Bite Back with Abbey Sharp - Is Food Noise Just Hunger We’ve Been Conditioned Not to Trust? A RDs Honest - Yet Controversial Take

Starting point is 00:00:00 My rec league goalie says he plays for the love of the game. You gave up six goals last week, Steve? Maybe play to win, huh? Like with Bet365, I get paid the second my team goes up big with early payout and can cash out at any time before the game ends. Steve, Bet365, the home of winning early. Must be 19 and older, Ontario only. Please play responsibly.

Starting point is 00:00:23 If you were someone you know is concerns about gambling, visit connectsontario.ca or call 1866-5-1-2-6-600. Terms and conditions apply. Your body might not be broken. It just might be grossly underfed. Welcome to another episode of Bite Back with Abby Sharp, where I dismantle Diet Culture Rules, call out the charlatans spinning the pseudoscience and help you achieve food freedom for good. Today we are talking about food noise, and a widely recognized phrase that I have some very complicated feelings about. Because on the one hand, it has given people language for something that is genuinely so exhausting.

Starting point is 00:01:08 So the constant mental chatter about food, cravings, rules, guilt, and what you are going to eat next. And that validation is critical for evidence-based obesity care. But not unlike a lot of other well-intentioned concepts, it has very quickly been co-opted by die culture and the wellness industry to make normal appetite, hunger, cravings, and even pleasure, sound like psychological symptoms that need to be snuffed out. In today's solo episode, we're going to be interrogating this new mainstream phase food noise, and instead of simply asking, how do we eradicate or fix it, we're going to ask how much of it actually needs fixing, and how much of it is simply a critical survival tool that we've been socialized to distrust. Okay, friend, I also want to remind you that if you

Starting point is 00:02:04 are not already, I would really appreciate if you would hit that follow button so you get notifications whenever I release a new episode. And if you want more visual diaculture discussions, check out my social platforms at Abbey's Kitchen. All right, friend, let's get into it. Okay, so I usually like to set the stage in these conversations with, clear definitions. But according to our 2025 paper in the International Journal of Obesity, it isn't so cut and dry here as our scientific definition of food noise hasn't yet caught up to its cultural use. But generally, when people say food noise, they are usually talking about the persistent, intrusive, unwanted, or hard to ignore thoughts about food. That can include

Starting point is 00:02:53 cravings, urges to eat, preoccupation with what you're going to eat next, difficulty feeling satisfied, or the feeling that food is taking up more mental real estate than you would like it to. And while we're still very early in scientific discussions around food noise explicitly, the GLB1 receptor agonist boom has stimulated a lot of interest in its pathology. So let's talk about the biological side of food noise. So the aptite, satiety, reward, and Q reactivity pathways that JLP1 medications seem to influence. So right now we know that JLP1 receptor agonists like OZembek induce weight loss by reducing energy intake, partially by slowing gastric emptying, partially by improving glucose regulation, and most important to this conversation,

Starting point is 00:03:45 by acting on brain reward circuits like the ventral tegmental area, nucleus, accumbens, and the Mesolimbic dopamine system. So one of the results here is that food cues, which are a key driver of food noise, just feel less urgent and less magnetic. Now, a lot of research in this area has been on animal models, but we actually did just get an early human study on folks with severe obesity and binge eating type symptoms, where they used implanted brain electrodes to track the reward. center activities. The researchers found that severe food preoccupation was associated with low

Starting point is 00:04:28 frequency activity in the nucleus accumbens and that the GLP1 tier Zepatide at least temporarily helped to suppress it. And while we're a long way from explicitly testing everyone's nucleus accumbens for abnormal activity, we are slowly inching towards establishing kind of food noise genes that seem to play a role in taste perception, appetite and satiety, emotional eating, disinhibition, snacking, craving, and binge eating. Some of our best research so far has been on the genes that affect the leptin melanocortin pathway, like variants of the MC4R gene, which has been associated with emotional eating, food cravings, binge eating, and hedonic eating.

Starting point is 00:05:15 FTO is another famous obesity-associated gene related to. satiety responsiveness and preference for energy-dense foods. Now we're still a long way from establishing an explicit quote-quote food noise phenotype, but there is a lot of interest in using gene mapping to help determine who may be the most likely to benefit from GLP-1s based on their biology. But not all food noise can be pinned on a pathological reward circuit disruption. This is where we need to address the well-established role of restriction in amplifying food noise. One of the earliest and most famous studies to explain the impact of deprivation on food preoccupation was the Minnesota starvation experiment. In this arguably unethical study, 36 healthy men were put through a period of severe caloric restriction.

