-counted in order to dose the precise amount of insulin their little bodies needed. 

 

 

From PortionMate:  Each PortionMate cylinder has a color that corresponds to specific groups of food.  Simply choose the desired color PortionMate cylinder and place it into your plate or bowl.  Lift and remove the cylinder from your plate or bowl, leaving behind a perfectly sized portion of food.

Love!!!!   

Sure there are other ways of counting carbohydrates.  However, being a busy mom that needs to count carbohydrates quickly to dose insulin for two kids, I often loathe the measuring time needed to use my scale.  Nothing is worse than impatient kids that want to EAT RIGHT NOW and who can blame them?  Active kids are hungry and meal time and waiting for mom to punch in keycodes to find the weight of watermelon without rind is no fun for anyone.

Even with two sets of measuring cups, many times we find one is still dirty or in the middle of a dishwasher cycle, rendering that option useless.  Two kids, three meals and a ton of snacks... well, it is impossible to keep those cups clean!

The PortionMate looked like an easier solution.  For myself and the girls, it was fast to use by simply laying on a plate and filling the appropriate cylinder with food.  In conjuction with the PortionMate, I did use my handy Calorie King guide book.  Although, if you do not own the Calorie King guide book, the PortionMate does come with a Nutrition and Meal Planning Guide that lists many common foods and their nutritional content.  Using the PortionMate guide, the foods are also portion counted to ensure that you are getting a healthy variety of choices as stated by the American Diabetes Association and Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Once the PortionMate cylinder is loaded with the food of your choice, simply lift the cylinder off and either measure for the second plate or remove and rinse clean.  The PortionMate is also top-shelf dishwasher safe but not microwave friendly.

No work, no hassle and the colors made it easy to identify the portion amount!

 

 

Most important was the 'guestimating' was virtually eliminated as the girls couldn't wait to be the first to the table to use the PortionMate.  That meant that we started to see better post-meal blood glucose numbers because carbohydrates were counted accurately. 

 

 

If you would like to order a PortionMate, you may visit PortionMate at www.portionmate.com or 'like' PortionMate on their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/portionmate.



Disclaimer:   PortionMate was provided to Naturally Sweet Sisters as a courtesy so that we could write a full review of our thoughts and feedback.