Elsevier

Appetite

Volume 55, Issue 1, August 2010, Pages 160-163
Appetite

Short communication
Coping with food cravings. Investigating the potential of a mindfulness-based intervention

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2010.05.044Get rights and content

Abstract

The present study examined whether mindfulness-based strategies can effectively reduce food cravings in an overweight and obese adult population. Individuals participating in a dietary group treatment for overweight received an additional 7-week manual based training that aimed to promote regulation of cravings by means of acceptance. The control group did not receive this additional training program. The results showed that participants in the experimental group reported significantly lower cravings for food after the intervention compared to the control group. The findings are discussed in terms of possible mechanisms like prevention of goal frustration, disengagement of obsessive thinking and reduction of automatic relations between urge and reaction.

Section snippets

Participants

A total of 19 participants (2 men; aged from 28 to 74, M = 51.88, SD = 12.76) participated in the study. Participants enlisted for a dietary group treatment for overweight and obesity in a Dutch community Centre (GroeneKruis Domicura, “Green Cross Care”). The mean weight of the participants was 85.4 kg (SD = 14.2; range 68.1–116.8) and the mean body mass index (BMI) was 31.3 (SD = 4.1; range 25.3–40.9). All participants received the same dietary treatment. This treatment consisted of 10 weekly meetings

Weight

Weight (kg) was recorded by the dietician at pre- and post-test. Participants were weighed in street clothes, without shoes.

General Food Craving Questionnaire

Food cravings were measures by means of a Dutch version of the General Food Craving Questionnaire Trait (G-FCQ-T). The G-FCQ-T is a reliable and valid 21-item self-report measure of a general ‘desire for food’ or ‘desire to eat’ (Cronbach's α = .94) (Nijs, Franken, & Muris, 2007) consisting of the following four subscales (1) preoccupation with food (i.e., obsessively

Participation check

All participants in the experimental condition (n = 10) reported to have completed the exercises on a daily basis. On average, participants indicated that they spend 7.6 min (SD = 4.7; range 1–15) per day on the exercises during the 7 weeks.

Weight

A repeated-measures ANOVA with measurement time as a within subjects factor (2 levels; pre-test and post-test) and condition as a between subjects factor was carried out to assess differences in weight loss between groups. Only a significant main effect of

Discussion

The present findings provide support for the effectiveness of acceptance as a strategy to reduce food cravings. Participants who were exposed to a 7-week acceptance-based craving intervention reported significantly lower food cravings compared to participants who did not receive this training. More specifically, acceptance was found to reduce the extent to which participants experienced loss of control when exposed to food cues. This finding is not only practically relevant, but interesting

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    The authors wish to thank the dieticians at “GroeneKruis Domicura” [Green Cross Care] in Maastricht, The Netherlands, for their assistance in collecting the data.

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