Mindfulness meditation has been in the spotlight of the medical world for its proven health benefits like reducing stress and improving overall well-being, and now a new study suggests bringing mindfulness to your plate is linked to better measures of heart health. In a study published in the journal Obesity, 194 obese people were placed on a five-month diet and exercise program geared towards weight loss. All the participants followed the same program, but some received extra instruction in mindful eating skills, like learning to recognize the body’s hunger and fullness cues and differentiating physical cravings for food from emotional ones. The people in the mindfulness group lost an average of 3.7 pounds more than people without mindful eating instruction, and had better glucose levels and triglyceride levels, which are important risk factors for diabetes and heart disease, even a year after the program finished.