Work

Acute response and neurophysiological mechanisms of mindfulness meditation in emotional eating

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Emotional eating often leads to adverse health outcomes. Understanding how mindfulness influences emotional eating is crucial for developing strategies to promote healthier eating behaviors and well-being. This study aims to investigate the mechanism and acute response to a mindfulness meditation practice on emotional eating by examining immediate post-intervention effects on brain activity and neurophysiological differences between individuals with and without emotional eating. Forty-nine adults were recruited and allocated into two groups based on the emotional eating subscale score of the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire: emotional eating (EE group) and non-emotional eating (comparison group). EEG was captured from three 14-min audio-guided mindfulness practices (MPs; each comprising three consecutive phases: mindful breathing [MPbreathing], emotion evocation [MPevocation], and meditation [MPmeditation]) and 5-min resting periods before and after each mindfulness practice. We compared between-group and between-condition differences in the EEG band power and examined potential correlations between EEG data and other participant characteristics. Following three MPs, the EE group exhibited a higher frontal midline theta power (p = 0.051) and a lower frontal midline alpha power (p = 0.059) compared with the comparison group. These effects primarily originated from the MPmeditation (theta band: corrected ps ≤ 0.03; alpha band: corrected ps ≤ 0.08). Two negative correlations were specifically found in the EE group: one between changes in frontal midline delta power and emotional eating behaviors, and another between beta-1 power and cognitive reappraisal that emerged in the MPmeditation. Our findings suggest that the modulation of frontal midline theta and alpha activity may contribute to the immediate effects of mindfulness meditation in remediating emotional eating. The clinical significance of the correlation between delta activity and emotional eating severity warrants further investigation. We compared two groups of adults: those who often eat emotionally and those who do not. Both groups took part in three mindfulness practice sessions, and we measured their brain activity before, during, and after each session. We found that people who struggle with emotional eating showed different patterns of brain activity during meditation compared to those who do not eat emotionally. Specifically, certain brain signals linked to emotional processing were stronger in the emotional eating group during meditation. However, these brain changes did not directly relate to how much people reported emotional eating. Our findings suggest that mindfulness may affect the way the brain processes emotions in people who eat emotionally. This could help guide new ways to support people in managing emotional eating and improving their overall well-being.

Source: Journal of Eating Disorders

DOI: 10.1186/s40337-026-01591-0