episode 198: do you have food noise?
I’m kind of surprised I haven’t talked about this yet — but here we are, diving into food noise. If you’ve ever been consumed with thoughts about food, what you’re eating, when you’re eating, or even trying not to eat, this episode is for you.
With the rise of GLP-1 meds, this term is everywhere right now, but there’s so much more to it than what you can get from a split second IG story.
Here’s what I cover:
Food noise 101: What is it really, and why is everyone talking about it now?
My personal struggle: How food noise consumed me and why it doesn’t anymore
Food noise isn’t bad: It's not something to “fix.” We live in a world where food is everywhere — it's normal to think about it. But when it gets loud? That’s where the work comes in.
You don’t need more willpower: Why white-knuckling it around food never works (and actually makes things worse).
Skills > diets: The real tools that help you turn the volume down on food noise — and no, it’s not cutting out carbs or sugar.
GLP-1 meds and food noise: How they can help, but why they aren’t a magic fix, and the work you still need to do even if you’re on them.
Stop the restriction cycle: How telling yourself “no” is actually making the food noise louder.
If you’re sick of food taking up all this mental space, this episode will give you the tools to finally quiet that noise. got this — and I’m right here with you.
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198
[00:00:00] Hey everyone. Thanks for listening, watching, whatever you're doing to the diet diaries. Where's episode? Wait, one night. Is this episode one in 99? 198. I want to do something for 200. I don't know what it's in two weeks. That's crazy. Um, okay. I'm actually really excited for today's episode. This, and I'm actually so surprised that I have not talked about this yet.
And what I'm going to talk about is food noise. And this came up in a conversation with two of my closest friends that I talk with about stuff all the time. But food noise is like the buzzword now, right? It's everywhere. And that is a result of the rise of the GLP 1 medications, right? And food noise is something that is widely talked about.
as like a, something that those medications help with. [00:01:00] And so I wanted to talk about it because food noise is a term. It's like giving, giving, um, voice, giving words and kind of a shape to something that Many people, I think most humans experience to varying degrees at one point or another. Um, it's something that I definitely, uh, continue to experience and struggled very intensely with, but had no, no word for.
What I used to say to people, Is when I would talk about my relationship with food is I would say that I didn't have an eating disorder, but I had severe disordered eating, true fact, and that I was constantly aware of every single calorie that went into my mouth. Um, that is like definitely like the definition of food noise in some ways, right?
I think it's definitely personal. And the reason I wanted to talk about this is because I think that with the rise of like this buzzword, like I feel like it's become like, like talking about like perimenopause. It's like the thing that people are talking about. And that's fine because, right, these things [00:02:00] need airtime and awareness.
But then very quickly it starts to escalate or get misconstrued or taken out of context. And I think it's really important to talk about this. Um, and when I, I remember when I first heard that term, which was probably only a couple of years ago, I felt so seen. I'm like, That's what that is. Like, it's not how I ever articulated it, but I was like, Yes.
Like basically I can remember being as young as like 16, 17, maybe even a little bit younger and constantly thinking about what food was in the cabinet. Eating my mom's, my mom used to get the, um, Chips Deluxe. It was the brand of chocolate chip cookies. I'm not sure if they still make them. And she used to eat two of them for breakfast every day.
That was her breakfast. Like, well, separate conversation, whatever. It's fine. Um, but like when she wasn't home, I would go in and eat like. six or seven of those. Or like eat, I used to get these, um, they were like these Entenmann's like breakfast bars. And that's what I would eat for breakfast during [00:03:00] high school because I had to leave high school started at like 725 in the morning.
I had to leave so early. And I would eat like three or four of those at once. Um, like, and just be thinking about when can I go eat that and definitely like in secret without people knowing. And then once I got to college and the onset of my PCOS really kind of happened. You know, it's, it's, so this kind of leads me to talk about what is food noise, right?
Food noise is thinking about having a preoccupation with food, where food is taking up space in your brain. Now here's the thing. There is a spectrum of food noise. I don't know this for a fact. I don't have any research to back this up. This is purely anecdotal based on my lived experience, all the clients I've worked with and the people that I talk to, that the vast majority of, I'm [00:04:00] going to talk about women.
