It is natural to think about food when you are hungry. These intrusive thoughts disappear after you eat. On the other hand, food noise dominates your thoughts, making you think about food ingestion excessively. You obsess over what to eat right now, what to eat for your next meal, how soon you should eat, etc.

Food cues can be external or internal. Environmental influences, such as seeing a fast-food advert or smelling freshly baked cookies, and internal cues, such as hormones that control appetite and hunger, can amplify thoughts about food.

In this article, we will explore how hormonal imbalances bring about food noise and how you can control the noise.

 

What are the causes of hormonal imbalances?

Hormones are chemicals that are produced by your body’s endocrine system. These chemicals deliver vital messages to your organs, telling the organs what to do and when to do it.

Since hormones control critical bodily processes, any imbalance in these vital chemicals can affect multiple body functions.

Hormonal imbalance occurs when you have too little or too much of one or multiple hormones. The condition can be temporary or permanent.

Most people will encounter natural hormonal fluctuations at some point in their life. Natural changes such as puberty, pregnancy, menopause, menstruation, and andropause can cause hormonal changes.

However, hormonal fluctuations can also be influenced by lifestyle, environment, and medical conditions. 

Learn more about the common causes of hormonal imbalances below: 

 

• • Stress: When you are stressed, your body produces cortisol. This stress hormone can limit insulin secretion, thus reducing the quantity of insulin in your bloodstream.
  • Diet: You can alter the hormonal balance in your body when you eat excessive unhealthy fats, processed foods, and sugars. Also, the hormonal balance in your body may change when you fail to eat enough foods that offer minerals and vitamins, such as iodine, vitamin D, and zinc. 
  • Medical conditions: Certain medical conditions can interfere with how your body produces and regulates hormones. These conditions include polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), diabetes, hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, Cushing’s syndrome, and Addison’s disease.
  • Medications: Medications and treatments, such as birth control pills, steroids, and cancer treatments, can interfere with how your body produces and regulates hormones.
  • Weight-related issues: Obesity can alter the balance of hormones in your bloodstream, such as insulin and estrogen.
  • Sleep deprivation: If you don’t get adequate sleep every night, your body may fail to regulate hormones related to stress, growth, and appetite. As a result, there may be an imbalance in cortisol, ghrelin, and leptin in your body.
  • Environmental toxins: If you are exposed to pollutants, such as chemical pesticides, herbicides, and other chemicals, for a long time, the pollutants can affect your body’s hormone production processes.
  • Physical activity levels: Men who exercise often may have higher testosterone levels than those who don’t. A sedentary lifestyle can also result in insulin resistance.

 

How do hormonal imbalances contribute to food noise?

Hormonal imbalances can increase intrusive thoughts about food. Here is how:

 

• Ghrelin: Ghrelin is an appetite-stimulating hormone. When your stomach is empty, the hormone signals your brain that it’s time to eat; hence, you start feeling hungry. Ghrelin levels increase when your stomach is empty and reduce when your stomach is full. You may have constant thoughts about food, and your food cue reactivity may increase if your ghrelin levels are always high.
• Leptin: Leptin offers a satiety signal to your brain when your stomach is full, preventing the need for you to continue eating. People with leptin resistance tend to eat more because they feel hungry most of the time.
• Cortisol: High cortisol levels can amplify food noise, as the high levels make you crave foods with lots of fat and sugar.
• Insulin: Insulin helps control blood glucose levels. When your body’s cells fail to respond to insulin as they should, the blood sugar levels fluctuate, making you feel more hungry and intensifying food noise.
• Serotonin and Dopamine: Serotonin and dopamine are sometimes called the “feel-good hormones.” These hormones control your mood and the reward system in your brain. When their levels are low, you may feel low and unhappy. For this reason, people tend to consume food to feel good.

 

Other causes of food noise

 

Two major factors amplify food noise and make you want to eat: homeostatic hunger and reward-based hunger.

Homeostatic hunger occurs when your energy stores are reduced because you haven’t eaten for a lengthy period. You start feeling hungry because your body needs more energy to continue functioning properly. When the energy balance is achieved, hunger disappears. 

On the other hand, reward-based hunger is tied to your body’s reward pathways. You feel driven to eat something because you feel good when you eat.

Under these two major causes of food noise, we have the following:

 

• Habitual patterns: Habits can cause compulsive behaviors. Habitual eating patterns can trigger your brain to start thinking about food when certain triggers occur. For instance, if you love eating a certain snack while watching TV, your body will start prompting you to eat that snack every time you switch on the TV. Also, triggers such as food pictures can increase food noise.
• Dieting: People looking to lose weight may opt for severe calorie restriction as a way to manage their weight. This method can make you feel hungry often, thus causing more food noise.
• Poor mental well-being: You may want to eat your favorite food to feel good when you are experiencing a prolonged period of sadness. Unfortunately, excessive food noise can also affect your mental health.
• Ultra-processed foods: Ultra-processed and highly palatable foods may make you feel good, triggering the desire for more of them.

