Keeping a Food Diary Can Improve Your Health—so Long as It's Not About Counting Calories

glamour.com:

not in a way that focuses on how much you're eating or caloric intake, as this isn't about that at all.Instead, the idea is that don't need to be huge.

Whether it’s getting off the Tube a stop early (good for all-round health) or ensuring you get enough light in the mornings (, mood and focus), sometimes small, simple things can make a big difference to our lifestyle.

Such is the case with keeping a food diary, which can pay dividends when it comes to maintaining a balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle, and practicing mindfulness over all.Pay a visit to any health expert and they will almost certainly ask you keep a comprehensive food diary for a couple of weeks.

The idea is to write down everything you consume – food and drinks – and ideally the emotions you experience each day, too. “It can provide invaluable information about how your food may be affecting your and more,” explains Rhian Stephenson, nutritionist, naturopath and founder of , who points out that the process is not – I repeat, not – about tracking calories.Instead, it’s a great tool to help you “identify obstacles that may be preventing you from hitting your health goals, learning about eating behaviours that may be sabotaging your progress and to check in on important nutritional parameters like fibre, protein, sugar and more”.Eating a is now widely acknowledged as an important health goal, and a food diary helps you to grasp how many fruits, vegetables, herbs, spices, nuts, seeds and whole grains (for example) you are ingesting each day.