Hristina, 

I would recommend you go to the USDA, United Stated Department of Agriculture, Journal of Preventive Medicine or the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to conduct a search of the food diary and it's use in tracking.   The USDA,  came up with the nutritional food pyramid, recommend tracking food intake.   Also check with the American Association of Diabetes,  they also must track their carb intake to balance insulin levels.   Also the University of California and Vanderbilt have nutritional programs of study you might want to send an email related to the subject.

Also read the link posted below which discusses the use of the diary related to tracking to improve health outcomes. Michele

http://ri.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0LEVxHIklFUmZoArf5XNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEzZWVkZzFoBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDNARjb2xvA2JmMQR2dGlkA1ZJUDQxOF8x/RV=2/RE=1414660936/RO=10/RU=http%3a%2f%2fwww.sciencedaily.com%2freleases%2f2008%2f07%2f080708080738.htm/RK=0/RS=Dh1Ntq0XtKlt3jEJj1pW2ZQVvEE-

If you search pubmed for "Food Diary", then sort by date with the oldest articles first, you can find some of the old publications using them. E.g. 

Nutritional status of adolescent Idaho children. I. Evaluation of seven-day dietary records. WARNICK KP, BRING SV, WOODS E. J Am Diet Assoc. 1955 May;31(5):486-90.

Use of checked seven day records in a dietary survey. STEELE BF, FRANKLIN RE, SMUDSKI VL, YOUNG CM. J Am Diet Assoc. 1951 Nov;27(11):957-9.

The statistical association between the diet records of ascorbic acid intake and the blood content of the vitamin in surveyed populations. PUTNAM P, MILAM DF, et al. Milbank Mem Fund Q. 1949 Oct;27(4):355-91. 

A 2008 study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine showed that dieters who kept a daily food diary (or diet journal), lost twice as much weight as those who did not keep a food log, suggesting that if we record our  eating, we wouldn't eat as many calories.[1]

1) Hellmich, Nanci (8 July 2008). "Using food diaries doubles weight loss, study shows". USA Today. Retrieved 1 May 2010.

Your doctor or dietitian may want to know more about what you eat on a regular basis to make sure you stay healthy. Collecting information about what you eat is called a “Diet History”. This information is collected to get an idea of what you usually eat, and then help you make changes to avoid food allergens. This information will also be used to make sure you get all of the nutrients needed for growth and development, and for your health. Some ways to collect a Diet History are Food Frequency Questionnaires, a 24 Hour Recall, or a Food Diary, which is also called a Food Record. Food diaries/records provide a lot of detail, so they are commonly used to take a diet history from someone who has food allergies.[2]

2) Food Diaries and Food Histories; American Partnership for Eosinophilic Disorders (APFED) 2013.  

I used a headache diary to identify my triggers for migraine . . . namely, changes in the weather (a drop in barometric pressure, specifically).  It's a well regarded tool for many aspects of medicine for identifying lifestyle factors that may be adversely influencing poor health.

Pub Med is a great way to start off research related to this.  So is the Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL).

Thank you for the references. I will send a query to the mentioned institutions. A search is not very likely to result in a collection of research articles because, for the most part, the string ''food diary'' will appear but I am afraid it will only be a brief part of a paragraph of a paper. I even suspect that such a collection might exist in a library but in a way that is less visible via Internet (e.g. a regional medical library or archive).  

I am interested in the subject both as a patient and from a research perspective. In terms of research, I would really like to read an article on the history of the food journal - how the 'tool' was integrated, accepted and used over time by both physicians and patients, in which cases it's been most useful, etc. It is also curious to see how it could have inspired novels, stories, artistic works.

@Amy: Personally, I have been using a diary (and even currently, although less systematically) to get details about my food intolerances. The initiative was mine and at first I used to write in a very detailed way information on foods, doses, combinations, reactions. I find it useful when experimenting with foods and thanks to the diary one may exclude some of the foods immediately as well as establish an acceptable dose for others; and on the other hand, the regular practice of writing - but sometimes also of simply remembering - is indicative of how reactions change over time.

In my case, one of the problems is that there may be too many factors in a given situation and even with the diary it is not easy to say what caused given reactions. For instance, having low blood pressure and being sensitive to weather changes - just as you are - may be the cause of headaches, pain, etc. and on such ''bad days'' the diary will not be of much help if you want to know which foods, medicines or other habits or practices are good or bad for a target condition (in my case food intolerances).       

