Food Noise: Why You Can’t Stop Thinking About Food |
“Food noise” refers to persistent and intrusive thoughts about food, including thoughts of your next meal, intense cravings, and anxiety about not having access to food. Food noise occurs even in the absence of hunger. Some people experience food noise nearly constantly. Food noise is not only distracting, but it also makes it very difficult to stick to a healthy diet.
Food noise is driven by appetite hormones1 and dopamine,2 a neurotransmitter that manages the brain’s reward system. People naturally vary in appetite hormone levels and in the impact of food on dopamine. This is why some people have insatiable appetites, whereas others barely notice the urge to eat.3 People with hefty appetites sometimes get shamed by people with smaller appetites, but the truth is that appetite is heavily driven by biology.1 Also biologically determined is the size of the dopamine hit a person gets from food, and the bigger the hit, the more intense the food noise. We can’t change our neurobiology, but there are other factors that affect food noise that we can control.
If you struggle with........