Variable

UK Data Service variable record for:

National Diet and Nutrition Survey : Adults Aged 19 to 64 Years, 2000-2001

Variable Details

Variablesaywhat
LabelENTER COMMENTS ABOUT DIARY HERE
Responses
"Never again" 1
***** nuisance! 1
***** terrible 1
-9 1739
1 week is enough 1
1st couple days cut down on normal drinks cos of having to write down and remember. ok again after first days 1
7 dys were enough 1
A bit long winded 1
A bit too detailed 1
A nuisance 1
An interesting experience 1
Bit repetitive 1
Cannot stand for long, so found forms difficult to fill in (& too big!) - used scrap paper instead. 1
Container weight seemed unnecessary - I would weigh any leftovers. 1
Cumbersome - diary too big 1
Diary could be better designed 1
Diary size could be improved, too big for average kitchen size 1
Did not like diary form - wd prefer book. Too many different sections to keep track. 1
Difficult at weekends because of socialisation 1
Difficult at work otherwise no problem 1
Difficult to get used to for first couple of days, but got into the swing of things. 1
Difficult to keep tabs on things and reminding myself to write things down 1
Difficult to remember! 1
Drank more alcohol than unsual while keeping the diary and ate out more 1
Easy to follow Interesting 1
Enjoyable & fascinating 1
Enjoyed doing it 1
FOUND IT HARD WORK 1
Far too complicated 1
For me it was good, I like the fact it made me think about what I was eating, it was a positive experience. 1
Found it allvery informative. Must have a re-think about my diet. 1
Found it difficult to remember to weigh and scales stopped working one day 1
Found it interesting 1
Found it interesting to see pattern of eating and heightened consciousness of non alcoholic drinks 1
Found it very interesting - glad l lived alone and could give it my attention - I actually enjoyed it and had a lot of support from Judith 1
Found it very tying 1
Good fun! 1
Got a bit tedious 1
I almost gave up because I work very long hours and found weighing my packed lunch at 4.30 am a bind but I carried on! 1
I could not understand why they had Who weighed and where eaten on diaries - not relevant if eat out 1
I definitely did not record every drink I had. eg, any drinks of water in the night didn't get recorded. Your researchers wiill think I am dehydrated! 1
I didnt eat as much as usual this week I think it was the trouble of filling in all the details put me off 1
I don't know why I allowed myself to be talked into it. 1
I enjoyed doing it 4
I enjoyed doing it, it was different and made me realise what I eat 1
I felt that writing the out and in in separate diaries was more difficult than writing everything in one. 1
I found doing it OK 1
I found it a chore near the end 1
I found it a nuisance I enjoyed it as well, made me think about what I was eating. 1
I found it inconvenient 1
I found it interesting I was more aware of my body 1
I found it tedious to weigh everthing 1
I found it very tedious, and drawn out 1
I just thought it was interesting and confirmed that I eat a fairly healthy balanced diet but too many swseets and biscuits 1
I knew it was going to be quite nmonotonous - once you get ijnto it and you plan your day it was not too bad really - early in the morning like 5am it 1
I lost weight 1
I needed a lot of help from interviewer 1
I noticed that I wasnt filling up the diary with prices etc and the brand was a bind to find out 1
I quite enjoyed it - I don't mind doing anything where I can see the purpose 1
I quite enjoyed it, it made me more aware of my diet, and it wasnt boring to do 1
I surprisingly found it very interesting 1
I think I may have lost a couple of pounds in the week - keeping the diary made me think about what I was eating! 1
I want to carry on with keeping the diary because it is helping me lose weight 1
I was a little mystified by the eating away from home bit,some things are recorded twice 1
I was relieved when time was up i found it fiddly 1
I was surprised how light some things were 1
I worried about doing it - couldn't get the hang of the scales 1
I'll be very interested to see the results of the blood tests 1
I,m glad its over with , found it difficult 1
Ilost 3lbs in weight and went to bed later than usual because of filling in the diary 1
Im glad its over 1
Interesting - educational 1
Interesting - no problems 1
Interesting Had enough by the last 2 days 1
Interesting to do 1
Interesting to look back on what I have eaten 1
Interesting! 1
Is glad its over. 1
It wasnt as bad as I thought it would be 1
It has stopped me picking from the children's food 1
It makes you more aware of what I eat. 1
It wa sbrilliant it was really - it was really good to see what you're eatoing 1
