What it’s for
- Dietary self-monitoring
Recording meals and drinks to understand eating patterns.
Purpose, evidence and practical considerations.
Food diaries can support a broader behaviour-change plan. Logging alone does not establish a specific health benefit, and associations with wearable data cannot prove causation.
Confidence: weak
Tracking can become distressing or compulsive, especially with an eating-disorder history. A calorie estimate is not a diagnosis or a substitute for adequate nutrition.
A log provides feedback about choices and consistency. It is an estimate: portion sizes, product labels and missing entries affect accuracy.
How people use it, with their schedules, context and original sources.
These share a protocol with this intervention. This does not establish that they work together or are suitable alternatives.