The decentering component of mindfulness reduces appetitive responses to unhealthy food. Appetite

Mindfulness-based interventions are becoming increasingly popular as a means to assist healthy eating. To optimize their efficacy, it is vital to understand how mindfulness works. We therefore conducted Study 1 among meditators, and found that the decentering component of mindfulness plays an especially important role in reducing food cravings. Decentering can be defined as the insight that thoughts and experiences are impermanent events that do not necessarily accurately reflect reality. Interestingly, in that study, we found no evidence that the awareness component of mindfulness reduced food cravings. We followed up on these results in two experiments with non-meditators, and instructed them to adopt a decentering or control perspective. In Study 2, participants imagined a tempting yet unhealthy snack, and applied either a decentering or control perspective to this. Participants in the decentering condition were found to have reduced cravings to eat this snack compared to participants in the control condition. In Study 3, participants were exposed to a tempting yet unhealthy snack, and we assessed their salivary response. Participants in the decentering condition salivated less in response to the snack than participants in the control condition. Overall, our work offers a window into the psychological mechanism of mindfulness, suggesting that decentering plays a key role in reducing appetitive responses to unhealthy foods. Using decentering to reduce appetitive reactivity may then provide space for people to act in line with their long-term health goals, such that they might choose a healthy snack instead of an unhealthy one. This research thereby supports the application of mindfulness in interventions to reduce appetite for unhealthy food, and to increase health and well-being.