Can’t stop thinking about your next meal? That’s ‘food noise’—here's how to stop it
This intrusive, but common phenomenon can take over your life, affecting your state of mind and eating habits. Weight-loss drugs show promise in quieting these thoughts.
“Food noise” is suddenly everywhere. Though it may evoke the crunch of a potato chip or the sizzle of oil in a pan, the term describes intrusive thoughts about food that are distressing and disruptive. Oprah even talked about it on her television special about new weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy.
Food noise isn’t a new concept or a clinical diagnosis, but it has gained attention alongside the rise of GLP-1 agonist weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. These drugs have been reported to offer a surprising side benefit of reducing or even eliminating food noise.
“Patients taking GLP-1 drugs will come back and tell us how the drug has quieted their mind when it used to be cluttered with thoughts about food,” says Robert Kushner, an obesity medicine specialist and professor in the department of medicine and medical education at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “That put the concept of food noise on the map for me.”
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This phenomenon that doctors once described as “eating-related intrusive thoughts” or “food-related preoccupations” is now integral to the cultural conversation about food and eating.
“Food noise is common these days because diet culture is around us and we’re getting messages about what’s okay to eat and what’s not,” says Rachel Goldman, a psychologist specializing in eating behavior and a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. “A lot of people don’t realize how much space in their brain it occupies until it starts to go away.”
The harmful effects of food noise
To be clear: Food noise has nothing to do with hunger or food insecurity, says Lawrence Cheskin, a professor of nutrition and food studies at George Mason University and an adjunct professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. It’s about being preoccupied with thoughts about food.
In a 2023 issue of the journal Nutrients, researchers conceptualized food noise as “rumination and obsessive preoccupation with food” that can be elicited by internal cues such as your stomach growling with hunger or thoughts about eating or external cues such as seeing or smelling delicious foods. These cues can cause food-related thoughts to start playing on a repetitive loop.
When it comes to the intensity and effects of food noise, there’s a continuum: For some, food noise is like nonstop chatter inside their heads about what to eat, when to eat, how much to eat, and so on—and it can be distracting and distressing. They might find themselves thinking about their next meal while they’re eating their current one.
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“Imagine you have a pie chart—think about what percentage of the day is spent thinking about food,” says Susan Albers, a clinical psychologist at the Cleveland Clinic and author of Eating Mindfully: How to End Mindless Eating and Enjoy a Balanced Relationship with Food. “For those with a lot of food noise, 80 to 90 percent of their day is spent thinking about food.”
For those with intrusive food noise, “it might impact their sleep, or lead to guilt or shame around eating or anxious thoughts,” says Goldman. “It can get in the way of someone being able to function at their best.”
By contrast, those with mild food noise may barely notice it, as if it were simply a quiet buzz in the background.
Who’s susceptible to food noise and why
Anyone can experience food noise but people with obesity or overweight often struggle with food noise more than other people do, which can make it difficult to lose weight.
“If you’re having an excessive level of food noise, you’re more likely to do something about it and that’s to eat,” says Cheskin.
In fact, research in the journal Obesity Reviews found that heightened reactivity to food cues often induces cravings and influences eating behavior, contributing to weight gain. Furthermore, a 2024 report from Weight Watchers and STOP Obesity Alliance found that “more than half of people living with overweight or obesity experience food noise”—which many say makes it more difficult to stick to a healthy eating plan or exercise regimen.
Other people who may be especially susceptible include those with an eating disorder or disordered eating pattern. “If you’re restricting your eating or skipping meals, you’re likely to have more food noise—your body is giving you signals to eat more,” Goldman explains.
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Also, if you have a lot of food rules or you’ve been dieting off and on for years, you may be more likely to experience food noise. And a study in a 2024 issue of the journal Appetite found that food noise is prevalent among people with orthorexia nervosa—a condition characterized by an obsessive focus on healthy eating, inflexible dietary rules, and persistent preoccupations with food purity.
“There’s a lot of shame and judgment around food noise,” Albers says. “It can impact relationships, leading to social withdrawal, and reduce people’s engagement in other areas of their life.”
How weight-loss drugs like Ozempic quiet food noise
The fact that people taking a GLP-1 receptor agonist like Ozempic or Wegovy often report a drop in food noise is shedding light on the possible mechanisms behind it.
These drugs “are working on receptors in the brain and the gastrointestinal tract that are related to hunger and appetite,” Cheskin explains. “They are affecting some of the triggers of eating.”
They also may be affecting the reward system in the brain in ways that counteract food noise. GLP-1 is short for glucagon-like peptide 1, a naturally occurring hormone in the body that plays a role in blood sugar regulation, appetite, and digestion. “There are GLP-1 receptors throughout the brain, including in the hypothalamus and the reward centers,” Kushner explains. As far as food noise goes, he adds, “these drugs are hitting multiple receptors and that diminishes the continuous release of these signals that crowd out other thoughts and emotions.”
In other words, “by disrupting these dopamine reward pathways in the brain, these drugs are disrupting these disordered thought processes about food,” says W. Scott Butsch, director of obesity medicine in the Bariatric and Metabolic Institute at the Cleveland Clinic.
This isn’t surprising given that a new study in the journal Addiction found that GLP-1 receptor agonists may help people struggling with addiction: The study found that people with an alcohol use disorder had a 50 percent lower rate of drinking to the point of intoxication if they were taking these drugs; meanwhile, those with an opioid use disorder who were taking these drugs had a 40 percent lower rate of overdose.
“Some people don’t realize they’ve had food noise until they go on these drugs and realize they’re thinking more clearly and have free space in their minds,” says Butsch. “We don’t know if that affects their weight but that free space in their minds may lead to a better quality of life.”
Other ways to quell food noise
People who aren’t taking GLP-1 or other weight-loss drugs can still take steps to ease food noise. As a starting point, experts recommend looking at your health habits, including your sleep, eating patterns, hydration, exercise, and stress management. “It’s harder to combat these intrusive thoughts when you’re tired or stressed,” Goldman says.
It can help to keep a log or journal to identify patterns and triggers for your food noise. Once you’ve identified triggers, Goldman says, “take steps to decrease them. If food noise is really loud when you go five hours without eating, go three to four hours instead.”
Meanwhile, make an effort to eat regularly and choose meals that are physically and psychologically satisfying. “When people give themselves permission to eat what they want, it can have an amazing effect on reducing food noise,” Albers says. “Restriction and feelings of deprivation contribute to food noise.”
While eating, slow down and “engage in mindful eating, so that you’re paying attention to the sensory properties of food,” Albers adds. That will help you maximize your enjoyment of what you’re eating. Exercising or engaging in enjoyable activities that stimulate the release of dopamine, such as reading or listening to music, could also help quiet food noise, she adds.
Keep in mind, however, that food noise is a common affliction so don’t beat yourself up for it. Instead, exercise some self-compassion, Goldman suggests. “The way we talk to ourselves matters so be mindful about what you’re saying to yourself about food noise.”
