Mindfulness meditation modulates stress-eating and its neural correlates.
Study Goal
The researchers aimed to investigate whether a 31-day web-based mindfulness meditation training could reduce stress- and emotional-eating tendencies and food cravings in meditation-naïve individuals prone to stress-eating.
Results Summary
Mindfulness meditation training significantly increased mindfulness while reducing stress- and emotional-eating tendencies and food cravings compared to health training. These behavioral changes were associated with functional connectivity changes in brain regions linked to reward, emotion regulation, and sensory integration.
Population
Meditation-naïve individuals with a tendency to stress-eat (N = 66).
Effective Dosage
Not specified (web-based mindfulness meditation training).
Duration
31 days.
Interactions
None mentioned.
| Intervention | Direction | Endpoint | Population | Dosage | Impact | Claim # |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
mindfulness meditation | decrease | stress | - | - | has been demonstrated to reduce | #1 |
mindfulness meditation | increase | interoceptive awareness | - | - | has been demonstrated to increase | #2 |
mindfulness meditation training | increase | mindfulness | meditation-naïve individuals with a tendency to stress-eat | - | was found to significantly increase | #3 |
mindfulness meditation training | decrease | stress-eating tendencies | meditation-naïve individuals with a tendency to stress-eat | - | reducing | #4 |
mindfulness meditation training | decrease | emotional-eating tendencies | meditation-naïve individuals with a tendency to stress-eat | - | reducing | #5 |
mindfulness meditation training | decrease | food cravings | meditation-naïve individuals with a tendency to stress-eat | - | reducing | #6 |
mindfulness meditation training | change | functional connectivity between the hypothalamus, reward regions, and several areas of the default mode network | meditation-naïve individuals with a tendency to stress-eat | - | accompanied by functional connectivity changes | #7 |
mindfulness meditation training | change | functional connectivity between the insula and somatosensory areas | meditation-naïve individuals with a tendency to stress-eat | - | changes observed | #8 |
mindfulness meditation training | change | functional connectivity between seed regions (i.e., hypothalamus and insula) and brain areas attributed to emotion regulation, awareness, attention, and sensory integration | meditation-naïve individuals with a tendency to stress-eat | - | Additional changes observed | #9 |
mindfulness meditation training | correlation | behavioral changes | meditation-naïve individuals with a tendency to stress-eat | - | correlated with | #10 |
Stress-related overeating can lead to excessive weight gain, increasing the risk of metabolic and cardiovascular disease. Mindfulness meditation has been demonstrated to reduce stress and increase interoceptive awareness and could, therefore, be an effective intervention for stress-related overeating behavior. To investigate the effects of mindfulness meditation on stress-eating behavior, meditation-naïve individuals with a tendency to stress-eat (N = 66) participated in either a 31-day, web-based mindfulness meditation training or a health training condition. Behavioral and resting-state fMRI data were acquired before and after the intervention. Mindfulness meditation training, in comparison to health training, was found to significantly increase mindfulness while simultaneously reducing stress- and emotional-eating tendencies as well as food cravings. These behavioral results were accompanied by functional connectivity changes between the hypothalamus, reward regions, and several areas of the default mode network in addition to changes observed between the insula and somatosensory areas. Additional changes between seed regions (i.e., hypothalamus and insula) and brain areas attributed to emotion regulation, awareness, attention, and sensory integration were observed. Notably, these changes in functional connectivity correlated with behavioral changes, thereby providing insight into the underlying neural mechanisms of the effects of mindfulness on stress-eating.Clinical trial on the ISRCTN registry: trial ID ISRCTN12901054.