This is the first time that the effects of relaxation practices are assessed on overweight and obesity. According to a French study Nutrient-Health, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the risk of obesity would be reduced by 50%.

The mind-body disciplines like yoga, relaxation therapy, meditation, are now widely known and recommended, including by physicians, for their beneficial effects on stress, anxiety, and emotional management in general.

Numerous scientific studies in particular validate the effectiveness of mindfulness meditation, or "mindfulness" to fight against stress, inflammation and depression. However, the impact of these practices on overweight and obesity had never been assessed.

A Nutrient-Health study, coordinated by the team of Nutritional Epidemiology Research (EREN), became interested in the link with French 61,704 adult volunteers between 2009 and 2014.

To establish their prior sample, Geraldine Camilleri and Dr Sandrine Péneau of the coordinating team, collected through a questionnaire data concerning the weight, height, dietary intake, physical activity, anthropometry , lifestyle, socioeconomic conditions and health status. In the follow-up, participants included in the study have renewed their response each year.

Secondly, the volunteers were given a questionnaire submitted to relaxation practices: 27% of respondents said they had already practiced this type of activity, 14% currently, 8% regularly, at least once a week for at least one year.

Among the activities practiced, meditation leads with 8% of them, yoga (5%), relaxation therapy (2%), qi-gong (2%), Tai Chi (1%).

The findings and crossing data, the researchers found that the practice of at least one of these techniques is associated with a lower risk of being overweight and even less of being obese compared to people n ' having never practiced such activities.

Regular practice reduced by 2 the risk of obesity.

In this sense, a recent national survey of college Orlando (United States), which polled 1,000 participants, showed that weight loss actually depends on managing our emotions and our psychological well-being.

Learning to breathe, to refocus, to become aware of his body, to manage emotions, not pounce on the food to meet emotional, helps regulate weight over the long term.