This is definitely true for men too, but women are definitely more in my wheelhouse. Um, I have worked with a couple of male clients and this is true for them too. And the reality is if you're listening to this podcast, it's definitely true for you. Deal with some form of food noise. Food noise is not inherently a problem or bad.
And I think that's kind of the big thing I want to communicate is that we, it's like perimenopause isn't bad. It's a normal natural part of life. Food noise isn't bad. It is a natural natural normal part of living in the environment and the world that we live in where food is constantly surrounding us.
And we are being shown food and talked about food in every way. And we have grown up with a diet based culture. And so many of us have a lot of lived experiences that then have enhanced that food noise, right? The problem with food noise is when it becomes more intense for certain people, [00:05:00] which for some people that is biologically driven.
It is not, um, something that they do by choice. It's not something that they are lacking willpower over. There are some people who have much louder and more intense food noise than others. And I really like the analogy I'm about to make. I thought of it the other day as I was really working through this.
Just like anxiety. Most humans have some level of anxiety. For some people, it is debilitating, and they need to be on medication for it, and that helps them manage it. And for other people, it's less frequent and not as loud, and they're able to work through it with other tools. Food noise is the same thing.
And so we hear about it so much because the GLP 1s, because it quiets that, right? And I have had, I have family members, I have friends, and I have multiple clients who are on GLP 1 medications. So I have not first hand experience, but very close second hand experience with people who have been on these drugs.
I've had very open and honest conversations with them about it to [00:06:00] really understand what it is like. And they all say the same thing is that, and the, even like the scientists don't know the mechanism by which this works, those medications quiet the food noise. And so if you are someone who has Level 10, fire engine, New York City Ambulance loud food noise, which is then causing you to eat more than you need or want to, causing your body to gain weight, causing you to gain fat and carry more body fat than feels good for you or then may be healthy for you, then medications can absolutely be helpful and supportive.
And then allow you, give you a more even playing field and a, and a more, A more reasonable baseline from which to practice the skills of what, why, and how to eat. I am someone who struggled with food noise, I didn't call it that at the time, but that's what it was, for decades, many years, very intensely, where from the time I would wake up to the time I would go [00:07:00] to sleep, I would be thinking about food in some form.
in a whole range of things. And it would become obsessive, it would become restrictive, it would become, it would dominate and take over my day and influence my behaviors, where I went, what I did. Um, it would make me fearful of being in certain situations. It would make me fearful of what foods were in the house.
Um, when it starts to dominate and take over your thoughts, when it starts to become intrusive, when you start to feel that you can't like, function and get stuff done without constantly thinking about food, that's when it's like a real problem. Now again, that doesn't inherently necessarily mean that like medication is for you.
There's a lot of other factors that get decided and that's something that you decide with your physician. I am not someone who recommends medication. Um, but it's really understanding the, the intensity, the frequency, the [00:08:00] loudness of the noise, right? Noise is kind of a great word to use when we talk about volume.
I talk about volume. Um, And so starting to have a better understanding of what food noise is, normalizing it, right? There's I think two big factors that have contributed to the prevalence of food noise, just like anxiety is more common now than it used to be. Um, You know, social media, the way we consume media, the way we live our lives, um, the, the hectic, chaotic nature of our lives and overscheduling, right?
When are we going to eat? When are we going to eat the convenience, the convenient food, convenience foods that have popped up? Um, So it's sort of like there's a, like an anthropological, cultural anthropological piece of like lifestyle, there's the social media piece, um, there is the drastic increase, [00:09:00] obviously, of packaged, processed, uh, Foods and this is not a dig on processed foods.
I got no issue with processed foods I'm gonna talk about maybe even highly ultra processed foods and again not they're not bad But they are more calorie dense and they are often Combinations of carbs and fats and sugars and salty and sweet and textures and all these things that taste so fucking good that are very Easy to overeat and they really take up space in your brain there They are like blowing your dopamine out of the water And that is part of what drives food noise as well.
So there's been shifts in our lifestyles and in our culture and in our technology that have impacted and influenced the rise of food noise, right? Just like there's a rise, I mean, and this is widely talked about, and there's this the book I want to read, The Anxious Generation, which is a separate topic.
