Dear Food Diary
Dear Diary, guess what I ate today?!
Remember when keeping a diary was a right of teenage passage—a place to store all your first kisses, crushes, and vengeful plots to get even with the class bully. Those were the days! Keeping a diary as an adult is just as important. I write all the time, and not just for blogs! A diary is a great way to get catharsis, relieve stress, manifest what you want, as well as gain clarity if you’re trying to figure out next steps.
But today, I want to talk about a specific kind of diary: food diaries.
For anyone unfamiliar with food diaries, it’s exactly what it sounds like: a record of what you eat.
Why might someone keep a food diary? Well, I’m glad you asked because, before I go any further, I want to specify that not everyone should keep a food diary. If you’re feeling generally good, and have no health problems, a food diary is not necessary.
Or, if you are overly regimented about your diet, and know you tend to fixate too much on calories or micronutrients, keeping a diary may also be unhelpful—it can add to the rigidity of your mindset around food, and that’s not healthy either!
Food diaries are for people who are not feeling their best, and suspect that one or more items in their diet might be contributing to their symptoms. Food diaries are good to keep while you do an elimination diet. Although food diaries are pretty straightforward, it can be easy to make some common mistakes.
To ensure you get the best results from your food journaling, make sure you do it correctly! Here’s how:
Your food journal can be paper and pen, or digital (word document, google doc). However, I recommend digital because the Control F (Find) feature will allow you to easily scan the document for foods and symptoms that keep appearing. It also allows you to easily email and share it with your doctor, nutritionist, or health coach.
You’ll want to write down everything you eat, every day, for at least four weeks. Be patient, because many food reactions can take several days to show up. Four weeks will allow for enough time to pick up on patterns.
Don’t just write down the foods—record the day, time, portion size, and symptoms.
Always be specific about the ingredients, not just the food. For example, if you write down that you ate a sandwich, write down what type of bread, and what condiments were on the sandwich. Likewise, a bowl of cereal is too vague—what type of cereal was it? What type of milk? Was there sugar in the cereal? Etc.
Write down all your symptoms, not just the digestive ones. You may find that certain foods trigger fogginess, headaches, mood changes, breakouts, fatigue, and so forth.
It’s helpful to write down your symptoms in a different color or a corresponding column so that you can easily spot them when you reference the log.
As you can see, it’s not enough to just write, “Tuesday, 8am, nuts.” You may be sensitive to a certain type of nut, or a certain amount. You’re likely to get much clearer findings if you write with specificity: “Tuesday, 8am, 10 almonds.”
Ultimately, you want to be as inclusive and descriptive as possible, with regard to what you’re eating, how much, what time of day, and when you experience symptoms. With regard to the symptoms, don’t forget to write down how severe you experience them.
I know it’s difficult, but try to be patient knowing that food can have long-lasting effects on your body, and may take some time to make themselves known. Unlike allergies that show up within minutes, food sensitivities can take up to three days to appear. Your symptoms are not necessarily a reaction to what you just ate five minutes earlier.
So keep writing, and check in every few days or so to see what you come up with!
Happy journaling!