It was a chore 1
It was completely honest including all the chocolate biscuits 1
It was fine 1
It was fine, glad its all over 1
It was interesting, made you feel guilty about about amount you eat! 1
It was onerous to weigh everything for a week and I would not like to have to do this for longer than a week. 1
It was quite interesting keeping a check onb what I was eating 1
It was scutter!! 1
It wasnt an intrusive thing to do and it wouldnt stop me from doing another lifestyle experiment 1
It wasnt quite as bad as I thought - at times measuring the individual things was a bind but I just did it - particularly the individual items of sala 1
It's a pain 1
Keeping the diary made you eat more regularly 1
Learnt something from keeping it about my diet 1
Made me conscious of what i was eating, had a moderating effect 1
Make sure you are not going anywhere! Taking scales to work was a good idea. 1
Makes you aware of what you eat. 1
More detailed than originally thought 1
My food was going cold while I weighed everything 1
Needs persistance & organisation 1
Pain in the Butt 1
Probably not an accurate representatyion of a typical week 1
Quite interesting 1
Quite laborious 1
Raised my awareness of what I am eating 1
Remembering to weigh the food was a problem initially, got into the way of it 1
Should be easier to fill in - not eighing everything. 1
Simple to do - easier than I thought 1
Size of diary is a nuisance is normal sized kitchen. Layout not useful. 1
Some of the diary was filled in after the event 1
Staightforward but got fed up after about day 6 1
Straight forward 1
Straightforward 1
Surprised about weight of portions 1
Tedious exercised 1
Tedious to fill it in - used notebook and copied into eating out diary 1
Thephysical diary itself is too large and unwieldy 1
Too complicated for the average person 1
Too much work with having three seperate diaries to complete - would be better if they could be amalgamated into one 1
V interesting to do 1
Very detailed and time consuming and the need to record container weight is obscure 1
When I had made something to eat I weighed the portion I ate 1
When I was ona late , it was shattering to have to fillin my diaries,and same thing in t6he morning at at 0600 1
Would prefer it to be simplified; thinks designed for checkers rather than participants; quite off putting 1
Your food is cold by the time you've finished weighing it all 1
a bit complicated and a bit burdonsome 1
a bit of a pain 1
a bit of a pain - also the quality of documentation seemed excessively good - eg no recycled stuff. Weighing the plate is frustrating. 1
a little more difficult than expected 1
a lot of work 1
a repeat thing would have been handy the pages were enormous 1
a week is enough 1
a week was long enough 1
activities in the home ,individual times would be better,time should come before the weight ie the layout of the diary pages 1
actually enjoyed doing it 1
an experience!- not used to weighing my food 1
annoying separating drinks from food for a meal 1
any form is difficult to me the diary i found very difficult 1
at few times didn't have another drink of tea because of having to weigh it. 1
ate less snacks as I was more aware of what I was eating due to keeping diary 1
ate less than usual because of weighing would have snacked more 1
ate out eating out o lot 1
awful 1
because I knew i had to weigh the food i probably did not eat so much nor second helpings 1
because I work nights it was difficult to find the time to complete the diary, and fit in all the thigs I have to do including my running 1
because i am having my cholestorol monitored, I have avoided Chocs.&cheese - which are my favourites! 1
because nice weather ate differently at weekend 1
because she had to weight and record everything she feels she had less cups of tea and snacks 1
better design of diary 1
bump up the nos of cups of coffee by 20% 1
ciclr and cr0ss out selections could be simplified to one or the other 1
complicated by exessive forms to write in, should reduce the record keeping. It was a bit daunting. 1
could have been more easily done on computer 1
could be made easier-weighing everything was difficult 1
could reduce amt of weighing by duplicating 1
cups of measured 30% 1
diary affected by easter and getting promotion 1
diary is too big for average kitchen 1
diary keepingvaffected eating habits eg eating more at main meals less snacks 1
did find it rather tedious weighing even water 1
did not want to do it 1
did not weigh, just recorded 1
didn't have as many cooked evening meals because girlfriend working late 1
didn't pick at food as much 1
didnt realise how much work was involved 1
didnt weigh bottles of water 1
