Bringing Awareness Into Eating

Brown University65 enrolled

Overview

The purpose of this study is to test an app-based mindful eating intervention to decrease the reward value of unhealthy food.

Eating healthily is highly beneficial. However, changing eating habits is notoriously difficult. Individuals often believe that they simply need to "restrain" their eating impulses in order to eat more healthily. However, such an approach has not only been shown to be quite ineffective over long time spans, it is also associated with aversive feelings: It simply does not feel good to struggle with one's own impulses. Investigators are testing a new approach to overcoming unhealthy eating habits, which utilizes mindful eating to change the reward value of unhealthy food. The hypothesis is that if people pay attention to how unhealthy food (e.g. "junk" food) makes them feel in their bodies, their liking it and desire to eat it will decrease naturally. Participants might become aware, for example, that eating a whole bag of chips leads to nausea, while eating a salad makes them feel fresh and energetic. Investigators will assess whether and how the anticipated and actual satisfaction associated with unhealthy food will decrease the more often participants use this intervention.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

Conditions

Stress Eating Reward-based Eating Craving-related Eating

Interventions

App-based mindful eatingBEHAVIORAL

This is a mindful eating smartphone application comprised of twenty-eight modules of 10-15 minutes each designed to teach mindfulness for binge eating. The feature that is being tested will ask individuals to do a mental exercise when they're craving and will measure their satisfaction related to the experience.

Eligibility

Sex: FEMALEMin age: 18 YearsMax age: 70 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: 1. Craves \& overeats a food at least 4 times/week (can be a specific food or food category - i.e. salty or sweet) 2. Desire to change eating habits 3. Owns a smartphone 4. Fluency in English Exclusion Criteria: 1. Current eating disorder 2. Current strict diet (e.g. paleo, keto, vegan, calorie restriction) 3. Pregnancy 4. Current insulin use 5. Previous use of the EatRightNow application

Locations (1)

Brown University

Providence, Rhode Island, United States

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Change in Reward Based Eating Drive (RED) Scale

The Reward Based Eating Drive (RED) Scale will be used to assess three dimensions of reward-related eating (lack of satiety, preoccupation with food, and lack of control over eating), in order to comprehensively assess the spectrum of reward-related eating. The RED is a 13-item questionnaire that uses a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 0 ("Strongly Disagree") to 4 ("Strongly Agree"). Scores can range from 0 to 52 and higher scores correspond to higher levels of reward-related eating.

Time frame: 2 months

Secondary Outcomes

Change in Salzburg Stress Eating Scale (SSES)

The Salzburg Stress Eating Scale (SSES) will be used to assess stress eating. The SSES is a 10-item questionnaire that uses a 5-point Likert scale where 1 is "I eat much less than usual" and 5 is "I eat much more than usual". Scores can range from 10 to 50 and higher scores correspond to higher levels of stress eating.

Time frame: 2 months

Change in Food Craving Questionnaire - Trait, Reduced (FCQ-T-r)

Food Craving Questionnaire will be used to assess food cravings. The The FCQ-T-r is a 15-item questionnaire that uses a 5-point Likert scale where 1 is "Strongly Disagree" and 5 is "Strongly Agree". Scores can range from 15 to 75 and higher scores correspond to higher levels of food craving.

Time frame: 2 months

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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