Anyone keep a food diary?

[Nekodaiden]

Do you keep a food diary?

Just wondering if anyone else does this. I keep a diary that I irregularly keep updated if I eat something and notice an effect later. This could be something good for me (like green veggie juice), or bad for me (like too much beer).

Among my diary entries is one for eating (rather drinking) a rather large amount of green vegetable smoothie, which for a brief time made me feel like I was getting more oxygen, a very good feeling.

Another was when I ate a rather large amount of sunflower seeds in one sitting, which made me feel good in a different way.

How about you? Do you, or have you kept a diary like this?

 

[Lou]

I have. A couple of times in my life. but not now.

I have some kind of sleep disorder and for a while, I kept a checklist. Exercise, sunshine, caffeine, when I ate dinner, if i had a snack, when I went to bed, and when I woke up. I was hoping to find one key element to concentrate on. Instead, I found out that it was more like almost everything. And that it was even more difficult than I expected to stay "good".

I do frequently go back to my CronOmeter account. Especially when I have made some changes just to make sure I'm going oK nutrition wise. But it doesn't have a box to record feelings.

 

[Nekodaiden]

I like CronOmeter. Have used it before, but not presently. I think in general it's a good tool. That being said, I feel the RDA for calcium is more reflective of industry influence than something scientifically determined.

I also think it should be used as a guideline, rather than a strict rule as to whether one is getting this or that nutrient, full stop. The body just doesn't work that way. For example, one can eat particular foods and get a bunch of nutrients they are after, and in the percentage bars see that they've nailed it for said nutrients and think they are fine for the day. What isn't taken into account is anti-nutrient foods that drain nutrients (like alcohol - vitamins and minerals, changes certain types of fat), or in general empty calorie or nearly nutrient-less foods that nevertheless require things like B vitamins to metabolize. For example, white sugar and olive oil (and all oil as far as I am aware) contain 0 B vitamins or minerals, but still require them to be metabolized.

Cronometer doesn't (-minus) them as far as I know, which is just one reason it's a good tool but can lead to misconceptions if one is unaware of such things.

 

[HappyRoxy]

My partner and I use My Fitness Pal. I like to keep track of my calories and nutritional intake. I't s good to know that I'm getting enough iron and calcium especially, and not too much sugar, fat and sodium.

 

[Emma JC]

I did keep a diary a number of years ago when I first found Esselstyn. I kept track of all meals and recipes and whether or not we liked them. It was very helpful at that time and even now I sometimes go and look at it.

What I should be doing is making a list of meals that we love so that when I think... "what should we have for dinner?" then I can just scan the list and see what ingredients I have and go from there. I suppose that even better would be to plan the week in advance. My challenge is that my honey works away from home and often eats a very large lunch, then eats his snacks of pretzels and nuts on the commute home and then says "I am not hungry" for dinner. 'Slaving' over a hot stove and then having someone say that can be discouraging.

Lists are a great idea and I shop with them so that I only buy the things I need and not just randomly grab food. Planning ahead would cut down on waste and my biggest waste comes from greens that I buy and then don't get around to using in time. I love frozen kale, brussel sprouts and other veggies and fruits for that reason. At anyone time, in my freezer, I have mixed berries, wild blueberries, cranberries, pineapple, corn, peas, kale, brussel sprouts, broccoli/cauliflower, mixed peppers/onions, sliced lemons/oranges & zest, hash browns or potato pancakes, bread, black bean burgers, perogies and some Gardein. I shudder to think of the food I would have if I had a separate freezer.

Emma JC

 

[Connie]

My partner and I use My Fitness Pal. I like to keep track of my calories and nutritional intake. I't s good to know that I'm getting enough iron and calcium especially, and not too much sugar, fat and sodium.

Be very careful work MyFitnesPal. I have found that a considerable number of the nutrients are incorrect, inconsistent or just down right incorrect.
A really large number of people don't know the difference between milligrams and micrograms, and some don't know the difference between salt and sodium figures (a factor if 2.5).

I gave up on correcting the figures because I just found too many to be incorrect. Plus having lived in 2 countries and used it in both, manufacturers have different recipes for the same thing. Sho what you think you're getting nutrient wise can be quite different. This means you need to know who entered the original figures that you're using because if they are in another country...

I also got very fed up of constantly making recipes for everything I eat every day because i cook from scratch just about every day. Maybe twice a month we'll eat something manufactured... I stuck with it for about 12 months but after that I decided enough was enough.

 

[HappyRoxy]

Be very careful work MyFitnesPal. I have found that a considerable number of the nutrients are incorrect, inconsistent or just down right incorrect.
A really large number of people don't know the difference between milligrams and micrograms, and some don't know the difference between salt and sodium figures (a factor if 2.5).

I gave up on correcting the figures because I just found too many to be incorrect. Plus having lived in 2 countries and used it in both, manufacturers have different recipes for the same thing. Sho what you think you're getting nutrient wise can be quite different. This means you need to know who entered the original figures that you're using because if they are in another country...

I also got very fed up of constantly making recipes for everything I eat every day because i cook from scratch just about every day. Maybe twice a month we'll eat something manufactured... I stuck with it for about 12 months but after that I decided enough was enough.

Thanks for the heads up Connie! I agree, that entering the recipes is a pain....
Is there an alternative that you use now?

 

[Lou]

SparkPeople is free. It has an app. And I'm pretty sure that you just have to plug in the ingredients for each of your recipes once. It also has a user created databank that is unreliable. but when you plug in the food you get a choice of whose data you want to use. I think you can even tell the thing to remember that choice.

The app lets you just take a picture of the barcode to get the data of prepared, canned or frozen foods. Everything else (like produce) has the USDA data.
(its been a long time since I used Spark. It might even be better than that)

The premium version of Cronometer has an app and allows for recipes. but it is too high a price IMHO. I found a pretty good workout around for recipes - you can select all the ingredients from one day and paste them into another.

 

[rogerjolly]

My challenge is that my honey works away from home and often eats a very large lunch, then eats his snacks of pretzels and nuts on the commute home and then says "I am not hungry" for dinner.

I wouldn’t stand for that.

Beef yourself up, put all your eggs in one basket and tell him straight that he might bring home the bacon but his goose will be cooked if he can’t resist the pretzels because you are no longer going to flog a dead horse.

Roger.