Abstract
Mindfulness is a process of focusing one’s attention on the present moment. Applying this concept to eating (i.e., mindful eating (ME)) is associated with regulated eating behaviors, particularly in people with obesity and who are overweight. Sustaining healthy eating habits requires both healthy eating literacy (HEL) and proficiency in ME. However, ME proficiency in Japanese people has not been sufficiently investigated. In this paper, we conduct a survey of mothers with 4- to 5-year-old children in Aomori City, Japan, to investigate their ME proficiency and HEL level and eating behavior and self-reported body mass index in both mothers and their children from August to September 2019. This study is the first to describe ME proficiency in Japanese mothers. The study sample includes 128 participants from 18 nursery schools. ME proficiency in mothers was positively correlated with both their own and their children’s eating behaviors, thereby suggesting a potential relationship, while strong relationships were not observed between the HEL level and eating behaviors of mothers and children. Improving ME skills, rather than HEL, may be an effective way to sustain healthier eating behaviors in mothers and their children. The level of evidence was Level V: Opinions of respected authorities based on descriptive studies, narrative reviews, clinical experience, or reports of expert committees.
Highlights
Given that the purpose of the study was to understand the effect of different levels of mindful eating (ME) proficiency and healthy eating literacy (HEL) in Japanese mothers on their own and their children’s EBS, we performed an ME–HEL category analysis
This study is the first to measure ME proficiency in Japanese mothers
Mother and child EBS scores were significantly related. These results suggest that maintaining healthy eating behaviors in both mothers and their children may be associated with the mother’s proficiency at practicing ME, in addition to social and environmental factors
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Mindfulness is a process of focusing one’s attention on the present moment [1,2,3]. The application of mindfulness to eating has developed into a personal approach to improving eating behaviors, which is referred to as mindful eating (ME) [4]. Regarding ME and its practice, previous research has suggested that ME includes the awareness of internal and external cues that influence the desire to eat, food choices, the amount eaten, and the manner in which food is eaten [5]. Mindful eating includes making conscious choices and learning to be more aware of cues that indicate fullness [6]
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