Overweight low-income mothers of young kids ate fewer fast-food meals and high-fat snacks after participating in a study—not because researchers told them what to eat, but because the program being evaluated helped lower the moms’ stress, research suggests. The 16-week program was a lifestyle intervention aimed to prevent weight gain by promoting stress management, healthy eating, and physical activity. The program offered simple steps tucked into lessons on time management and prioritizing. Many of these methods were demonstrated in a series of videos featuring mothers similar to those participating in the study. “We used the women’s testimonies in the videos and showed their interactions with their families to raise awareness about stressors. After watching the videos, a lot of intervention participants said, ‘This is the first time I’ve realized I am so stressed out’—because they’ve lived a stressful life,” said Mei-Wei Chang, lead author of the study and associate professor of nursing at …