But like, right, there is a rise in overall anxiety, right? There are shifts in mental health of people that is well documented and researched. Um, this is no different. That said, it doesn't mean [00:10:00] these things change and shift over time as we evolve as humans. And so certain things become normal, then we have to learn how to respond to it.
Um, so I wanted to kind of just give like sort of that foundation. I started, I started talking about myself and then kind of keep going off on tangents. Um, and there's different ways that it affects people, right? For some people who biologically are wired to have a lot more food noise and then the environment, right?
So this is what people, obesity medicine specialists talk about. They talk about, um, part in the maybe inappropriate analogy, genetics load the gun, environment pulls the trigger. right? So if you are biologically wired to have more food noise and then you are living in a culture, in a society, in an environment that is like pushing it in your face, it's just boom, off to the races.
And it is much harder to moderate and regulate that for some people. [00:11:00] And then that is the, that is often people who struggle with lifelong, um, dealing with having obesity, right? Maybe it comes on at different points in their lives. Maybe it's over the course of their entire life, right? And very often, um, GLP 1 medications can be very helpful for people who have struggled in that way.
Then there's plenty of us who have food noise, but it's not as loud or as prevalent or as intense as other people. It's still frustrating. It's still stressful like it was for me, right? I was saying to a friend, you know, 10, 15 years ago, if these medications had been out, I might've been like, Oh my God, that sounds amazing.
But now, I have done so much work and learned and practiced skills around food that yes, I have food noise, but I'm really good at responding to it. And that is something that I think people don't really understand. Like there are skills to respond to this. Having food noise is not inherently a problem.
[00:12:00] It's understanding, being really honest with how loud and how frequent it is, and then giving yourself skills to respond to it and seeing whether those skills are actually helpful. Um, you know, there's kind of mental, internal skills, and then there's external skills. And there are things you've heard me talk about a million times before.
Um, things like jobs of foods, right? That the job of let's say a bag of potato chips is not the job of an apple. And you have to use them accordingly. And it doesn't mean that chips are bad and apples are good, right? Jobs of foods helps to demoralize food and see it for what it is objectively, that when you want something salty and crunchy, you have chips.
And when you are hungry and need nutrition, you need to have an apple. Obviously, it's like, that's oversimplifying. I have a whole podcast on this. I will try to remember to link the episode. But giving yourself a way to think about foods not as good and bad, not as clean or not clean, not as healthy or unhealthy, because any food can be healthy or [00:13:00] unhealthy depending on why you are eating it and the way you are using it.
100 percent true. So if you're thinking, oh broccoli is always healthy. No, it's not. Broccoli is not always healthy. If you are refusing to eat anything else and will only eat broccoli because you're terrified of what happens if you eat a piece of bread. Broccoli is no longer healthy. It's nutritious! But it is not healthy.
Healthy and nutritious are not the same thing. Tangent. A second skill is giving yourself permission, right? And these are really big topics, and I think I'm pretty sure I've done an episode on permission around food. I certainly hope so. Now I'm going to have to look, because if not, that's definitely in order.
People think that by not allowing themselves to eat Certain foods and restricting them is the way to control it. It's actually the opposite. Giving yourself permission that food and then eating it with structure is the way that you learn how to be around it. It's exposure therapy. If you never let yourself be around a certain food, then you don't know how to be around that food.
So then when you are around that food, you lose your mind and you eat all of it and then you feel like shit and you go, well, that's why I can't have that around, can't eat that anymore, and then you just get stuck in that cycle. [00:14:00] Like, it's, it's the, the, it's a very simple concept, but obviously very challenging to put into practice because of all of the thoughts and stories we have around our head.
But that is a skill that needs to be worked on, right? You cannot. quiet or respond to food noise without working on these skills. A diet, food elimination, cutting out, cutting out carbs does not quiet food noise. Not eating bread does not quiet food noise. Telling yourself you're not eating sugar does not quiet food noise.
It may turn the dial down for a little while, but not forever, and not even for very long. It will come back louder and more intense. after you've done those things. Rules, rigidity, restriction do not quiet food noise. Skills do. And in some cases, for some people who biologically have extremely loud food noise, just like for some people who biologically have more anxiety, medication can help and then allow you to practice skills more easily.[00:15:00]
Um, another big piece is like, is protein, right? Like, if you are not eating foods that are actually filling, you're going to have more food noise. Right? If you're having a bagel for breakfast and pasta for lunch and pizza for dinner, you're going to have a shit ton of food noise because you're never full.
