Thinking of Starting a Food Journal? Benefits and Tips
Key takeaways:
A food journal helps you track your eating habits. You can use a food journal for lots of reasons, including identifying food sensitivities, helping to manage chronic conditions like diabetes, or reaching weight goals.
A basic food journal includes what, when, and how much you’re eating. It can also include other details, like feelings and emotions around eating, hunger and fullness levels, or symptoms you experience after eating a certain food.
There are many ways to keep a food journal, such as using a pen and paper, your phone, or an app. It’s up to you which method of tracking makes the most sense for your lifestyle.
Keeping a food journal can be a very useful tool for anyone who wants to understand how the foods they eat may be affecting their overall health. There are many different reasons people keep food journals. And there are many different ways to do it. If you've been curious about the benefits of keeping a food journal and how to get started, read on.
What is a food journal?
A food journal is a detailed record of what you eat and drink throughout the day. Sometimes it’s called a food diary.
Food journals can help you track individual foods or meals, drinks (including water), and portion sizes. (Note: A portion size is the amount of food you choose to eat versus a serving size, which is a predetermined amount listed on the “nutrition facts panel” of a product or package.)
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Food journals can also help you track other things related to eating, such as:
Hunger and fullness cues
Stress levels
Any emotions, positive or negative, around certain foods or eating experiences
Sleep habits
Gastrointestinal symptoms
Physical activity level
If you’re working with a registered dietitian or nutritionist, you might want them to review your food journal to make suggestions. But you don’t have to work with a nutrition professional to use a food journal. Many people keep a food journal on their own as a way to understand their bodies better, and/or stay accountable to their personal health goals.
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Benefits of keeping a food journal
Some people hear the term food journal and think it’s all about counting calories. But there are plenty of other reasons a person might track their food. Many of these reasons have nothing to do with counting calories or weight loss. Here are some of the reasons people keep a food journal.
Identify nutrient gaps
Tracking your food can help you see whether there are any nutrient gaps in your diet. For example, are you getting enough fiber from fruits, vegetables, and whole grains? Are you getting enough iron or B12 from protein-rich foods? It can be helpful to review your food journal with a nutrition professional (like a registered dietitian). They can help you determine which foods to add or subtract from your diet.
Determine food intolerances or sensitivities
Many health conditions are affected by the foods you eat, and food triggers can vary from person to person. A food journal can help you see which foods make your symptoms worse and which foods are safe to eat. Health conditions that can be particularly affected by the foods you eat include:
Food sensitivities or allergies
Food intolerances, like lactose intolerance
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
Migraines
Eczema
Acne
Reduce emotional eating
It’s normal for emotions to affect your appetite and cravings. But some people find that emotional eating causes distress for them. In these cases, a food journal can help you identify your emotional eating triggers. It can also shed light on which foods you prefer when experiencing emotional eating. For example, some people crave sweets like chocolate when they are stressed or anxious, while others crave salty foods like french fries or potato chips.
It may be helpful to share your food journal with a nutrition professional who specializes in disordered eating. They can help you come up with strategies to help decrease emotional eating.
Manage chronic conditions
Keeping a food journal can be a useful way to gather data to help manage chronic conditions, such as:
Diabetes: If you were recently diagnosed with diabetes, your doctor or dietitian may ask you to keep a food journal along with blood sugar logs. This can help you see how individual foods and meal timings affect your blood sugar.
Chronic kidney disease: Advanced stages of kidney disease sometimes require monitoring your levels of potassium, sodium, and phosphorus. Tracking fluid intake is also sometimes needed.
Gout: If you have gout, you’ve probably been told to avoid eating too many purine-rich foods, which can elevate uric acid levels, and cause inflammation and swelling in the joints. A journal can help you see trends in flare-up causes.
Heart disease: People with high blood pressure or high cholesterol may need to limit how much saturated fat and sodium they have. And people with heart failure may need to keep a close eye on water and salt intake.
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Meet goals for a comfortable weight for you
A food journal can help you reach your weight goals, whether you’re trying to gain, lose, or maintain a certain weight. A food journal can raise your awareness about what you eat and why. It also provides concrete information about your calorie intake and macronutrients (carbs, protein, and fat).
Keeping a journal has been linked to weight loss. But a food journal can help with weight goals of any kind, not just weight loss.
Who should not keep a food journal?
While keeping a food journal can be a helpful tool for people, it’s not for everyone. You might not have the time, mental energy, or interest to track your eating habits. And that’s OK.
If you notice that tracking your food leads to feelings like guilt or shame and/or unhealthy behaviors, it may be best to avoid it. Tracking foods and counting calories can lead to disordered eating behaviors or thoughts. Particularly if you are someone with a history of disordered eating, you may want to avoid keeping a food journal that focuses on numbers and amounts.
How to keep a food journal: Tips for starting
It’s helpful to record what you’re eating and drinking in real time. Waiting until the end of the day is less reliable. You might not be able to recall details about what you’ve eaten — or how you felt afterwards.
What to include in your food journal
The following are important categories to capture in your food journal:
Type of meal: Are you logging your breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a snack?
Timing of meal: What time are you having your meal or snack? This can help identify whether you’re going too long between meals, or if you tend to snack a lot at certain times of day.
Type of food and beverages: Include details. Record how the food is prepared, product names, and condiments or sauces.
Amount of food and beverages: Use measuring cups and spoons, and package labels to help you determine amounts. Indicate sizes, like small, medium, or large when appropriate.
Water consumption: Keep track of water intake to ensure you’re staying hydrated throughout the day.
Depending on your reason for tracking, you may want to include other categories, such as:
Emotions/feelings: It may help to write down what you’re feeling before, during, or after eating. This can help you understand your emotional connection to certain foods, and/or identify if you’re eating for other reasons than physical hunger.
Hunger/fullness: Record how hungry you are before a meal and/or how full you are after a meal. This may help encourage more mindful eating.
Symptoms: If you’re trying to learn which foods cause GI upset, then it’s important to track any symptoms (like gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, etc.) throughout the day.
Physical activity: Depending on your goals, tracking physical activity may be useful. For example, someone who is trying to increase their physical stamina may want to do so.
What are the different types of food journals?
Many people prefer to keep a food journal the old-fashioned way with pen and paper. You can use a notebook or a downloaded food record sheet from a reputable source. But it may be easier to track your food using a note-taking app on your phone.
Another option is a food tracking app, like MyFitnessPal or MyPlate. SNAQ is an app that’s particularly useful for people with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, and it can even pair with glucose monitoring devices.
One advantage to food tracking apps is that they do much of the legwork for you. Many can provide detailed analyses, like how many calories, macronutrients, fiber, and sodium you’re eating in a day. Before you research which app to use, determine what you’re trying to track and why.
The bottom line
Keeping a food journal can be a useful tool for helping you reach your overall health goals. A food journal can help identify food sensitivities, manage a chronic health condition, or find a comfortable weight for you. But not everyone should keep a food journal, since detailed food tracking can be unhealthy for some people.
You can use your food journal with a nutrition or healthcare professional, or you can keep a food journal on your own. With so many different ways to track your diet, the first step will be determining what you’re trying to track and why.
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References
Hollis, J. F., et al. (2008). Weight loss during the intensive intervention phase of the weight-loss maintenance trial. American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Simpson, C. C., et al. (2017). Calorie counting and fitness tracking technology: Associations with eating disorder symptomatology. Eating Behaviors.
U.S. Department of Agriculture. (n.d.). Start simple with MyPlate app: FAQs.
