Mindful Munching: Can It Help with Weight and Eating Issues?

Mindfulness is about paying attention to the present moment without judgment. In the world of health, it's becoming popular to tackle eating problems, like obesity and related eating disorders. Mindful eating is about becoming aware of the physical, mental, and emotional parts of eating. This can be done through meditation, breathing exercises, or just being more attentive in daily life. The goal is to improve digestion, have a healthier relationship with food, and make better food choices. Researchers decided to look at the results of using mindfulness techniques, called MBIs (Mindfulness-Based Interventions), to manage weight, emotional eating, and diabetes. They searched for studies on Google Scholar and PubMed until September 2024, using special keywords. Out of 122 found, 28 were duplicates, leaving 94 unique studies. These included different types of research, like experiments where people were divided into groups, reviews, and others. The studies showed positive results for conditions like binge eating, weight loss, emotional eating, and diabetes issues. This means that mindfulness can help, but more research is needed to fully understand how effective it is and how to use it in healthcare.