What is a nutritional diet log?

Nutritional diet diary is essentially a practical recording tool that helps adjust diet structure and solve health-related problems by recording daily dietary intake, combinations and corresponding body reactions. It was first used by clinical nutrition departments for chronic disease patients who need dietary intervention and postoperative rehabilitation people. Now it has gradually spread to ordinary healthy people in daily scenarios such as weight management and gastrointestinal conditioning.

When I do nutrition consulting myself, the first suggestion I give to users is usually to keep a food diary for a week first, and don’t change the recipes immediately. Many people pat their chests and say that their diet is particularly healthy, but only after writing down do they realize that there are many problems. Not long ago, a little girl came to me to complain about recurring acne. She said that she never eats spicy food or drinks milk tea. After three days of keeping in her diary, the truth came out: the grain flour she was used to drinking in the morning had three tablespoons of rock sugar added to it. One bag of dried mango she ate when she was hungry in the afternoon contained 60 grams of sugar. Her intake of added sugar in one day was more than three times the recommended amount. How could she avoid recurring acne?

Of course, there are many people who think this thing is useless, and I have also heard a lot of complaints: I am so busy at work that I have to rush to eat, so how can I have time to take pictures of each meal, weigh it and calculate the calories? Maybe the more you remember, the more anxious you become, and you feel guilty even if you eat snacks, which may lead to eating problems. This kind of worry is really not unnecessary. I met a girl before who kept a diary accurate to the weight of each cherry in order to lose weight. In the end, she did not dare to use chopsticks when having dinner with friends. She counted the calories when she saw the food. It took almost half a year to adjust.

In fact, to put it bluntly, the nutrition and diet log is not meant to be used as a "diet attendance sheet" at all. It is more like a "notepad" for you to talk to your body. You don't need to pursue absolute accuracy. Newbies don't even need to count calories. Just remember what you eat for each meal, how much you eat, and whether you have any uncomfortable reactions such as acid reflux, flatulence, and diarrhea a few hours after eating. For example, if you have diarrhea half an hour after drinking ice milk twice in a row, you don’t need to look up the information to know that you are likely to be lactose intolerant. You can just switch to Shuhua milk or yogurt in the future, which is much more effective than just eating probiotics. I now keep track of them, either to calculate calories or to look through them occasionally when I'm overeating or have an acne breakout. I can quickly find the reason and save myself from guessing whether I should avoid this or that. It's very convenient.