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Practising yoga is more likely to lead to mindful eating than other forms of physical activity, according to research from the US


levels in the UK, if fi ndings from a study1 carried out at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, US, are to be taken into account. The study, which was published in the


E


Journal of the American Dietetic Association, showed that mindful eaters – people more aware of what they were eating and who stopped when they felt full – didn’t weigh as much as those who ate mindlessly (when they didn’t feel hungry) or in response to depression or anxiety. Not surprising you may think – but


what was interesting was the association between mindful eating and yoga practice.


getting data Information was gathered via a Mindful Eating Questionnaire (MEQ) devised by Alan Kristal, associate head of the Cancer Prevention Program in the Public Health Sciences Division at the Hutchinson Center. The survey consisted of 28 questions which measured factors such as: Disinhibition – eating even when full Awareness – being aware of how food


• •


• • •


looks, tastes and smells External cues – eating in response to


environmental cues such as advertising Emotional response – eating in


response to sadness or stress Distraction – focusing on other


things when eating Each question was graded on a scale


of one to four, with the higher scores relating to more mindful eating. The MEQ was distributed to just over 500 people in the Seattle area, including members of a yoga studio, fi tness facility and weight- loss centre. It was also distributed at non-fi tness related businesses such as a


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software company and a school. Just over 300 people completed the questionnaire: mostly women (81 per cent), white (90 per cent) and well educated (86 per cent had 16 years or more of schooling), with an average age of 42.


results Around 40 per cent of respondents practised yoga more than one hour a week, 46 per cent walked for at least 90 minutes a week and 52 per cent engaged in more than 90 minutes of moderate/ strenuous physical activity per week. The average BMI of respondents was


around 25.8, within the normal range, which is not surprising considering that there was a bias towards physically active people in the sample. BMI was lower on average among yoga


practitioners (23.1) and those with higher MEQ scores, which in itself was found to be connected: the number of years of yoga practice and the number of minutes’ practice each week were associated with higher MEQ scores. Other forms


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of exercise were not found to have a statistically signifi cant impact on the MEQ. The results seem to support Kristal’s


hypothesis that mindfulness – a skill learned either directly or indirectly through yoga – can impact on eating behaviour, and that yoga practitioners gain less weight over time thanks to improved body awareness rather than the physical activity aspect of yoga. He explains: “Yoga encourages


practitioners to adopt challenging physical poses with an accepting, calm mind and focus on the breath. This teaches mindfulness skills and may enable individuals to successfully navigate diffi cult food environments and more accurately judge their motivations for eating.” Kristal concludes that the MEQ is


the fi rst tool of its kind to characterise and measure mindful eating and suggests that it could be used in weight-loss clinics to promote healthy behaviour. He also suggests that “adding yoga practice to a standard weight-loss program may make it more effective”.


1 Framson C et al. Development and Validation of the Mindful Eating Questionnaire. Journal of the American Dietetic Association. Vol 109, Issue 8, p1439–1444, August 2009. july 2010 © cybertrek 2010


ncouraging more people to take part in yoga classes could be one key approach to tackling high obesity


Yoga’s mindfulness skills may enable people to make better diet choices


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