different from normal life 1
different weights surprised her 1
difficult to connect recipe with day eaten and no space 1
difficult to keep - timeconsuming- self obsessed 1
difficult to maintain and keep enthusisum 1
difficult to remember and timeconsuming 1
difficult to remember everything - sometimes had to do it all next day - made me conscious of all the little extras I eat 1
difficult towards the end , eating 1
do not eat much at all 1
dont ask again 1
dont want to do it again 1
drank less alcohol than normal 1
drank less tap water because it HAS BEEN PARTICULARLY REVOLTING LATELY 1
easy to do once in the swing of it 1
eat less snacks etc because of weighing 1
eat less sweets because i couldnt be bothered to weigh each one 1
eating out diary should be smalller so can be taken around instead of using little diary and transcribing everything 1
electronic diary would be better diary too big could every thing have been put in one book 1
enjoyed doing it 1
enjoyed doing it & made me think more about what I eat 1
enjoyed doning it/exsiting 1
enjoyed it 1
extremely time consuming found it difficult almost gave up difficult 1
fair reflection of what eating and drinking at the time. 1
fairly accurate,one time husband threw away tortillla wrapping paper weights are all exact 1
fairly easy to follow . v involved however 1
fairly straighforward 1
far to time consuming and complex 1
fed up by the middle of the week! 1
feel i do not eat enough 1
feel it could be more compact only entering drinks as one item not individual resords which is labourious 1
felt like I had a diesease/ needing to watch what I ate 1
fiddly & time consuming 1
fine I got a bit lazy at the end 1
first day frustrating, challange 1
for a sncaker it doesn't have enough lines! 1
for someone in full time employment it is fiddly, I could not have done it had I have been in work, it is simple enough to follow but time consuming 1
forgot to weigh Sat. night meal 1
found I was working lots of hrs that week... 1
found it difficult to record activities on a day to day basis 1
found it hard to keep as there were a lot of things you had to remember 1
found it quite easy whilst i was at home but difficult when i left home environment 1
found it quite hard as it was completely different from anything I usually do 1
found it quite interestin and think everybody should do it 1
found it quite interesting 1
found it time consuming 1
found it time consuming , therefore ate, and drank less 1
found it too much to begin with but later in the week it was ok 1
found it useful for own purposes 1
found it user friendly but i wouldnt have liked to do the lge books 1
found it very interesting 1
found this a bit much 1
four days was enough - I couldn't have done 7 ! 1
glad its over 1
glad when it was finished 1
good idea 1
got bored with the weighing of food near the end 1
got tedious before the end 1
hard to do 1
hard to remember brand names. glad only 7 days as cud be a nightmare weighing at home for longer. also found 2 ds confusing to keep and made mistakesi 1
hard work 2
hard work, especially when I went back to work and when we had visitors 1
has a lot of homework ,found it difficult change 1
horrendous 1
i drank less coffee than usual which was agood thing because i couldnt be bothered to weigh them 1
i couldnt do the weighing it was too much of a worry (diary keeping restarted as got too upset with weighing food on first day) 1
i didnt do the same amount of physical activity as i usually do 1
i enjoyed doing it 1
i found it interesting - you are not aware of what you do until you measure it. 1
i found it interesting looking back that i hadn't eaten any fruit all week,it was alot of paperwork and i was constantly thinking about it, 1
i found it interesting to see what my habits are and how i nibble through the day 1
i found it quite difficult and tiring with working awkward hours 1
i got fed up with it after the 6th day but i managed to finish it. 1
i got s lot of stick from my wife about weighing all my food 1
i just did what i was asked to do,it was a bit of a bind filling it in,i soon got used to filling it in 1
i must admit whilst keeping the diary i thought about what i was eating more than i would do usually, 1
i quite enjoyed myself really,once i got into the swing of things,it wasn't difficult at all 1
i realised how horrendous my diet is 1
i started to think more about what i was eating ie half a choc biscuit,a chip knowing i had to record it,ive been trying to keep to the slimming worl 1
i think i have a boring diet/am weightwatching at present 1
i think it could be made more simpler.i think the daily activities and bed times should be in the at home diary// 1
