The rising popularity of GLP-1 drugs for weight loss has given way to a new phenomenon that health researchers are just beginning to investigate.
The term “food noise” emerged in anecdotal reports from some people who say that once they began using the medications, which can be injected or taken in pill form, internal thoughts around food and eating habits unexpectedly diminished.
“It’s an extremely new term, and it really gained popularity in the past few years as people using these medications were reporting less intrusive and repetitive mental noise around food,” says Matthew Breit, PhD, RDN, a post-doctoral researcher and registered dietitian at the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine who specializes in nutrition and lifestyle weight loss intervention.
At the CU Anschutz Health and Wellness Center, Breit counsels individuals on the importance of lifestyle in on-going clinical trials with “triple agonists,” experimental metabolic medications that target three receptors in the brain and body (GLP-1, GIP, and glucagon) to reduce body weight. In one study of retatrutide, the newest type of triple agonist weight-loss drug, studies found that people lose an average of 30% of their body weight over 80 weeks.
Many of the people enrolled in the studies say the absence of food noise plays a role in their weight loss journey.
“One of the best ways I can explain it is that it’s canceling the chatter around eating and hunger,” says Breit, who shares the same experience as the trial participants he works with. He also took a GLP-1 medication for weight loss and health purposes.
“I spent much more of my life thinking about food than I realized. After taking the lowest dose, I suddenly just didn’t want to eat, which was an experience I’ve never had before,” he adds. “It’s almost like living in someone else’s brain. Food still tastes good, but the desire to keep eating has disappeared. I walk past candy without thinking about it or leave food on my plate without a second thought. This shift is genuinely revelatory.”
In clinical research across CU Anschutz, Breit and others are examining food noise to better understand its role in nutrition, weight loss, and overall health.
The knowns and unknowns of food noise
Currently, one of the best ways to understand food noise is through self-report questionnaires, Breit says. In ongoing trials at CU Anschutz, Breit helps develop and administer these surveys, which are becoming the foundation for further research.
Because the term “food noise” is so new, researchers are starting at the very beginning to find a common definition.
In 2024, a group of researchers convened an expert panel at the America Society of Nutrition meeting to define the term and discuss and characterize measurement tools and future research directions.
They landed on food noise being defined as “persistent thoughts about food that are perceived by the individual as being unwanted and/or dysphoric and may cause harm to the individual, including social, mental, or physical problems.”
Various researchers have proposed differing definitions, some arguing that genetics and hormonal factors are also relevant mechanisms.
Researchers tend to agree that food noise can be exacerbated by various factors, including specific diets and environmental cues, like the presence of food marketing. Some researchers also say food noise does not seem to be hunger-induced, though hunger may play a role at times.
“It overlaps with craving, but it’s broader and more persistent,” Breit says. “Cravings are episodic, like wanting chocolate dessert after dinner, but food noise is constant food-related mental chatter 24-7. A helpful analogy is that food noise is like constant background music in your brain, always playing, even when you’re not physically hungry. Cravings are more like specific songs that come on intermittently.”
In this analogy, Breit adds, semaglutide and tirzepatide medications act like noise-canceling headphones.
There are still many questions of the underlying cause and drivers of food noise. While GLP-1 medications have also had success in curbing addiction cravings in some patients, Breit says researchers are cautious to not oversimplify the cognitive effects of these medications. It’s possible that different mechanisms may be at play.
‘The brain drives behaviors’
Learning more about how weight loss medications affect the brain has become a major focus for Allison Shapiro, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of pediatric endocrinology, who researches the neural, behavioral, and cognitive drivers and consequences of pediatric obesity and type 2 diabetes.
“The brain drives behaviors, we know that,” she says. “How can that be leveraged to help people manage their diabetes, obesity, or other factors that put them at risk for metabolic outcomes that are less favorable for long-term health? That’s what we want to know.”
In a forthcoming clinical trial at CU Anschutz set to begin enrollment in early 2027, Shapiro will lead a group of researchers in investigating how GLP-1s affect functions in the brain that impact appetite control in children versus adults. The group’s hypothesis, Shapiro says, is that adolescents with obesity will demonstrate different neural and behavioral responses to GLP-1 treatment, relative to adults.
“We’ll incorporate measures of food noise to enhance our understanding because there is so little known about this phenomenon, especially in pediatrics,” she says. “We're going to compare adolescents and adults and bring in the science of brain plasticity. Adolescents are very plastic; young adults less so. Our goal is to see whether there is a differential impact on brain function from these drugs, depending on where you are in your neurodevelopmental trajectory.”
Turning to social media
Some GLP-1 users have turned to social media to share their own experiences with food noise, shining a light on the cultural aspects of the phenomenon. For health researchers, the way people talk about food noise and GLP-1s on the internet has become an important piece of understanding the phenomenon.
One study published by investigators at Pennsylvania State University this year examined how patients are turning to TikTok to share their experiences with food noise. Because many users are adolescents and emerging adults, the researchers suggest some viewers of this food noise-focused content may not be able to “clearly distinguish food noise from normal hunger and appetite cues.”
This is also a concern for Shapiro and her work in pediatrics. She says, “understanding these medications from a brain and behavioral perspective is critical, especially for children.”
“Future research is needed to further understand the experiences reported by patients around food noise and how they understand and use the term beyond social media,” the Pennsylvania researchers say in their paper. “Additionally, by refining their understanding of food noise as a determinant of human eating behavior and patient well-being, researchers and clinicians should leverage this knowledge to develop ways to assess and address food noise to improve patient outcomes.”
Furthering health science
Like Breit, Shapiro believes understanding the science of food noise will be beneficial for overall health research, helping patients manage diabetes and obesity, and understanding how medications impact different patient populations.
“The purpose of our trial here at CU Anschutz is really to help inform, especially in pediatric populations, how we leverage the brain and subsequent behaviors to create and develop different clinical protocols, so maybe adolescents don't have to be on these drugs the rest of their lives,” Shapiro says. “I also think this will be beneficial for adult populations, too.”
