Food noise, or the internal “chatter” about food many people experience, wasn’t something many people talked about before weight-loss injections became so widely available. But as more and more people are using GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro, it’s become a major topic of discussion.
These drugs have proved to be incredibly effective at reducing food noise because they’re designed to regulate our appetites and suppress reward-seeking behaviour. A 2023 study in the journal Nutrients concluded: “Despite the lack of systematic research on the phenomenon of ‘food noise’, there is growing anecdotal evidence that the use of GLP-1RAs, particularly semaglutide [Wegovy’s medical name], might reduce ‘food noise’.”
Laura, who is 44 and from Streatham, says she has lived with food noise for “as long as she can remember”. She describes it as a “combination of impulses related to food and just a kind of ambient background hum about food since she was a kid”.
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Food noise impacts Laura’s life every day. “It’s a huge distraction; it takes up a lot of my mental capacity. It can ruin events and social occasions where food is present or available because I feel so distracted by it. I don’t really suffer from anxiety but food can make me anxious, mostly the thought of not getting enough,” she explains.