i think what I eat is a load of rubbish after looking at my diary I went out and bought fruit and veg 1
i thought it was over complcated 1
i thouht about food more, especially those things that were not good eg cakes, biscuits 1
i was a bit mixed up between the two diaties 1
i wish i'd known how complicated it was before i agreed to do it .i would still have done it,but i didn't realise how long it would take me,so i woul 1
i wouldn't want to do it again as it was so time consuming,but i was happy to do it as i understand the importance of it 1
i wouldn't want to do it again,not weighing everything,id had enough when id finished 1
i'd just like to appologise for my handwritting its abit scruffy 1
if i had realised how in depth the diary was I may have refused to keep it due to current pressure of work 1
impressed with the whole thing 1
informative to self to record it 1
intensive for a busy life style 1
interesating exercise 1
interested in doint it didnt find it tedious 1
interesting but difficult 1
interesting to see how much you actually eat and drink 1
it could be simplified 2
it cud have been simplified. seemed to be a lot of sections. also i made the mistake of jotting for 2 or 3 days before transferring info. too streerer 1
it culd be simplified ie 1 chart for food and 1 for drinks where drinks could be totalled cumulatively for the day 1
it did become a bit of a nuisance 1
it did take a lot of my spare time for the whole 7 days 1
it did take up a great deal of my time 1
it didn't show how varied our diet really is as we sometimes have a chinese or an indian takeaway,so our range of foods goes over 1 month not a week,s 1
it does require meticulous accuracy and it quite onerous for 7 days 1
it got a bit tedious towards the end 1
it got boring and seven days was too long,and you tend to change your eating habits 1
it helped me recognize what and how much i was eating and drinking.and it made me think more about what i was getting when eating out 1
it is a bit big 2
it is a lot to do 1
it is a pain it takes a lot of time took me twice as long preparing sandwiches 1
it is a pain sometimes I didn't get things because I couldn't be bothered to weigh it 1
it is not normally as bad as that 1
it is too large to deal with easily 1
it made me more concious of what i do eat and how little i eat and probably have mor drinks to compensate/i am cutting down a little after christmas 1
it made very conscious of what i was eating 1
it makes me look unhealthy because i generally eat take aways 1
it makes you think about your diet more but now looking back we think we eat a reasonable diet/which was good confirmatiuon for us quite interesting 1
it makes you very conscious of the foods and amounts you are eating 1
it makes you watch what you're eating! It's quite surprising what you do eat. 1
it pit me off having something occassionally 1
it puts pressure on you 1
it took acouple of days to get the detail right 1
it took longer to prepare food 1
it was a bit of a bind, very tedious 1
it was a bit time consuming for me 1
it was a chore and i wouldnt like to do more than a wk 1
it was a chore weighting everything and stop having sugar in tea beacuase of 2 fgrms 1
it was a faff 1
it was a lot of work 1
it was a pain 1
it was a pain writing everything down, sometimes I would forget and have to srtart all over again 1
it was a struggle with the job situation 1
it was a time consuming part exercise 1
it was abit boring doing it 1
it was an eye opener to what i was eating 1
it was an eye opener-what i eat & size of portions.I've reduced the amount of spread I have in sandwiches & noticed how often I eat snacks & sweets 1
it was as accurate as i could make it,the out of home diary was the hardest to do with the hours of doing different tasks 1
it was difficult to fit in round everything and hard to remember everything that i put in my mouth 1
it was easy to foollow 1
it was enjoyable 1
it was fine 1
it was fine - not a problem 1
it was fine - there were no problems at all. I'm glad it only lasted a week! 1
it was fun and makes you realise what you eat 1
it was hard to do i was lazy for the writing in the big diary,and didn't weigh anything as i thought it was too hard, 1
it was hard work 2
it was interesting cos weights each dinner time were v similar 1
it was interesting to review what one ate and be aware the actual weights of things 1
it was interesting to see what I was eating 1
it was nice to do something to help (spouse comment) 1
it was ok 1
it was ok once i got used to it 1
it was ok, really. 1
it was ok. fine 1
it was quite inconvenient when I was very hugry and just wanted to eat 1
it was tedious 1
it was too big 1
