Is food your focus?
Food noise is a formidable foe for those looking to lose weight. It refers to intrusive, obsessive thoughts about food that disrupt daily life, making mindful, healthy eating challenging. The food-centric inner voice can promote the urge to eat even when people are not hungry.
While the term is something of a buzzword, the cause and effect are long-standing, gaining — pun intended — considerable notoriety on the heels of trendy new medications for weight loss like Ozempic and Wegovy, with users reporting the end of the cuisine-compulsive chatter.
But how can we silence the deluge of snack speak without medical intervention?
Dr. Jennah (@weightdoc) has taken to TikTok to share her tips for managing food noise cold turkey… without thinking about a turkey club.
“Yes, there are ways you can manage food noise,” she promised her 309,000 followers.
Jennah explained that the first defense against food noise is modifying food cues by changing the environment.
“This will involve figuring out what our triggers are and if it’s things like commercials on TV, not watching those, not listening to those. If it’s having food in the house that becomes irresistible, not keeping it in the house,” she said.
Armed with the knowledge that ice cream and potato chips are just as addictive as cocaine, folks can choose to keep their cabinets and freezers free of them and full of easy-to-prepare, nutrient-rich foods.
While banishing bad-for-you foods is generally a step in the right direction, Jennah noted that restrictive diets, eliminating entire food groups and intermittent fasting can actually amplify food noise.
She urged her followers to focus on following hunger cues, proper nutrition “and eating in a way that you will feel fuller longer, so high protein, high fiber.”
Fiber promotes regular bowel movements, supports gut health, aids in weight management, stabilizes blood sugar levels and can lower cholesterol levels, yet only 7% of Americans eat the recommended daily amount.
A new study from Stanford Medicine underscores the importance of dietary fiber, as it not only supports healthy weight loss but may also reduce the risk of cancer by altering gene activity.
Protein takes longer to digest than simple carbohydrates and helps stabilize blood sugar levels. High-protein foods include chicken, turkey, salmon, tuna, tofu, chickpeas, lentils, milk, yogurt, walnuts and pumpkin seeds.
The Recommended Dietary Allowance is 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight — or 0.36 grams per pound. For a 150-pound person, that’s 54 grams of protein daily.
Timing your protein intake may also be key to reaching your health goals.
Smaller meals spaced closer together can also be an effective way to keep edible echoes at bay.
Jennah added that meal prepping and planning nutritious meals and snacks can also help keep you on track and out of the food feedback loop.
She noted that beyond food intake, it’s crucial to get adequate sleep and manage stress to silence intrusive and obsessive food thoughts.
Research has shown that getting a good night’s sleep helps reduce caloric intake by up to 500 calories a day. If sleeping habits are maintained, this reduction could translate to a weight loss of around 26 pounds over three years.
A recent study confirms that people who frequently feel stressed or overwhelmed can develop a dependency on bad-for-you comfort foods. Research published in the journal Neuron said that stress can override the components of the brain that treat sweets and junk food as occasional rewards, making us crave them every day.
Managing stress with relaxing music, outdoor activity, deep breathing and silent meditation has also proven effective at dulling the din of food noise.