Starting point is 00:06:13 So I'm talking like half their calorie needs plus 22 miles of walking through. per week. And again, these were healthy men in healthy baseline body weights with no histories of disordered eating. Within weeks, they became deeply obsessed with food. So they collected recipes and cookbooks, they talked compulsively about their favorite meals, they developed rigid and strange food rituals and habits like hoarding, stealing and sneaking food. And when they did get access to food during the refeating phase, they binged to the point of making themselves sick. And perhaps most shockingly, the food noise didn't just disappear the moment that they were refed. For some men, aptite dysregulation, obsessive food thoughts, and binge-like urges persisted

Starting point is 00:07:05 years into recovery. Helping researchers understand that the psychological effects of restriction can well outlast the restriction itself. And this is why I think the Minnesota study is still so relevant to the food noise conversation today because it shows that food preoccupation can be generated by deprivation. It can be a response to scarcity. It can be the brain basically doing exactly

Starting point is 00:07:35 what it's supposed to do when it thinks that food access is threatened. So before we can call every intrusive food thought a pathology, we really have to ask, has this person's body, brain, or food environment been giving them a reason to feel deeply deprived? And here's the ugly truth that modern wellness culture doesn't like to address. You don't need to be physically starving for food to become very loud. Psychological restriction is basically what happens when a food is technically available, but emotionally forbidden. So you can eat the cookie, but only if it's gluten-free,

Starting point is 00:08:16 dairy-free, sugar-free, seed-oil-free, and fortified with organic protein and fiber. And what the restraint literature suggests is that rigid food rules, even when they don't result in severe caloric restriction, often result in hyperfixation, obsession, and eventually a binge. And this is a really important part of the conversation that people love to ignore because we might be able to recognize food noise when it sounds like, I'm hungry all the time and I can't stop thinking about chips. But culturally, we might normalize or even morally celebrate food noise when it sounds like, I can't stop thinking about whether these chips were fried in canola oil instead of coconut. And we do this even when the follow-up thoughts are massively distressing. So we may think, well,

Starting point is 00:09:05 What does it say about me if I eat the processed chips? Will I lose control if I eat the chips? Maybe I should just give my friends a lecture about why seed oils are so bad. Oh, never mind. I already had two. I guess the day is completely ruined. I might as well eat like three bags. This is a pattern that we often see in eating disorders like orthorexia, where the original goal might be less about caloric control and more about perceived diet quality control,

Starting point is 00:09:29 but the volume of the food noise might be equally as loud. So if food noise can stem from deprivation, from forbidden foods, from rigid food rules, from the anxiety of trying to eat, quote, quote, perfectly, and from clinical eating disorders, then the solution cannot be to just simply turn appetite off. And to be clear, this does not mean that GLP ones could never have a role in someone, you know, with binge eating disorder or binge restrict cycling or severe reward-driven food preoccupation. I mean, this is actually an emerging area of research, and for some people, reducing the intensity of urges may create space for healing. But in eating disorder care, context is everything. And for a lot of

Starting point is 00:10:22 folks with eating disorder tendencies or eating disorders, simply turning appetite off could be devastatingly dangerous. Under normal non-medicated circumstances, under eating often triggers critical body data that something is not right. So you might feel irritable or ravenous, foggy, have a preoccupation with food, or feel that you are consumed by cravings. And as uncomfortable as those symptoms may be, they're also really good information, right? They tell us that the body is fighting back. But if you pharmacologically suppress appetite and food preoccupation, someone might think oh, I'm finally recovered, I'm finally in control, when in reality, their brain might just not be getting the message that it's time to fight. It's like taking the batteries out of the smoke alarm while the house is still on fire.

Starting point is 00:11:22 Like, if survival is the goal, that's not what you want. And unfortunately, widespread access makes all of this a lot more scary. You know, a lot of folks taking GLP-1s are not being carefully screened and false. followed by an eating disorder-informed medical team. They might just be filling out a brief online form and getting the medication delivered to their door. And because eating disorders are already illnesses of concealment and deception, it is not hard for someone who is actively struggling to minimize their symptoms, manipulate a screener, or present restriction as health goals.

Starting point is 00:12:02 You know, in pro-A-NA and disordered eating online spaces, people are openly discussing OZempe, Wegovi, Mongero, and compound and stemyl glutide as tools to suppress hunger and eat less and fake eligibility and just make restriction a hell of a lot easier. Now, that does not mean that every person using a GLP1 is misusing it, but it does mean that the same drug that can relieve one person's debilitating food preoccupation can become a symptom-enabling tool for another. And to make all of this even more complicated to figure out a method of safe, responsible prescription and use, we also have to acknowledge that for a lot of people, food noise isn't just the result of reward signal dysfunction or diet culture, but often it's the intersection

Starting point is 00:12:55 of the two at once. So people who may be genetically more prone to stronger hunger, lower satiety, higher food reward, bigger cravings, and more food queue reactivity, are often the very people who were told from childhood that their appetite was too much, that their body was too big, that their hunger needed to be controlled. So they spent years engaging in disordered eating behaviors while trying to outdiscipline an appetite system that may already be more sensitive. And over time, that just creates this impossible loop, right? So the biological predisposition makes food louder, the person restricts to manage it, the restriction makes food noise even louder, and then the increased food noise gets interpreted as proof that they cannot be trusted around food. And that means that screening

Starting point is 00:13:51 can't just be like, what's your BMI? Have you ever been diagnosed with anorexia? Are you trying to lose weight? Like, it needs to be asking about things like weight cycling, binge restrict patterns, fasting, purging, laxative or diuretic cues, compulsive exercise, fear of weight gain, body checking, safe foods, social avoidance, guilt after eating, orthorexic rules, and whether the person is hoping the medication will help them nourish themselves more consistently or simply help them eat as little as possible. Because two people can both say, I want less food noise and mean completely different things. So in my professional opinion, if we want these drugs to be used safely, we need to shift the goal from simply eliminating food noise to creating enough mental space

