Evaluation of a Mindful Eating Intervention Curriculum Among Elementary School Children and their Parents

In light of the high prevalence of unhealthy food behaviors and obesity among children, there is growing interest among nutrition researchers and educators in the mindful eating approach to address food behaviors. The mindful eating approach encourages paying purposeful attention to body-related sensations and to thoughts and feelings about food while practicing nonjudgment.

¹

• Alberts H.J.
• Thewissen R.
• Raes L.

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This awareness and acceptance can strengthen attention to internal hunger and fullness cues and decrease emotional eating resulting from negative emotions and other external cues. Research suggested that mindful eating interventions may reduce the frequency and intensity of cravings, emotional eating, and binge-eating episodes in adults.

²

• O'Reilly G.A.
• Cook L.
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However; there is limited information about the effectiveness of school-based mindful eating interventions. Furthermore, there is a need to investigate possible roles of parents in a mindful eating intervention among children.

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Article info

Publication history

Published online: November 20, 2017

Footnotes

Conflict of Interest Disclosure: The authors' conflict of interest disclosures can be found online with this article on www.jneb.org.

Identification

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2017.09.017

Copyright

© 2018 Published by Elsevier, Inc. on behalf of the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior

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