Bradley Simpson

You may have heard recently of a ‘See Food Diet’ method that involves taking photos of everything before you eat it. The origins came from some research on recording methods for people on a diet. It was not so much a ‘diet’ as it was a method to look into other ways to record what you eat.

What is typically used when assessing ones diet is a food diary or food record. It has a few downsides though – primarily they are very time consuming. By the 3rd, let alone the 7th day of recording everything you eat and drink you are pretty much over it. Often people change their eating/drink habits too (they don’t eat/drink things that they otherwise would have).

So I wondered how would a ‘photo food diary’ compare? I decided to give it a go… for a day.

Like the standard food diary one of the main obstacles is simply remembering to do it. As you can see from the pictures below I got a way through some of the food before remembering to take a photo of it. In the case of a salad I completely forgot (hence the photo of the salad bar).

Overall, and unlike some people, I think taking photos of the food you eat is an excellent idea. Granted I was on holiday when I did it, but it was still a lot easier than records.

Yes, it sometimes makes you feel guilty (as does a food diary) – but more importantly it makes you think. Rather than simply satisfying your acute urge to eat or drink, you see the food and drink from a mildly removed position.

For that convenience you pay a price though: accuracy of information. It would not be accurate enough to analyse micronutrients, and so its use as a replacement to a food dairy is limited. However, it still could be very useful. As the authors of the original study say: the benefit could be as an intervention. For example, by taking photos of everything you eat for a day a few times a year will give you a good idea of some of the food habits, servings sizes, vege and fruit intake etc that you have.

Of course taking photos of everything you eat everyday is not a long term solution to losing weight. But what must be realised is that habits are responsible for your body shape – both good and bad. By recognizing your own habits you will be able to devise some solutions. For this reason alone I would encourage you to try it for a day or two.