Should You Keep a Food Journal or Food Diary?

Published on Friday, 17 June 2011 22:18

Written by Jennifer Hartmann

Food Diary entries record the day-to-day food intake of a person’s life but they do not usually go deeper than this. Food journals, by contrast, explore what the person is thinking and feeling at a given point in time. A food journal may make references to events that involve food but those events are not usually described in detail.

The main function of a food journal is to explore the psyche or the feelings that eating a food brings up. The person writes down exactly what he or she is thinking or feeling at a particular moment when they eat something. 

In comparison with a food diary, few writers of food journals make daily entries. They write in their food journals whenever they feel the need to express themselves, perhaps in response to a particular situation or issue in their lives. They may therefore make weekly, monthly or even annual entries. During periods of upheaval, journal writers will generally feel the need to write more often than during periods of calm.

There are no rules for food journal writing because it is an extremely personal activity. The journal is entirely private and is therefore for the writer alone. Journal writers are free to express their innermost thoughts to the blank piece of paper as often or as infrequently as they like. The length of each food journal entry can range from a single word to many pages.  

Journals and food journals are private explorations of a person’s thoughts and feelings. Through writing a journal or a food journal, authors are able to understand themselves better, put events into perspective, and perhaps even discover solutions to problems or find peace with food.  By contrast, a food diary simply records the facts without the author going into detail about his or her thoughts and feelings surrounding food.

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