So then you're setting yourself up to constantly be thinking about food because you're always hungry. So it's really a combination of all of this. And I will be honest with you that a lot of food noise can be managed. Right. With working on the nutrition piece, not, not all of it, but it's a combination of these skills coming together.
So if you, and the reason I wanted to talk about this, cause I feel like now it's like this, it's like this catchphrase. I have food noise. Yes. Everyone fucking has food noise. Pretty much everyone. And if you're listening to this, I can, I would pretty much bet a thousand dollars that everyone listening to this does.
And that's okay. It doesn't mean that you need to be on a medication. It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you. It doesn't mean that you're never going to be able to change things. It doesn't mean you're never going to be able to have cake in your house. It doesn't mean you're never going to be able to lose [00:16:00] weight.
It means that you have to do some work. Just like if you're like, I have anxiety, okay, well, what are you doing about that? Are you learning any breathing skills? Are you shutting your phone off before bed? Are you monitoring your sleep? Are you getting exercise? Are you moving your body? Because we know the proven benefits of that from the health.
What are you doing to respond to it? Um, are you going to talk to a doctor to see if medication maybe is right for you? Um. It's often a combination of these things, and I will tell you that in talking to friends and family members and clients who have been and and are on GLP 1 meds, the skills are still a huge part of it, right?
They certainly don't change body image stuff, right? It doesn't make you go exercise, right? So there's these two huge pieces of your health and well being that it doesn't address. And it basically sets you up to be able to practice these skills. It gives what's called a more level playing field. And I've talked about this.
I did a whole ish, a whole [00:17:00] episode talking about Ozempic. And by Ozempic, I am using that as an, uh, catch all for all the GLP 1 meds. Like last summer, like a year and a half ago, I'll try to link that one too. Um, so I'm looking at my notes. Yeah. I'm like getting everything that I talked about. Um, the other piece that I want to talk about, how long have I been talking for?
I don't even know. Um, let's see here. Okay. Not too long. 18 minutes. Um, is willpower, right? Willpower is something that like we all talk about. I need to have more willpower around food. I need to have, I need to be more motivated. I'm so out of control. So, like, let's say you have. You know a whole bunch of sweets and snacks in your in your pantry and you are working from home And you're at your desk.
You're doing your work and you're thinking like the chips are there You're like, I want some chips. Don't eat the chips. I want chips. Don't eat the chips. When can I have the chips? When can I eat again? When is my next meal? I'm going to try not to have the chips at the meal, not having chips at the meal.
And then you're, then, then you [00:18:00] go down to eat your meal, your kitchen table and the chips and don't have chips, don't have the chips, don't have the chips. You can't have the chips, right? This is a form of food noise. And we're trying to use willpower to overcome it. Willpower is a finite resource that we can use for a very short period of time before It burns out.
It's kind of like a, I'm picturing like a stick of dynamite where it's like you light the end and it burns and it burns and it burns and then the whole thing explodes. It's kind of like that, right? It'll burn, it'll get you to a certain point, and then that's it. Like, explosion, nothing is happening.
Again, not to like, beat a dead horse, which I hate that expression, but just, you get the idea. Um, Skills are the only thing that are going to help you make these choices. And with skills, I am lumping structure into that. So if [00:19:00] you are trying to rely on just telling yourself, don't have that, don't have that, don't have that, don't have that, It's not gonna work.
It will work for a period of time until it doesn't anymore. Because very few humans can withstand that type of mental, constant mental stress in setting those rules when the urges are so strong and the urges are strong for lots of different reasons, right? Some of them are more biologically driven for certain people, and some of them are more driven because of the rules and the feelings we have around food.
Right? So, for a lot of us, we have just not taken the time to learn the skills because we keep trying to use a diet to fix everything, and I'm telling you, another diet is not going to change any of this. That is why you keep gaining and losing weight. That is why you keep paying for another supplement.
