Tips for Dealing with Food Noise

The term “food noise” has been getting a lot of attention lately, especially when it comes to GLP-1s. One of the touted benefits of these drugs is that they quiet food noise for people (although sometimes it also comes back), and that’s a big plus for a lot of people.

It’s interesting because even though this term didn’t exist when I was growing up, I certainly had my own problems with food noise, and it was a long time before that quieted down at all. I think it’s unfortunate that the challenges of dealing with this have only started coming up recently, but I suppose better late than never.

What is food noise?

If you’re not familiar with the term, food noise is when your thoughts almost constantly revolve around food. It doesn’t matter whether or not you’re hungry. Even after you’ve just eaten, you could be thinking about your next meal or snack, daydreaming about foods you’re not “supposed” to be eating, or feeling guilty about something you already ate.

These thoughts can be intrusive and consuming, and they often lead to you eating more than you might otherwise because food is so often on your mind. What makes this particularly challenging is that food noise often results from things like dieting, avoiding foods you consider “bad” or problematic, or skipping meals. These are all things people most often do when they want to cut back on food and lose weight, but they may get the opposite result.

I certainly remember fixating on sweets in my teen years, trying to figure out when I could next have something sweet, how I’d be able to get it without anyone seeing me, if I could eat brownies or cake or ice cream or whatever in such a way that others in the house wouldn’t notice, etc.

Why food noise is a problem

The problem is that when you spend so much mental energy on these kinds of things, not only are you more likely to end up eating more than you need, but you also have less bandwidth to focus on other things.

This means that you’re probably not as focused on what you’re currently doing as you’d like to be, whether that’s work, having a conversation, reading, or anything else. It’s hard to focus, after all, when your brain keeps sending thoughts about food and encouraging you to eat something, even if you know you’re not really hungry.

Adding to the challenge is that you can’t avoid food or stop eating. You’ll always need to eat at some point, and you’ll see other people eating, smell food that’s cooking, see ads for different kinds of food, hear people talking about going out to eat, etc. That makes it even more difficult to quiet those obtrusive thoughts.

Tips for shutting down food noise

The good news is, you can use some strategies to quiet the food noise, with or without GLP-1s.

• See if there’s a pattern: One of the first things you can do is see if there’s a pattern to when you experience food noise. Maybe it comes up in the afternoon because you’re eating too light a lunch, or maybe you notice it on mornings when you have a bagel for breakfast instead of yogurt or eggs. Or perhaps it comes up when you’re feeling stressed, tired, or bored. Try to stay curious about what’s going on instead of judging yourself.

• Let yourself eat enough: For those who’ve been on multiple diets or otherwise tried to restrict eating, it can feel strange and even alarming to eat enough at meals because after restriction, “enough” can seem like “too much”. Try to go by your hunger/fullness levels instead of counting calories or considering amounts.

• Get a good balance of nutrition: These days, a lot of people focus on getting enough protein, and one reason why is that protein helps with satiety. So, it’s important to make sure you’re getting enough protein, as well as fat and complex carbohydrates.

• Find ways to manage stress: If you find that stress increases food noise, look for ways to manage that stress by doing things other than eating. Exercise can help, as well as journaling, meditation, finding something fun to do, getting out in nature, listening to music, and more. Experiment to see what works.

• Avoid restriction: As tempting as it might be to restrict your food choices when you’re distracted by a lot of food noise – especially if you find yourself thinking about sweets or other less nutritious foods – restriction will only make the food noise worse. You would likely do better to eat some of what you’re really craving in a mindful way, and fully enjoy it, to reassure your mind and body that you’re not depriving it.

You can move past food noise

When food noise seems ever-present, it can be hard to believe that you’ll ever be able to shake it. But you can.

It takes some practice, as well as the willingness to experiment, but if you can move past restrictive eating to let yourself eat enough, get a good balance of foods, and find ways to manage stress and challenging emotions, you’ll likely find that food noise quiets down. And when that happens, it’s a huge relief.