Combatting Obesity in America with Mindful Eating

Recently, health professionals uplifted mindfulness techniques and implemented into clinical settings as a method and process to raising awareness, curiosity, and openness.  Since 1999, when The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded its first three studies related to mindfulness, research in mindfulness and health exploded so much that by 2010, the NIH funded an additional 115 studies related to mindfulness. 

Over the past 20 years, obesity has become rampant in the United States.

Today, the obesity epidemic plagues one-third of the adult population and almost 20 percent of children and adolescents in the United States.  Obesity reflects a crisis of lifestyle, health, nutrition, and societal wellbeing.  Driven by increased levels of stress, decreased physical activity, and poor diet, obesity dramatically impacts an individual’s physical and mental wellbeing.  Treatments for obesity often lead to short-term lifestyle weight-loss interventions that combine diet, physical activity, and behavior change have modest success in the short-term.  However, in the long-term, most people tend to regain their initial weight.  And so you might be wondering, how can we treat obesity and sustain long-term results?  How can we train ourselves to eat well and in moderation?

In recent years, mindfulness-based nutritional interventions have ignited an innovative approach to treating obesity and promoting healthy living.  Mindful eating, as opposed to mindless eating, means taking the time to enjoy food, eat slowly and consciously, and experience each meal to the fullest.  

Mindful eating prevents binge eating and helps to bring awareness to the process of eating rather than falling into the fast-paced and distracted tendencies of American society.  As a holistic approach to relearning and reframing excessive eating and restoring proper weight and health, mindful eating is noninvasive and does not require medication or strict diets.

Mindful eating helps to regain awareness of our relationship with food.

Two recent studies show that mindfulness training effectively improves health and eating behaviors and reduces excess weight.  In a pilot study conducted by Dalen et al. (2010), the Mindful Eating and Living group curriculum produced marked improvements among the obese participants.  Researchers observed significant improvements in weight, behavior, and awareness, thus promoting mindfulness training as a positive and comprehensive approach to preventing and treating obesity.  

Daubenmier et al. (2011) studied the effect of a mindfulness intervention program on patients suffering from psychological stress and high cortisol and abdominal fat levels.  Using cortisol-awakening response (CAR) as a measurement of physical success and reported levels of anxiety, stress, and eating patterns, they conclude that over time, mindfulness training reduces abdominal fat.  Such research incites other health professionals, nutritionists, and researchers to pursue mindful eating in clinical settings and integrate mindful techniques into the treatment of obese patients.

Mindful eating can bring cessation to America’s obesity epidemic.

Mindful eating is an innovative approach to nourishing the body and mind through exploring an individual’s relationship with food.  In the United States, mindful eating proposes a holistic and sustainable approach to addressing the source of the growing obesity epidemic: what we eat and how we eat.  Through utilizing the positive mental and behavioral changes involved in mindfulness therapy and awareness, mindful eating has the potential to reduce overeating, slow down the fast-paced eating tendencies of American society, and decrease distracted and stress-response eating.   Mindful eating may be the key to ensuring long lasting nutritional health, conscientious diet management.

Works Cited:

Dalen, J, et al. 2010. "Pilot study: Mindful Eating and Living (MEAL): weight, eating behavior, and psychological outcomes associated with a mindfulness-based intervention for people with obesity." Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 18(6): 260-264.

Daubenmier, J, et al. 2011. “Mindfulness intervention for stress eating to reduce cortisol and abdominal fat among overweight and obese women: an exploratory randomized controlled study.” Journal of Obesity, 2011.