Abstract
Mindfulness-based interventions have been suggested to improve obesity and eating disorders. The present preliminary study involving three healthy Japanese university students examined whether a brief intervention using the breathing techniques of meditation before each meal can have desirable impacts on eating behavior and mindfulness tendencies. One participant practiced 5-minute breathing meditation before each meal for 2 weeks, while the other two did not practice meditation during the same period. The participant who practiced meditation reported numerically higher scores on healthy eating behavior, restrained eating, trait mindfulness and state mindfulness, and lower scores on emotional eating, external eating and body mass index at the post-intervention and 2-week follow-up as compared with the pre-intervention assessment. Self-reporting by the participant who practiced meditation also suggested heightened awareness of meals and restrained eating during the intervention period. These results support the notion that a brief intervention of breathing meditation before meals can have desirable effects on eating behavior and mindfulness in healthy Japanese adults.
