What Is Food Noise? Plus Tips To Turn the Volume Down

Everybody thinks about food from time to time. As living organisms, we all need to consume calories and nutrients to survive. Beyond its basic biological value, food also plays an important role in many of our personal memories, social experiences, and cultural traditions. Thoughts about what to eat, when to eat it, and whom to eat it with are just part of the human experience.

However, the frequency of these thoughts varies from person to person and time to time. It can be hard to focus on anything else when your stomach is actively growling, and some people’s bodies tend to produce more hunger sensations. Meanwhile, how much we think about food when our stomachs are full may depend on social situations and what we see in the media.

Everyone’s mind processes these cues differently. For example, even if two people with diabetes both experience more sensations from hunger than the average person without diabetes, the feelings and emotions these sensations can cause may differ widely. 

That can make it tricky to discuss “food noise” in a standardized way. The term became popular on social media as people taking GLP-1 medications for diabetes or weight management shared their experiences, which they say helped them think about eating less. For some, that meant fewer hunger sensations initiating fewer thoughts, but for others, that might have meant less time spent thinking about food, regardless of what prompted those thoughts in the first place.

Researchers and healthcare professionals want to help people who are struggling with excessive thoughts about food, but to do so, they need to identify the specific problem they are addressing. At the moment, they are still focused on defining food noise so that they can ultimately understand it better and help people who experience it turn the volume down. 

What is food noise?

Daisuke Hayashi, a registered dietitian and a nutritional sciences Ph.D. candidate at Pennsylvania State University, cautioned that scientists have just started formally studying food noise. 

“We have some quantitative data, we have some social media data, but nothing as compelling as to say, once and for all, what exactly is food noise,” he said.

However, based on anecdotal evidence, nutrition scientists have come up with working definitions to facilitate research on the subject. At its core, food noise seems to involve persistent, unwanted thoughts about food that cause profound discomfort and potentially lead to harm.

These thoughts may include a craving for a specific food or a general desire to eat, but they also encompass more ambivalent feelings. For instance, Hayashi said that someone who is dieting might get stuck thinking: “I really want to eat a burger, but I’ve already eaten too many calories today, but I’m really craving it, and I’m feeling hungry, and it would make me feel better, but at the same time, it’s so much fat, and it would make me gain weight…”

Still, Hayashi pointed out that becoming preoccupied with food at certain times is not inherently problematic. 

“If you are thinking, ‘What am I going to have for dinner’ because it’s 4:00 p.m. and you usually have dinner at 5:00 p.m., you’re starting to feel hungry, and you need to plan the meal, this is a perfectly normal thought,” he said.

Food noise is when these thoughts become so persistent that they seem inescapable. This might mean that a person begins planning their next meal while finishing their current one. Or, they might spend the days leading up to a party anticipating the spread, and then ruminate on what they ate for days afterward.

Furthermore, the thoughts are so obsessive that they can make it difficult to focus on other things. In certain cases, a person may be motivated to eat simply to clear their head.

Of course, those are just examples of how a person may experience food noise, and they won’t apply to everyone who uses the term. Dr. Ryan Kane, an assistant professor of nutrition science at Tufts University, said that developing a shared understanding of this phenomenon is tricky, not just because intrusive thoughts may present differently in different people, but also because the term “food noise” may resonate with people in different ways.

“It is such an individualized experience, and it’s always hard to know what’s happening in each other’s minds and try to translate that to someone else’s experience,” he said. “At least, we’re at a starting point for bridging the gaps in our lived experiences with food.”

What causes food noise?

There are many good reasons to start thinking about food. A sensation of hunger may motivate you to seek nourishment immediately, while catching a whiff of fresh cooking can awaken your appetite in anticipation of a future meal. If food cues didn’t make us think about eating, then we probably wouldn’t take the actions necessary to keep ourselves alive.

The number of food cues that people experience varies, but there’s nothing inherently wrong with that. For example, people with a high metabolism may get hungry more often than people with a low metabolism. However, noticing more food cues than you need to – whether they’re coming from within the body or not – could indicate a problem. 

On the external side, industrial food production and mass media have transformed our relationship with food. We all have to contend with a constant bombardment of carefully calibrated advertisements for food products engineered to light up our taste buds. These messages contribute to a culture in which overeating is normalized and maintaining a healthy weight is hard.

On the internal side, an increased number of food cues can be indicative of a medical issue. For instance, excessive hunger is a common symptom of diabetes. If insulin signaling is not working due to insulin resistance, then cells cannot absorb sugar. As a consequence, the brain will constantly receive signals that the body is low on fuel, even after a recent meal.

On the other hand, insulin treatment and some other medications may lower someone’s blood sugar too much, and the brain could interpret this as hunger. People may experience a blood sugar dip in a variety of ways, and some may not even notice it until it’s become a crisis, which can make diabetes particularly challenging to manage.

Thoughts of food are probably going to bubble up more often in the mind of a person who consumes a lot of media with food references or who has a medical condition that affects what they eat. But when scientists talk about food noise, they’re focused less on the things that initiate the thoughts and more on the thoughts themselves. 

Kane compared food noise to a speaker. While everyone can and should tune in to receive food signals, people who struggle with food noise seem to be listening to these signals at a much higher volume. The reason why varies somewhat from person to person. 

Hayashi’s adviser, Travis Masterson, an assistant professor and the director of the Health, Ingestive Behavior, and Technology Laboratory at Pennsylvania State University, offered a couple of explanations. 

“There are some individuals with genetic polymorphisms – so just small changes in their genetics – that predispose them to pay attention to food cues in their environment,” he said. “We also know the more you’re exposed to cues, the more you’re likely to respond to them over time.”