it was too much to do when he had a work crisis 1
it was useful to see what i was eating 1
it was useful to write down what I ate 1
it was very confusing 1
it was very fidaly, there was so much weighing 1
it was very interesting and very worthwhile its highlighted to me my habits, my lack of activity and how much caffiene Im drinking - if it helps anyo 1
it was very straight forward 1
it was well thought out,easy to keep 1
it wasnt too bad - difficult to judge quantitiy 1
it would have been impossible to keep during term time due to my workload 1
it's just tedious breally. It interrupts your daily routine. 1
it's time consuming 1
it,s hard work / it makes you aware of what you eat 1
its a pain 1
its a pain having to weigh coffeees 1
its been fine, I've not minded taking part 1
its been interesting 1
its been interesting but im glad its finished 1
its just a little bit of a pain to keep remembering to write everything down 1
its only a few days scrappy 1
ive tried to be as honest as possible it was just a normal week 1
jotter shud be for use at home as well as out 1
keping track is hard 1
less active than normal because hurt knee playing babminton 1
lines should be taller 1
listed food and times only 1
made me eat better and snack less 1
made me realise i have ahealthy diet 1
mades me think what I was actually eating 1
make clear in instructions whether cooked or uncooked weight required 1
make diary more user friendly 1
makes you think about eating or not-inhibits eating perhaps 1
male th diary smaller!! 1
may haver drunk less water due to having to weigh each one 1
may havre had lessd complicated meals to save weitingthe reciepe 1
missed some items 1
mor intense than thought it would be 1
more aware of what I ate so didn't tend to pick without thinking 1
more detail required than I thought 1
more detaled than I expected to be,glad to be off work able to not be dashing around so much so i was able to do diary 1
more difficult than I thought it would be 1
more eating and drinking out than usual 1
more ready prepared food i.e. microwave food 1
my generation using grams could be the reason I had smaller meals, I dropped the size down because of the high numbers coming up on the scales 1
my parents came to stay,ate more traditional foods-less pasta,curries-and mother homebaked cake and pudding-don't usually eat those 1
need 3 day trial to get used to it 1
niusaance 1
no hastle to do at all 1
no problems 1
normally would be out of the home 2.5 days 1
not a big deal really but just the remembering 1
not a normal week re housekeeping chores half term husband at home 1
not as bad as I thought it would be, a shame I was ill during it, not really typical of me 1
not difficult to understand , easy to do 1
not doing it again 1
not enough detail as on lge diary so i took a sheet with me 1
not realistic .nuisance when recipes used 1
not something Id like to do again 1
not very user friendly if you are busy it takes far too long to complete diary too big. 1
nothing specific 1
nuisance having to remember to weigh everything 1
on the whole it wasn't a good week to choose to do this as my week was so different to it is normally 1
once I got into the swing of it and got Albert into the swing of it it was OK 1
onerous,needs simpliflying!if had been full time at work ,I would not however willing had had the time to fill in the paperwork normalise the data inp 1
only it was very time consuming and a lot to ask people to do especially people working 1
only that I enjoyed doing the work and I did the best I could 1
ot very difficult but I did not go out one day to eat at a friends because it would ha ve been very difficult describing the complicated food 1
pain 1
pain for first two days until I got uses to it 1
pain in neck 1
pain in the a---- 1
pain in the butt 1
pleased its finished.also large and cumbersome 1
pocket needs to have lines 1
probabluy woiud not do it again 1
probably missed half a dozen cups of tea over the 7 days had mother staying difficult time 1
put the time at the top as first point on form 1
quite demanding and time consuming wighing everything 1
quite easy to follow 1
quite enjoyed doing it 1
quite enjoyed it 1
quite interesting 1
quite interesting. good to keep 1
quite staightforward to fill in 1
quite straightforward, looked horrendous to start with but once you realised what you had to fill in then it was OK 1
quite straightfwd to do . a faff tho 1
rather a nuisance when your in a hurry 1
realised what rubbish i eat 1
really did enjoy it 1
really enjoyed doing it 1
recovering from cataract operation, and had a bit of trouble seeing 1
reflected my routine of eating as norm 1
repaet himself daily 1
