The Scoop on Portion Control: How Healthy Steps Tools Measure Up

Ultimately, no matter what kind of diet you follow, the key to losing weight will usually boil down to eating less. If we pile our plates high, we will gain weight. So losing weight, or preventing weight gain, is not just about what we eat, it's about how much we eat. In practical terms this means practicing portion control. The trouble is, we remain confused about the distinction between a portion and a serving size.

Serving size is a specific measure of a food item expressed either by volume or weight. A portion is whatever we dump on our plate, which might be the equivalent of two or more servings. Take ice cream, for instance. We buy a tub, scoop a nice big helping and believe that we're consuming what the nutrition facts label tells us. In fact, the nutrition facts label refers to a mere half-cup serving.

This is where some products from Jokari's Healthy Steps line may prove useful. Taking the example of ice cream, Healthy Steps has an ice cream scoop that delivers a half cup serving, using a resistance-free plunger mechanism to dispense the ice cream. Is this revolutionary? Not really, as many basic ice cream scoops will deliver about half a cup. It's just that we keep on scooping. Still, having this kind of a scoop may make us more mindful, of course, and certainly more obviously aware of what a serving looks like. The downside of this particular scoop is that it's a little difficult to clean properly, even in the dishwasher. It's also very lightweight, so ice cream needs to be softened before scooping.

Other portion control products include a butter scoop, which is a two-ended implement with a one-tablespoon flexible spoon at one end, which can be scooped into tubs, and a small plastic knife with a notch and a 1 tablespoon measure line, which allows you to measure along a stick of butter. This is useful if the butter is unwrapped in a dish (the wrapper has tablespoons and fractions of a cup marked along the edge).

The only problem I had with the scoop was getting the butter to release properly, but otherwise it seems a handy little tool to remind us what a tablespoon of butter actually looks like. You can also use it for scooping tub cream cheese or perhaps some peanut butter. Equally, you can use one of your regular measuring spoons to get the right size scoop, but it might be nice to have a dedicated spoon. Using the measurement tool on the butter knife worked fine, but it was difficult to then use the same plastic knife to cut the butter properly. You may want a different knife to do the job.

For those times you’re making drop cookies, there's the Cookie Pro, which, like the Butter Pro, is a two-ended tool with a scoop one end and a plastic knife/half spatula the other end. This tool ensures we scoop just a tablespoonful of dough at a time, and the spatula the other end is to help scrape the bowl--and also to remove the cookies from the cookie sheet. The thing is, if you're being strict about portion control, you'll be aware that many drop-cookie recipes actually suggest dropping dough by the teaspoonful.

Again, although the scoop end has a flexible release, the dough sometimes doggedly sticks to it (a little cooking spray would help with this). The tool really doesn't need to be doubled ended. The spatula/knife is not as effective as a full-size one, and unless you clean the tool between scooping and scraping, you're likely to have to handle the doughy end of the tool to wield it more effectively.

The pasta basket is a neat idea, allowing us to cook a single portion of pasta in a silicone basket which drains the cooked pasta when you remove it. Four baskets will fit one large pot, so while your child enjoys shells, you can cook yourself a portion of whole-wheat penne in the same pot. If you want to cook spaghetti, the basket’s handle has a handy notch that measures one portion. To cook it, though, you'll need to break the spaghetti into pieces, which is what I usually do anyway. The only downside to the baskets is that as deep as the basket is, you’ll need a lot of water in your pot to cover the pasta and cook it properly. But of the products I tried, this is the one I would use most frequently.

The Bottom Line

These Healthy Steps products do indeed take guess work out of figuring out what a portion looks like, and they might make neat stocking stuffers, especially the pasta basket. But if you own regular measuring spoons and measuring cups, you could certainly live without them. Finally, I reviewed only a few of the products in this portion-control line. There are many more here.

Disclosure: Review samples were provided by the manufacturer. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.