The European Food Safety Authority defines a Dietary Reference Value (DRV) as “an umbrella term for a set of nutrient reference values”. In the UK the reference values that make up DRVs are:
Are you looking to use a food diary to monitor a patient’s food intake, or conduct a research study analysing nutrient intake? Or perhaps you’ve been asked to keep your own food diary and want to know why you should use it?
Previously, we wrote an article to help you decide which dietary assessment method to use. You can also download a free cheat sheet on Dietary Assessment Methods covering all you need to know about food diaries, FFQs and 24hr recalls.
In this article we’ll walk you through what a food diary is, why they are a useful method of recording diet, plus their strengths and limitations in comparison to other dietary assessment methods.
Dietary self-management plays an important role in managing weight and has consistently been associated with weight loss. Self-monitoring involves an individual to observe and record their own behaviour which increases their awareness of that behaviour, this can present the opportunity to adjust their behaviour, in this case dietary ones, in order to achieve their weight goal. An important aspect of dietary self-monitoring is the duration and frequency of monitoring. A recent small-scale study aimed to assess whether self-monitoring dietary intake using myfood24 was suitable for individuals wishing to lose weight.
