Can mindful eating buffer against the influence of neighbourhood fast food exposure on unhealthy food intake?

A food-abundant environment is associated with unhealthy food intake, but not everyone is affected to the same degree. Mindful eating, which is eating with attention and awareness, has been associated with less external eating and less food cravings, and could act as a protective factor against influences from the food environment. The current study aimed to investigate whether the association between exposure to fast-food around the home and unhealthy food intake was moderated by mindful eating. The study was conducted in 1086 Dutch adults of 55 years and older of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam study. The mindful eating domains (Mindful Eating Behavior Scale) were tested as moderating variables in the linear regression models with absolute and relative density of fast-food outlets in the neighbourhood (400, 800 and 1600m) as independent variables and unhealthy food intake (snacks (g/d)) and saturated fat as a percentage of total energy intake (en%)) as dependent variable. Bootstrapping with 5000 samples using the pick-a-point approach showed that after adjustments, only two out of 48 interactions terms were statistically significant: Eating with Awareness (EwA) and Eating without Distraction (EwD) moderated the positive association between the relative density of fast-food outlets and saturated fat (en%) respectively in a buffer of 800m (interaction EwA: B = −0.84, 95% CI [-1.46; −0.22]) and in a buffer of 1600m (interaction EwD: B = −0.82, 95% CI [-1.61; −0.04]). The results of the current study indicate that mindful eating cannot buffer against the influence of the fast-food abundant environment on unhealthy food intake. Future research is needed to confirm these findings, for example in younger populations.