Starting point is 00:14:44 for nourishment, flexibility, body trust, and a more peaceful relationship with food. And that brings me to what I want leave you with. Because if you're watching or listening right now, you probably have or have had a complicated relationship with food. Until we have more sophisticated testing, screening, and best practice guidance, we are basically at best just making an estimated guess about whether a medication like Ozempic is the right antidote to your food noise. But I want to leave you some questions to ask yourself to try to tease apart your food noise origin. story before you jump into a GLP1. First, when is food noise the loudest? Is it super loud when you skip breakfast, delay lunch, cut carbs, eat quang quote clean, track your calories, or make your

Starting point is 00:15:37 favorite foods off limits? If your answer is yes, your food noise may be less about a broken reward circuit and more about the fact that your body or brain does not feel fed, safe, or permitted. Second, what does the food noise actually sound like? Is it saying, I want that food, but if I eat it, I failed? Or is it more like an intrusive, compulsive pull towards a food that persists even when you are adequately fed and not restricting? Because those are very different kinds of noise that likely need very different kinds of care. Third, does eating enough make the food noise better or worse. If consistent meals with adequate fat, protein carbs, total energy, and satisfaction starts to quiet the noise, it suggests that the antidote may not be appetite

Starting point is 00:16:32 suppression, but appetite permission. And if the noise persists even when you are regularly fed, physically satisfied, and not living under rigid food rules, then maybe there's something else to explore here, whether that be, you know, ADHD, trauma, stress, sleep, metabolic health, medication effects, or reward sensitivity. Fourth, what are you hoping the medication will do? Are you hoping that it will reduce the chaos enough that you can eat more consistently, binge less, care for your health, and make a more peaceful relationship with food? Or are you hoping that it will help you want less, need less, eat less, weight less, and finally become the kind of person who doesn't have to think about nourishment at all. Because those might sound similar on the surface,

Starting point is 00:17:25 but psychologically, they are very different goals. Fifth, would you still want help for your food noise even if weight loss was not part of the outcome? If you genuinely want more peace, less compulsion, less distress, more flexibility, and a life that is not organized around food. I would say that pharmacological options are definitely worth exploring with your doctor. But if the main appeal is that the medication may make restriction easier or weight loss a lot faster, then we may just want to dive a little bit deeper and be honest about whether or not this is actually about healing food noise. Yes, a weight loss goal on its own may be absolutely warranted depending on all of the other factors, but it might also just be diet culture or

Starting point is 00:18:13 disorder eating looking for a stronger tool. And that's worth exploring. Sixth, is your life expanding or shrinking? Since trying to manage your food noise, whether through dieting, rules, tracking, supplements, or medication, are you eating with more flexibility, improved consistency, less guilt, and feeling more present in your body and your life? Or are you of very, avoiding more foods and socializing less, becoming more rigid, body checking more, fearing hunger more, or feeling proud of how little you can get by on. Because recovery should make your life bigger, not smaller. And finally, if the food noise got quiet, what would you do to fill that space? Would you use it to build trust with your body? Practice eating enough, reintroduce fear foods,

Starting point is 00:19:03 reduce shame, and create a more stable relationship with nourishment? Or would you capitalize on the quiet to restrict further, eat less, and shrink as quickly and dramatically as possible? As someone who has been allowed supporter of these medications for the right people, I believe that the goal should not be to simply shut your body up, but to better understand the messages your body has been trying to give you. And if a medication helps turn the volume down enough for you, to listen with more compassion, support, and clarity? That may be a really meaningful tool.

Starting point is 00:19:41 But if it turns the volume down so you can ignore your body even more efficiently, that is not food freedom? That, my friends, is just a quieter cage. And on that note, that is all for today's episode of Biteback. If this resonated with you, I would love if you would send this to someone who has ever thought their appetite was their enemy. And if you want more evidence-based, anti-diet conversations that still let us be critical, curious, and occasionally a little petty about wellness culture. Definitely make sure that you're subscribed. But signing off with Science and SASS, I'm Abby Sharp. Thanks for listening. And here's the legal language here, folks. But everything that you saw or heard in this episode is for entertainment and educational purposes only. It is

Starting point is 00:20:27 never a replacement for medical advice. So I always recommend working one-on-one with health provider for your unique needs. My reg league goalie says he plays for the love of the game. You gave up six goals last week, Steve. Maybe play to win, huh? Like with Bet365. I get paid the second my team goes up big with early payout and can cash out at any time before the game ends.

Starting point is 00:20:52 Come on, Steve. Bet365, the home of winning early. Must be 19 and older. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you were someone you know is concerns about gambling, visit connectsontario. or call 1866 5 through 1,2,600. Terms and conditions apply.

Bite Back with Abbey Sharp - Is Food Noise Just Hunger We’ve Been Conditioned Not to Trust? A RDs Honest - Yet Controversial Take

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