That is why you keep, like, buying this shit or signing up for these 30 day programs or whatever it is. It's not going to work. [00:20:00] And when I say work, I mean long term. I don't mean work for 30 days or six months. I don't even really mean work for a year. I mean work for, I'm gonna say forever, That's not to say that things don't ebb and flow because they do, but when you learn skills, you learn how to ride a bike, you know how to ride a bike forever, right?
You learn how to like cook or use a knife, you know how to do it forever. Sometimes you get a little rusty and you have to practice or whatnot, but when you learn these skills around food, they stay with you and they are the only thing that changes anything. So going on another diet is just another form of like trying to use willpower, trying to like white knuckle it.
You know that feeling where there's cake, leftover cake in the fridge, and you have said to yourself, you are not allowed to have that cake because you are trying to lose weight. And if you have that cake, you will not lose weight. So no cake for you. And then all you will do is sit on the couch and think about the cake.
I want the cake, but I can't have the cake. I want the cake, but I can't have the cake. And then you either successfully, [00:21:00] to you, don't have the cake and you're like so proud of yourself and you've made it through, or you can't hold on because the urge is so powerful and you go and eat the cake. Now in option A, You're only going to be able to do that so many times.
You might be able to do it one time or five times or even ten times, but you can't do it forever. And that is the point. You cannot tell yourself that you can't eat cake in your fridge for the rest of your life. It's impossible. It's literally impossible. Except for maybe like a very, very, very select few set of humans.
For the majority of people, that is not possible. It also sucks to not want to eat the cake. for a whole host of different reasons and end up eating it every time. Because it's there. Because you can't stop thinking about it. Not because you enjoy it, not because it tastes good, not because it's part of like a special family event or celebration or whatever or you're just happen to want a piece of your favorite cake.
but simply because it's there and you can't stop thinking about it. That's also [00:22:00] not a good reason to eat something, right? So the only way to deal with this is to be able to learn and move yourself through that discomfort. And that, and the way you do that is with values, is with learning how to think about food differently.
Not as cake is bad and broccoli is good, but cake is purely eaten for pleasure. And If I'm going to eat this cake, have I already had a meal? Have I had protein? Have I had veggies? Am I full? Am I putting that cake on a piece of plate? Am I sitting down at a table? Am I putting my phone away? Am I paying attention to every bite that I have?
Are you doing that? Have you tried that? If you haven't, then that's why you have food noise. Then, then nothing that, I'm not going to say nothing, but that's why you're feeling the way you're feeling. These are the skills. And I feel like I'm being like a little bit of tough love right now, but sometimes I just get so frustrated and I get it because I did this for years.
But if you want a different outcome, you have to take a different action, right? It's the most cliched thing in the book. And that is true for food. [00:23:00] So I've gone off on a bit of a tangent here, but it's all interconnected. And you can hear in my voice, like I'm getting so worked up because I feel so passionately about this.
And I see so many people suffering. And I see so many people doing the same things over and over again, and nothing is changing. And I want to like shake them and be like, You can't keep doing that. It doesn't fucking work. That's not how this works. And so with this buzz of food noise out there and this like, it's like this new hot word, I wanted to talk about it.
I wanted to normalize food noise and give you some resources to deal with it because a little bit of a tangent here for people who need or want to lose smaller amounts of weight who do not, I'm going to put it this way, who do not have obesity or do not have a con or a, comorbidity medical condition.
Right? Those are kind of the, um, the indicators for GLP 1s, right? Is your BMI, whatever, whether you agree with it or disagree with it, [00:24:00] that's how it is, like, diagnosed. Obesity is diagnosed as a BMI over 30. Overweight is between 25. 9 and 29. 9, and I know those numbers because I'm studying for my board exam right now and I have to know them.
And if it's overweight with a, um, what's the word? Like a, uh. another, another health condition, which can sometimes be high blood pressure, cholesterol stuff. I don't actually know all the different specifications, right? Those are people who qualify for GLP 1s. People who are, don't have either of those, or maybe who are in the overweight range, but don't have any of those, um, you know, other health conditions, or people who are not in the overweight range and want to lose weight, but struggle with food noise, there's a lot of options for you.
And these options, aren't even first line about weight loss, they're about your relationship with food. But then as you put them into practice, [00:25:00] weight loss will happen as a side effect. So a GLP 1 medication is not the only way to manage food noise. And I kind of feel like that's the vibe out there. It's like, Oh, I have food noise.
