Study: Developing mindfulness can encourage heart-healthy eating habits
Study: Developing mindfulness can encourage heart-healthy eating habits
Eating healthily and practicing mindfulness can help protect the heart, according to a recent study. This is because mindfulness increases self-awareness and makes it easier for people to maintain a heart-healthy diet.
Mindfulness-based blood pressure reduction program
The mindfulness-based blood pressure reduction program was created by a team from Brown University in the United States. It teaches users techniques including self-awareness, yoga, meditation, attention control, and emotion regulation. The program is special because it teaches participants how to apply those abilities to behaviors that are known to lower blood pressure.
Results published in JAMA Network Open show that participants in an eight-week mindfulness-based blood pressure reduction program dramatically improved their self-awareness and adherence to a heart-healthy diet when compared to a control group.
Eric B. Loucks Study: Developing mindfulness can encourage heart-healthy eating habits
Lead study author Eric B. Loucks, an associate professor of epidemiology, behavioral and social sciences at Brown University in the US, said, “Participants in the program showed significant improvement in adherence to a heart-healthy diet, which is one of the biggest drivers of blood pressure, as well as significant improvements in self-awareness, which appears to influence healthy eating habits.”
According to Loucks, the study clarifies the process by which a tailored mindfulness training programme tailored to enhance diet might impact blood pressure.
According to him, “people’s dietary choices can be influenced by improvements in our self-awareness, of how different foods make us feel, of how our body feels in general, as well as our thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations around eating healthy as well as unhealthy food.”
201 participants in total
The study included 201 participants in total and compared two groups. The eight-week MB-BP program, which comprised personalized feedback and education about hypertension risk factors, mindfulness training related to hypertension risk factors (including mindful eating), and behavior change support, was attended by the 101 participants in the test group.
The “usual care” control group was given informational pamphlets about managing hypertension. A blood pressure monitor for home use, together with instructions on how to use it and alternatives for referrals to primary care physicians, was given to each group.
Trial’s findings
According to the team, the trial’s findings provide proof that a customized mindfulness training program that focuses on food and self-awareness for those with high blood pressure considerably enhances both.
According to Loucks, “almost everyone has the power to control blood pressure through adherence to antihypertensive medications, dietary and physical activity changes, minimization of alcohol intake, and monitoring stress reactivity.”
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I’m Hassan Saeed, a Clinical Psychology graduate deeply engaged in the realms of WordPress, blogging, and technology. I enjoy merging my psychological background with the digital landscape. Let’s connect and explore these exciting intersections!
