Although it’s possible to just write down everything you eat, there’s more to keeping a food diary for Crohn’s than making a simple list. Consider these three tips to make the diary more useful, particularly when it comes to linking foods to subsequent symptoms.
1. Use Whatever Format You Like Best
The most important aspect of keeping a food diary is consistency, says Castro, so it’s helpful to choose a strategy that you will use daily. That might mean using an app or writing in a paper notebook, or even keeping a photo food journal where you snap a picture of each meal and snack.
“The goal is to make it convenient, so you can record your food intake as soon as you’re finished eating and be as detailed as possible,” Castro says.
2. Log Any Symptoms You Have Within a Few Hours of Eating
You’re aiming to assess food tolerance and identify trends by looking at overall patterns, which is why it can help to write down any symptoms you have after eating each food and try to identify patterns, says Castro. However, she warns against anticipating certain symptoms, since that might actually prompt you to magnify issues that would have seemed minor otherwise.
“It’s important to track your symptoms, but you don’t want to expect feeling sick,” she says. “Perception matters, so just try to take it day by day and document what you observe.” In terms of what to record, she suggests logging:
- Which foods you ate
- Roughly how much you ate of each food (for example, a cup of steamed broccoli or one chicken breast)
- Time you ate each food
- Gastrointestinal symptoms you have within a few hours after eating the food, like abdominal pain, nausea, bloating, gas, or heartburn
- Changes in bowel movements like frequency, volume, or consistency
“Keeping a food journal of potential food triggers may help limit and shorten flare-ups when they occur,” says Castro. “Think of all of this as your personal data bank that allows you to then make mindful food choices that work well for your body in the long run.”
3. Track Non-Gastrointestinal Symptoms, Too
In addition to paying attention to how specific foods might affect your digestion, it’s helpful to be aware of other potential issues as well, says Farhadi. These might seem to come up at random rather than close to mealtimes, but it’s still useful to jot them down, he says. For example, include these in your food diary when you experience them:
- Fatigue
- Fever
- Loss of appetite
- Mouth sores
- Night sweats
- Pain or redness in the eyes
- Swollen or painful joints
- Difficulty sleeping
“Writing down symptoms like these could help you and your doctor identify patterns that may be related to food but could also be related to when you take your medication, for example,” he says. “The more information you have like this, the better.”
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