Maybe I should go on, on this medication. Maybe you should, maybe you do need to, right? This is, I think it's pretty clear that I'm not like, Like saying, like saying, don't do that, but you have to have the context and you have to be willing to do work alongside that. And you have to like really look and I think get a handle on, well, what is food noise?
Why do I have it? How loud and intense is my food noise? And have I tried any skills to deal with it? Right? Have I tried anything? Um, and for most, for if you're listening, you may have, and if you're new, if you're not listening, then who the fuck am I talking to? But if you haven't, if you've been listening to this podcast every episode, maybe this is your first one, and you haven't tried any of this stuff, [00:26:00] and you're frustrated, and you're sick of it, and you're sick of feeling this way around food, you've got to try something different.
I know it's hard. I know it feels sucky. I know it feels like work. I get it. And also, What you've been doing is also hard and sucky. So they're like the expression like choose your hard. Are you gonna choose your hard? That's gonna help you feel better in your body and show up is like who you really are as a person.
Are you gonna choose the hard that keeps you stuck in the same fucking hamster wheel? That it has kept you in for years and is going to keep you in for years. I went off on like a major tangent on this. I got really fired up. That's because I'm so passionate about this work. I know how transformative Transcribed by https: otter.
ai It can be for people. I also know how hard it is to show up and do it. So I do not take that lightly. I know it's scary. Start with one thing, one skill. If you're not sure where to start, reach out to me. I'm always here. I have 197 podcast episodes talking about it. That can feel kind of overwhelming. I get it.
Um, [00:27:00] but you're not alone. And I feel like the thing I kind of talked about at different points in this episode but never really fully dove into was like my personal experience with food noise. Like, I did a little bit. Um, but what I will tell you is that I always thought that a diet was the answer. Like, when I did isogenics, which is like a shake based thing and then basically starving yourself for four days out of every month, I I always thought that was it.
I remember probably eight or nine years ago, or maybe ten years ago, telling my mom and my best friend at the time, and Danny, that I was not eating sugar. I literally wrote out a contract for myself. And that if they saw me eating sugar, or that if I asked to eat sugar, they were to explicitly tell me, no, you're not allowed to do that.
I actually did this. And then I remember being on vacation with my parents and wanting to have cake for dessert, and my mom said something to me, as I had asked her to do, and I was like, just leave me alone. I'm doing it anyway. Right? Because that type of rigidity and restriction doesn't work. Because the food noise was so loud that I couldn't not [00:28:00] eat that piece of cake in that moment.
I just wanted it, because I had no other skills. Restriction, telling yourself no, not allowing yourself to eat things, is the worst possible thing that you can do. That would really be, that is contributing
so intensely and so powerfully to your food noise. And so learning how to give yourself permission with structure, right? This is not, and this is not a bash on intuitive eating at all, but this is not the intuitive eating model where it's like, oh, you want a cupcake? Eat all the cupcakes you want. I'm not advocating for that.
I'm advocating that if you want a cupcake, you have a cupcake. After you've eaten a nutritious feeling meal that you enjoy and then you take that cupcake and you put it on a plate and you sit at a table and you don't have your phone in front of you and you take a bite of that cupcake and you pay attention to like, how am I experiencing this?
Does it taste good? Do I like it? And then I take another bite. Maybe you finish it. Maybe you don't. And then if [00:29:00] you want another cupcake after that, you set a timer and you wait and you see what happens. Do I actually still want this cupcake or do I just think that I want this cupcake? We put a lot of structure into place alongside these skills.
It's not a free for all, but I think that's, I think that's such an important thing, is you are in some ways contributing to your own food noise. There's the environment, there's culture, there's society, there's the food manufacturers. The reality is we can't really change a lot of that. We can only change what's going on with us.
And so that's where you have to start. And you have to take responsibility for that. Ends. You can do it. I believe in you. Okay, now I'm going to stop talking because I feel like I've like really said everything I wanted to say. Thank you for listening. I hope this was helpful. If you've got questions, if you're not sure, if you don't know what your level of food noise is, or you want to talk about it, I'm always here.
Send me a DM. That's kind of the best way to reach out or an email. And I'll be back soon. Next week.