Food Diary Instructions

Writing a food diary should assist you, your doctor and the dietician with the following:

• Finding the cause of your symptoms
• Tracking your reactions
• Making the necessary changes to your diet

Try to insert as much information as you can. The more you write in, the higher the likelihood that you can get to the bottom of it all. Here are some instructions for what you should include in your diary.

Week  beginning: Insert the start date of the week.

Time: Insert the time when you had the food and/or drink.

Food & drink (incl. approx. amounts): Record what food you ate, preferably with approximate amounts e.g. in ml, pints, cups, grams, tsp, tbsp, or if you can’t measure them, for example in a restaurant, describe the amount e.g. 1 glass, a handful, number of items of a certain food.

Time of reaction: Insert the time when your reaction started and how long it persisted.

Description of symptoms: Describe what happened, how it came about, e.g. rumbling in upper abdomen followed by diarrhoea, or light patch that turned into an itchy, painful bump around the lips.

Severity (1-10): Note how bad or painful the symptoms were on a scale from 1-10, also compared to earlier reactions.

Medicine (incl. daily amounts): Record any medication or supplements, the brand and strength of tablets (found on package information), how many and time taken.

Important conclusions reached during this week /notes: Write down any thoughts on your progress or worsening of the condition in that week. Make notes about anything else that may trouble you.  You may have had more stress that week. For example, you may have realised that a certain food item has been eaten more frequently and that symptoms seem to be turning up soon after you ate it. Ask your doctor /dietician what else they suggest you should record here.