Social pressures and cultural norms can also influence how a person makes sense of their reactions to food cues. In many modern societies that overvalue thinness and stigmatize obesity as a personal failing, people who have trouble managing their body weight may be more likely to excessively focus on their eating habits.

Food noise and mental health

Research on food noise is still in its infancy, so it’s not yet clear how it relates to established food-related mental health issues. People with eating disorders also report persistent and obsessive thoughts about what they’re eating or not eating, so food noise may ultimately be a useful description of their experience as well.

In addition, certain persistent patterns of stress could cause a person to develop a fixation on food. In particular, a person with diabetes has to be constantly vigilant about what they’re eating, so it’s possible that diabetes distress may have considerable overlap with food noise.

For his part, Kane is happy that his colleagues are working to define food noise and to figure out ways of measuring it, but he thinks individuals who believe food noise is affecting them shouldn’t wait for formal definitions. They should go ahead and use the term as a jumping-off point to figure out what issue lies at the heart of their struggles and then work to address that.

What to do if food noise is affecting you

The first step in dealing with food noise is recognizing that there is a problem. If you feel like you think about food too much and if you find yourself unable to stop, then it’s probably an issue worth addressing.

After that, it’s important to clarify the real source of the problem. It might be that you are thinking about food more often than you want, solely because you are getting hungry more than you think you should. Kane recommended keeping a journal to get a better sense of what triggers your thoughts of food and to see how these thoughts compare to the physiological feelings of hunger that you experience.

Make lifestyle changes to reduce food cues

There are multiple signals that your brain might interpret as hunger. Beyond a general call to consume more calories, your body may be trying to communicate a need for a specific nutrient – or even for water. A good starting point to reduce feelings of hunger is to stay hydrated and consume a good balance of nutrients.

It’s also a good idea to reevaluate your eating habits. Your body cannot process meals and snacks immediately – it takes time for your body to digest food. Practicing more mindful eating can help you get in touch with your body and understand how the way you feel changes throughout the digestion process. Try eating slowly and focusing on the food in front of you rather than a screen or some other distraction. After you finish, wait 20 minutes to see how your feelings change.

If you find that you are still getting hungry between meals, take a look at your dining schedule. Make sure you aren’t skipping breakfast or eating more than you need to at dinner. If you are eating three meals regularly, consider splitting those up into five smaller meals evenly spaced throughout the day.

Other healthy habits like reducing sources of stress, sticking to a consistent sleep schedule, and getting regular exercise may also help reduce feelings of hunger.

As you try things out, it’s important to keep checking in with yourself. Ask yourself not only if the changes you make are helping you to experience hunger less, but also if feeling less hungry is causing you to not think about food as much.

The impulse to eat a cookie after work may have less to do with a need for calories and more to do with the emotions that you have experienced throughout the day. At the same time, you might end up in a drive-through on the way home just because the picture of tasty fries on the restaurant’s roadside sign really spoke to you in the moment.

Changing your environment – by limiting your exposure to food-related media or by getting rid of items that you associate with emotional eating – could make it less likely that you start thinking about eating in the first place. 

All of that being said, it’s a good idea to discuss these changes with someone you trust. You don’t want to replace one problem with another. If you are someone with diabetes, then it’s a good idea to talk through all the ways dietary changes could affect your blood sugar. 

If you are a person who is prone to thinking about food in a way that is out of proportion to the food cues you are receiving, then you want to make sure you are addressing those thought patterns rather than just shifting your response from eating to not eating.

Speak to a healthcare provider and ask about specialized help

While some people may benefit from opening up about food noise to a trusted confidant, Hayashi recommended seeking professional help. “I look at it very much how I look at other mental health issues,” he said. 

It might be easiest to start the conversation with a primary care provider, who can connect you with specialists who can provide more specific advice and treatment options. A registered dietitian can help people create meal plans that will keep them well-nourished, and a licensed therapist can help them overcome intrusive thought patterns.

Kane recommended coming to these discussions with the journal that you’ve been keeping. Getting specific about the issues that you are dealing with early on will help you and your healthcare provider reach a shared understanding more quickly. 

Still, he emphasized that navigating something like food noise, which can manifest and be interpreted in very different ways depending on the person, is not easy. 

“Give yourself and your relationship with your provider a little grace to say, ‘Okay, let’s explore this concept a little bit,’” he said. “Then figure out a plan going forward.”

Consider the use of medication

Some people may benefit from GLP-1/GIP medications like tirzepatide (Mounjaro for type 2 diabetes, Zepbound for weight loss). These hormone-mimicking drugs reduce the number of food cues that a person experiences by stimulating the release of insulin to keep blood sugar in check, as well as by slowing the movement of food through the gastrointestinal tract. 

Beyond their effects on the digestive system, GLP-1 drugs also have a direct impact on the brain. Evidence suggests that they reduce not only cravings for food and overall appetite, but also reactivity to food in the environment. In other words, these drugs reduce both the number of food signals a person receives and the volume at which the remaining signals are relayed.

However, Masterson cautioned that GLP-1 medications should not be used as a replacement for lifestyle changes; instead, they should be taken in combination with therapy and other interventions. “They are just a new tool in the toolkit,” he said.

The bottom line

Many people who struggle to lose weight have started to open up about food noise, which involves persistent, intrusive thoughts about eating. 

Although researchers still have a lot to learn about what exactly food noise is and why it occurs, healthcare providers already have proven tools – including therapeutic strategies and medications – that can help people build a healthier relationship with food.

Learn more about food and diabetes management here:

• 8 Foods That Won't Spike Blood Sugar
• Coping with Diet and Diabetes
• Decoding Diabetes With Dr. Bob: The GLP-1 Revolution