The moderating effects of mindfulness facets on psychological distress and emotional eating behaviour

Background Emotional eating is an impulsive mood-regulation strategy that often follows psychological distress. Mindfulness is associated with less impulsive behaviour. Mindful eating involves a considered awareness of hunger and satiety, and conscious, non-automatic, food choices. This study examines the moderating role of mindfulness on the relationship between distress and emotional eating. Participants and Procedure Participants (N=392) completed self-report measures on distress, mindfulness and emotional eating, after which moderation analysis was carried out. Results Mindfulness was negatively associated with emotional eating, but only when distress was low. The most important facets of mindfulness for this were being able to describe one’s emotional state and a non-judgemental response to that state. Conclusions These results support previous findings that mindfulness reduces the impact distress has on emotional eating. Future research could explore interventions that enable individuals to describe their emotional state in the moment to reduce preoccupation with food during times of distress.