Food & Beverages

Biography

Biography: Jeanne Dalen

Abstract

Overweight and obesity is one of the major global health challenges of the 21st century. Few enduring treatment strategies have been identified and acritical need exists to expand treatment development efforts beyond traditional education and diet-based programs and to explore alternative models. Meditation-based mindful eating programs are growing in popularity as interventions for disordered eating and weight loss and could advance treatment and prevention efforts by providing a unique relevancy in addressing key psychological risk factors that prior to have been missing from traditional weight loss programs. Specifically, the discussion will focus on how mindful eating corresponds directly to two intervention targets implicated in both the development and maintenance of overweight and obesity. These include 1) reduced psychosocial functioning including depression and body dissatisfaction; and 2) disordered eating behaviors including unhealthy weight control practices (UWCP), frequent dieting, and emotional binge eating.In this presentation, an introduction to the principles of mindful eating will be given, along with a discussion on how mindful eating differs from traditional diet-based approaches to eating behavior change. In addition, recent research findings in this area will be highlighted, and a framework for using mindful eating interventions with families will be presented.