Research paper
Arch JJ, Brown KW, Goodman RJ, Della Porta MD, Kiken LG, Tillman S. Enjoying food without caloric cost: The impact of brief mindfulness on laboratory eating outcomes. Behaviour Research and Therapy. 2016 Apr;79:23-34. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2016.02.002
Why we cite it
Experimental evidence that brief mindfulness instructions can increase food enjoyment and reduce calorie consumption at the same time — the two are not necessarily in tension — with enhanced enjoyment reported as the mediating pathway, which is the authors’ own analysis: ”an effect mediated by greater eating enjoyment.”
Say what the study was, because it is easy to read this as bigger than it is (recorded 2026-09-02, card SP97Y7). Three laboratory experiments, 319 undergraduates, eating chocolate and raisins against distraction or no-instruction controls, and the intake reduction was specifically of the unhealthy option. It is a randomised trial and the mediation is the authors’, not this library’s inference — but it is a single-session lab result in students, not evidence about how anyone eats over a day or a year. `kme01` states it correctly; keep the population with the finding wherever it travels.
DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2016.02.002 · PubMed 26945478 · Publisher