Effects of a brief mindfulness intervention on hunger and quality perception during pasta consumption

The interactive effects of mindfulness and food characteristics on eating experiences remain poorly understood. This study examined whether a brief mindfulness intervention moderates the relationship between pasta quality and both hunger reduction and quality perception. Using a 2 × 2 between-subjects factorial design, 128 participants consumed either Barilla's premium or classic pasta, with or without a 3.5-min guided meditation focusing on sensory awareness and gratitude during a blind tasting experience. Results revealed a consistent moderation pattern: control participants showed marked differences between pasta types in both hunger reduction and quality ratings, whereas mindfulness participants responded uniformly across pasta types. Specifically, control participants experienced significantly greater hunger reduction after consuming premium versus classic pasta (p = 0.008), and unexpectedly subjectively rated classic pasta as higher quality than premium (p = 0.034). In contrast, mindfulness participants showed equivalent responses to both pasta types across all measures (all ps > 0.40). This pattern replicated across three outcomes: hunger reduction, composite satiety scores, and quality perception, with control participants consistently showing pasta-type effects and mindfulness participants showing none. These findings suggest that brief mindfulness interventions may normalize eating responses by reducing automatic reactions to food characteristics. Rather than relying on external food characteristics or expectations, mindfulness may orient attention toward internal bodily signals of hunger and satiety. While replication in larger samples is warranted, the consistent pattern across multiple measures provides preliminary evidence that even brief mindfulness practices may enhance eating awareness and reduce expectation-driven biases in food quality perception.