respondent thought diary keeping was very detailed and invovled quite a lot of work. 1
ridiculous size-people who devise it should try filling it in themselvesn 1
see earlier comment on diary keeping...i was on many different shifts...sometimes 14 hours 1
see note 1
seemed to go v. smoothly toosmoothly it got a bit tiresome towards the end 1
self explanitory, but lots to be recorded, fpound it ok 1
somethings didnt have brand names 1
sometimes i found it a nuisance, I had to think about eating, made me think twice about eating, but i did not change my eating 1
sundays look a abit funny but dont eat much, just go out shoppig 1
takes up more time than you think 1
tedious 1
thank God its over 1
the hardest thing was trying to keep track of all the water i drank so have entered a global amount for each day 1
the notebook was very usefull for when i was away each day,it made it much easier 1
the only difficulty is remembering to write it down and recording the weight of the plate was ridiculous. 1
the paper work is time consuming ie, bowel sheet, diary, urine sheets, physical activity..could all be in one booklet 1
the size of it and lots of sperate cards and sheets akward 1
the weighing is a nuisance 1
there were times when i would have had a glass of water but couldnt be bothered to weigh it 1
this was to complicated an excercise 1
time consuming 2
to much time involved weighing the food would not do another 1
to weigh everything i ate and was a bit of a chore 1
too big 1
too big and awkward,pages break easily 1
too big and cumbersome 1
too big in the kitchen 1
too big paperwork,pain to weigh the plate first# 1
too complicated 2
too difficult 1
too intrusive 1
too lge to manage but easy to use 1
too long winded im glad its over 1
too much had to abandonned after one day 1
too much information wanted 1
too time cin 1
took ages 1
took longer than expected 1
took me a bit to get used to it 1
took more time than i thought first couple of days were the worst 1
unable to keep detail i would have. The estimates are OK 1
under the very difficult circumstances i kept it to the best of my ability 1
unnecessary duplication on home and out diaries.had i known how time consuming it was,i would not have agreed 1
unwealdy waste of paper and columns unneccasy broad 1
useful to know what eating does it cause headache 1
useful way of checking eating habits aware not eating enough fruit or taking enough fluids 1
v interesting and got into the swing of it and now i have to stop 1
very accurate record not kept exercise none 1
very busy, found it time coonsuming, probably unrecorded drinks 1
very demanding 1
very detailed, but i'm slimming so it was easier 1
very detailed, recipes complicated, simple tasks like coffee and toast became protracted,. Made me realize the defecits in my intake 1
very good discipline 1
very intensive lot of work 1
very offpputting 1
very pleased it has now come to an end, I'm relieved! 1
very representative of living style 1
very straightforward - not too intrusive. 1
very tedious time first would be easier to record 1
very time consuming 1
very tiresome-busy took a lot of time 1
was quite happy to do it 1
we didn't allow it to become a chore and we didn't allow having to enter things stopping us from eating anything 1
we need a little pad to keep by the scales for little notes 1
week's a long time 1
weghts not possible 1
weighing everything individually was a pain glad its finished 1
weighing food very interesting to see how much actually eating 1
when I was making things like cheese sauce normally I would lick the spoon but this lastg week I did not because I couldn not weigh it-when you cook 1
why do we have drinks in grammes when buying it its in millilitres 1
wife did all recording as she makes up everythihng i eat 1
wish I had said no to very pursuasive lady 1
wonder whether one eats skightly differently because monitoring it. dk really 1
woried about doing it properly 1
would like to have another go 1
would like to have more 1
would normally have eaten more red meat 1
would prefer something smaller 1
wouldn't have been able to keep any details w/o daughters help 1
written up by boyfriend as respondent unable to read or write 1
yes i have learnt more about myself probably dont get a balanced diet ie not enough fruit 1
yes interesting but very difficult to keep 1
yes thank god its finished! 1
you dont realise youre more aware 1
you think twice about eating something so it would be good for someone thinking of slimming 1
zeroing was a problem,but once you got the hang of it it was easy 1
DisclaimerPlease note that these frequencies are not weighted.
LocationNational Diet and Nutrition Survey : Adults Aged 19 to 64 Years, 2000-2001