Mindfulness-based eating awareness helps adolescents eat healthier foods

Posted on April 6, 2016

Photo: flickr

A pilot study of 40 adolescents in Richmond County, Georgia, showed that mindfulness-based eating awareness training encouraged adolescents to eat healthier and exercise more and marginalized their tendency to gain weight.

"This gives us a safe, inexpensive intervention that could be translated into a real-world program for overweight kids," said Dr. Vernon A. Barnes, physiologist at the Georgia Prevention Institute at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University. "If you can make a practice of keeping the awareness with you at every meal, this could benefit you throughout your life."

"If you can make a practice of keeping the awareness with you at every meal, this could benefit you throughout your life," said Barnes, corresponding author of the study in the International Journal of Complementary & Alternative Medicine.

Adolescents in the intervention group experienced a slight downward trend in their weight compared with their also mostly overweight peers who continued to trend slightly upward. Weight loss, even maintaining a steady weight, is difficult among adolescents, who typically experience multiple growth spurts and puberty, Barnes said. "At least for this group, we were able to keep them on an even keel for a few months," he said.


Category(s):Eating Disorders, Mindfulness, Mindfulness Meditation

Source material from Augusta University