The Power of Mindful Eating: A Program Evaluation
Cardiovascular disease and obesity due to unhealthy lifestyle choices are serious problems which lead to the increased mortality rates found in individuals with serious mental illness (SMI). While it may make sense to employ typical weight loss programs targeting unhealthy eating behaviours, a lot of these approaches fail to take into account the additional challenges that people with mental illness face which make it more difficult to maintain healthy diets. The effects of medications, stress, anxiety, and mood on eating habits all need to be taken into consideration when developing a sustainable program for individuals with mental illness.
Mindful eating is an effective intervention used to address these challenges through the use of techniques designed to attend to and overcome the cravings, signs, and emotions associated with hunger. Along with these strategies, mindful eating also incorporates the practice of relaxation meditation. The authors of this study created a 14 week program which combined mindful eating with nutritional education to help individuals with SMI maintain healthier eating habits.
The study had forty-six individuals with SMI at a psychiatric rehabilitation centre participate in the program over 14 weeks. Weekly sessions discussed topics such as external cultural and societal influences on what and when we eat, the relationship between sleep deprivation and eating, how eating affects our mood, and strategies to overcome mindless eating. During feedback sessions following the completion of the program, participants reported feeling more empowered to address the various influences contributing to their eating behaviours, and reported healthier lifestyle and physiological changes such as weight loss. Upon completion of the program, one participated stated: “My relationship with food is still a work in progress, but I now have the tools to succeed. I’ve learned to focus on the experience and to not make judgments. Mindful eating has boosted my self- esteem and filled me with optimism about my relationship with food.”
The results of the program show a promising future for mindful eating as an intervention for individuals with SMI. The self-regulation techniques that were taught in the program showed to be particularly useful in addressing the challenges brought up by mood and stress, which often get in the way of the wellness goals of these individuals. The success of this program reflects research showing that initiatives which combine approaches that deal with psychological factors with nutritional education and diets are more effective than programs which rely on the nutritional aspects alone.
While the findings of this study are encouraging, the authors acknowledge that the study is limited to a small sample of people, and that research performed on a larger scale to assess long term effects with different groups will be needed in the future. The authors already have plans to create an enhanced version of the program which integrates feedback from participants in the study who wanted greater external support when practicing the techniques they learned. Overall, these results show a promising future for the implementation of mindful eating into wellness programs, but more research with control groups, larger sample sizes, and different settings needs to be conducted to fully assess the long term effects of the program.
Source:
Gidugu, V., & Jacobs, M. J. (2018). Empowering individuals with mental illness to develop healthy eating habits through mindful eating: results of a program evaluation. Psychology, Health and Medicine, 24(2), 177-186. DOI: 10.1080/13548506.2018.1516295
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