| Mindful eating refers to a deliberate, objective verbal description of the eating experience, such
as observations of visual, gustatory, olfactory, textural, and perceptual or responsiveness
properties of the eating experience. Mindful eating (ME) has been shown to reduce delay
discounting for food in which there is a devaluation of a reward as time to its receipt increases,
but the mechanisms by which ME works remain unknown. The present study conducted a
component analysis on ME, in which two potential mechanisms of eating mindfully-- eating
slowly and active participation in a food-based activity-- were systematically isolated. One
hundred and twenty-eight participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups: (1) a
traditional ME intervention, (2) a time-based eating condition where participants slowed their
eating, (3) a timing + active processing group where participants read recipes aloud, and (4) a
timing + passive process group where participants watch a DVD on nutrition. All participants
completed the Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) and the Money Choice Questionnaire (MCQ)
as delay discounting tasks for food and money, respectively. The FCQ and MCQ contain choices
between hypothetical smaller, sooner outcomes vs. larger delayed ones and there are three levels
of magnitude in both measures. The FCQ and MCQ were completed pre-and post-intervention to
determine changes in delay discounting both within and between the four groups. Results
showed a magnitude effect of baseline food and money discounting, with smaller magnitudes
showing the steepest discounting. There were no effects for group, including ME, on food or
money discounting. This was the case across all magnitudes, except for large magnitude money
discounting, where there was a significant increase in discounting for the timing group post-
session.
Key words: delay discounting, food, mindful eating, money |