Empowering individuals with mental illness to develop healthy eating habits through mindful eating: results of a program evaluation.

INTRODUCTION: Lifestyle factors like unhealthy eating habits contribute significantly to high rates of obesity and cardiovascular disease, and premature mortality among individuals with serious mental illness (SMI). Approaches focusing only on nutritional education and portion control do not address underlying challenges, e.g. effects of medication, mood, stress and anxiety on eating behaviors. We developed a program to enhance self-efficacy and self-regulation based on mindful eating. Mindful eating has been effective in reducing obesity related eating patterns in other populations, but these studies have not included individuals with SMI.

METHODS: Forty six individuals participated over four rounds of the 14-week mindful eating and nutrition education program, responded to questionnaires about eating behaviors and provided qualitative feedback between January 2013 and December 2016.

RESULTS: Pre-post analysis of the Mindful Eating Questionnaire and the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire showed that participants ate with significantly greater awareness, less distraction, greater cognitive restraint, and engaged less in over eating and emotional eating at the end of the program. The program was well-received by participants.

CONCLUSIONS: Mindful eating could improve the long term success of interventions to address unhealthy eating among individuals with SMI. More research is needed with rigorous experimental design, larger samples, and different settings.