This is a comparison among many kinds of food history. Maybe you'll find it useful.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Selection+of+methodology+to+assess+food+intake+G+Biro%C2%B4+1

In my opinion there does not exist "the food diary" so it is rather difficult to answer your question regarding the history of "the" food diary. There exist different methods to collect the food intake (food records, dietary history questionnaire, food frequency questionnaires), different administration forms (paper based, electronic, interview based) and application domains (food hypersensitivities, obesity/overweight, diabetes, ...) as pointed out above. I would like to recommend you to define what type of food diary and for which domain you are looking for as otherwise, the literature is quite vast and won't be really too focused (depending on your needs)

HTH, Andreas

@ Andreas: I am not referring to questionnaires or administrative forms but to the diary patients are advised to keep on a daily basis over a period of time after the disease diagnosis.

In this article suggested by Michele http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080708080738.htm the terms ''food dairies'', ''food records'' and "food journaling" are used interchangeably. In this case, participants had to turn them in at support group meetings on a weekly basis (which I believe had a positive effect on their motivation to keep notes regularly). I guess there are various formats of food diaries and food records but I am mostly interested in the informal home diaries. 

For instance, in case of food intolerances, keeping a diary could be recommended and overseen by a nutritionist/dietitian but not necessarily. Such ''home diaries'' help patients get better information on food intake (but not only on food if you are told or if you decide to include info on other triggers), trace progress and they may be of great help in the future to physicians incl. those in other specialties, they become part of patients' medical history.  

I am interested in all kinds of diseases where the diary has a positive effect or is widely used, the headache diary mentioned by Amy must be having a similar effect and could be also interesting to explore, I mean a research on its use. The truth is that when we keep a diary, we can't be absolutely specific and write only on foods because there are other factors (such as other diseases, sleep deprivation, sun exposure, fatigue, etc), things we consume, buy or inhale (cosmetic products, medicines, other chemicals)  and they may have some interactions.

Hristina, I understand very well using food diaries in the case described in the link you provided. However, my point is that in scientific literature you will find the differentiation between several kinds of food diaries as it always depends on the purpose why (and how) the people are asked to keep records. As far as I know, each type of food diary has it's own kind of history in it's respective application area. So I don't think you will find a general history of food diaries (at least, I haven't come across one during the past ten years). So my recommendation is to research the history of "self-monitoring dietary intake" in different application areas. I would love to read such a comprehensive overview you are looking for. Maybe you can find one.

The history of the informal medical or food diary may not necessarily be strictly a medical topic, it is more probable to find relevant studies in fields such as the history of medicine, history of science, nutrition or food or agricultural departments as well as allied health, alternative medicine and holistic health (think about people like Edgar Cayce who managed to heal patients without medical intervention by simply changing their diets). Some medical administrators, librarians as well as public health experts may also be aware of such records.

I posted this question on RG because the subject is not so likely to appear among publications we see through the Internet or even when we search well-known sources as opposed to personal suggestion. Another problem is that most of the information currently is in English but there may be many good sources in other languages.  

I am open to suggestions coming from all fields of science, literature as well as from industry, patients and non-scientists. I will definitely post here if I find anything more specific.

Here is an article by Maria Popova on diarists in art and literature http://www.brainpickings.org/2014/09/04/famous-writers-on-keeping-a-diary/

I didn't see anything interesting in it or things related to food and health but some of you might not share my opinion and find other clues.   

A story here of a regiment of diet established by photo-documented "food diary" by one of the most prolific inventors around. It would seem that keeping a photo record of every meal helps to establish likely correlations between diet, creativity and optimal health, that works at the individual level.

http://whatagreatidea.com/the-edison-of-japan-yoshiro-nakamatsu/

Shian-Loong, the link does not work for me, please check again or send another one. Thank you in advance!

Now I can access the link via the cached version (that is using Google as a search engine) - to anyone having problem accessing the link above re Yoshiro Nakamatsu interview. If this is the right interview (2012?), there is only one sentence covering the topic: "He also photographs every dish he eats to recall the stimulating ones. " I am not saying it is not worth it, I hope I got the right page. I also think we should reflect more on food and I think any kind of diary could be helpful. Thanks for sharing the link to the interview!

Dear Hristina Petrova,

Another line of thought perhaps along the non-conventional. There may be some interesting stories on Pica and Geophagia, other than that related to typical food and cuisines in conventional food diaries.

Regards

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4015153/

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/would-you-like-side-dirt-eating-soil/