A Short Communication on Strategy for Weight Loss Based on Healthy Dietary Habits and Control of Emotional Response to Food

The Mediterranean dietary pattern has been widely reported to be a model of healthy eating for its contribution to optimal health status and a good quality of life. This Mediterranean dietary pattern incorporates most of the dietary protective factors (fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, fish, olive oil) but few of the adverse dietary factors (fast food, sugar-sweetened beverages, refined grain products, energy density, and partially hydrogenated or trans-fat) for obesity and other diseases relationship with the metabolic syndrome. Despite being a healthy dietary pattern, only a small percentage of the population consumes a diet with these healthy features and obese people often consume a diet with low adherence to the Mediterranean dietary pattern.

On the other hand, is well known that emotions have a powerful effect on the choice of food and eating habits and some persons eat as a response to a range of negative emotions that may contribute to being overweight. Each subject handled differently their attitude to food.This study was conducted to demonstrate how the adoption of healthy eating habits may be effective to decrease the weight in people with overweight and obesity. In addition know the emotional behaviour may facilitate the establishment of personalized dietary guidelines and increase the patient fidelity (decreasing the discontinuation rate) until the desired weight.

The quality of the eating habits of patients was determined by the assessment of the adherence to the Mediterranean diet using the MEDAS-questionnaire developed in PREDIMED study [5]. MEDAS includes 12 questions on food consumption frequency and 2 questions on food habits considered characteristics of the Mediterranean diet. One point is given for each target achieved. The total MEDAS score ranges from 0 to 14, with a higher score indicating better Mediterranean diet accordance. The value 0 was applied when the condition was not met. MEDAS score >9 represented strict accordance with the healthy dietary pattern and a score >7 (mid-range value) represented modest accordance.

The emotional response to food was determined using the Emotional-Eater-Questionnaire (EEQ). This questionnaire classifies individuals as a function of the relation between food intake and emotions. Such information allows personalized treatments by drawing up early strategies from the very beginning of treatment programs.