Breakfast Dec 1, 2008
A few years ago I read an article in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association (a poster from an ADA meeting) about a different way of doing dietary diaries. The researchers had their patients write down what they ate and photograph it with a digital camera. As you can see from the poster (reprinted in full at the bottom of this post), subjects underreported their intake in their written diaries as compared to their photographic diaries, with the biggest omissions in the written record coming from sauces and condiments.
I’ve thought about this since I read it and always thought it a good idea. Now, with almost everyone having either a small digital camera or a cell phone with a built-in camera, it makes much more sense than trying to remember everything eaten and writing it down later. And there is a huge difference between the words “two chicken thighs’ and pictures of two chicken thighs that came from KFC with all the breaded coating from their Original recipe and two chicken thighs from a rotisseried chicken. Yet, all too often, people eat the first, then simply write down ‘two chicken thighs’ and wonder why they aren’t losing weight when they review their diaries later.
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