 

What are the treatment options for hormonal imbalances?

The treatment option for hormonal imbalance that your doctor will prescribe will depend on what is causing hormonal imbalance in your body. 

If your hormonal levels are lower than optimum levels, your doctor may suggest you go for hormone replacement therapy, take oral medication, or take injection medication.

If your hormonal levels are higher than optimum levels, your doctor may recommend medication, surgery, or radiation therapy. 

Additionally, you can address hormonal imbalance naturally by getting enough sleep, managing stress, exercising, avoiding sugars, eating healthy fats, quitting smoking, and avoiding overeating.

 

How to reduce food noise through hormonal regulation

You can control food noise by managing the hormones in your body that regulate hunger and satiety.

 

• Firstly, consider maintaining a healthy body weight to avoid leptin resistance. Obesity can cause leptin resistance, making you feel hungry more often than usual.
• Secondly, eat protein-rich meals to reduce the ghrelin levels. Reducing ghrelin levels ensures you don’t feel hungry often.
• Thirdly, avoid excessive refined carbs and sugar to prevent insulin crashes and spikes. Insulin imbalance is associated with increased hunger. Therefore, by controlling the imbalance, you protect yourself from feeling excessively hungry.

 

New weight loss drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro are some of the treatments that an obesity medicine specialist may recommend to help control food noise. These weight loss drugs imitate the hormone GLP-1, which is a naturally occurring hormone in the gastrointestinal tract that is responsible for slowing gastric emptying and controlling blood sugar levels, thus allowing you to feel full for a long time. Visit LA ViE MD to learn more about semaglutide medications and how they can help you regulate food noise.

 

Other practical ways to reduce food noise

You can quiet down the constant thoughts about food by adopting lifestyle changes such as:

 

Maintaining a balanced diet

Remember to incorporate enough protein, fiber, and healthy fats in your meals. These nutrients make you feel full for an extended period, eliminating the need to eat regularly. Also, avoid highly processed foods as they tend to cause blood sugar crashes and spikes, which can intensify hunger and cravings.

 

Managing stress

You may eat more food when you are stressed in an attempt to feel better. Consider practicing meditation, deep breathing, and yoga to keep your stress levels in check. This helps to avoid emotional eating.

 

Getting adequate sleep every night

If you don’t enjoy deep, uninterrupted sleep every night, your ghrelin levels may go up while your leptin levels may reduce. The imbalance in these hormones can make you think about food too much.

 

Practicing mindful eating behavior

When you sit down to eat, focus on eating and avoid any distractions. By focusing fully on eating, you will enjoy your food more and easily notice when you are full. This helps to quiet down the desire to grab some snacks every few minutes.

 

Avoiding skipping meals

When you skip meals, food noise increases because you feel extremely hungry. Avoid skipping meals to quiet down the noise and avoid overeating.

 

Avoiding eating trigger foods

High-fat and high-sugar foods can intensify your food cravings, as they stimulate the part of your brain involved with reward mechanisms. To avoid thinking about food often, stop eating these high-sugar and high-fat foods and swap them with whole foods, such as nuts, fruits, and yogurt.

 

Distracting yourself

When your mind starts thinking about food, engage in other activities that you like, such as reading, running, or walking, to distract your thoughts. You can also keep a journal and note down when food noise usually occurs and what triggers the noise. Tracking these food-related triggers helps you avoid them.

 

Opting for Semaglutide

Semaglutide is one of the available medications that help to address food noise and weight management. It is one of the GLP-1 receptor agonists that reduces obsessive preoccupation with food. 

The treatment helps to reduce appetite by making you feel full when you eat small portions of food, thus reducing food noise and weight gain. Semaglutide also stabilizes blood sugar levels, thus reducing the cravings for high-calorie and sugary foods. Semaglutide can also help you maintain a healthy weight.

 

Takeaway: Get that food noise under control with LA ViE MD

Food noise can be caused by hormonal imbalance, habitual patterns, dieting, poor mental well-being, and ultra-processed foods. If not controlled, food noise can contribute to the development of eating disorders.

You can address food noise through hormonal regulation, managing stress, getting adequate sleep every night, practicing mindful eating, avoiding skipping meals, avoiding eating trigger foods, opting for Semaglutide, and distracting yourself.

As you work to quiet food noise, be kind to yourself. Understand that controlling the noise cannot be done overnight. The process will take time. Therefore, be kind to yourself when you give in to temptations once in a while.

You can count on LA ViE MD to walk with you on the journey to bringing food noise under control. Our Semaglutide treatment will deliver excellent results while ensuring you remain comfortable. 

Are you ready to address food noise in an innovative way? Book an appointment today with LA ViE MD.

 

FAQs

Here are some answers to some questions that most people ask regarding food noise: 

 

What hormone is responsible for food noise?

Several hormones can amplify food noise. Low levels of the GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide 1) hormone can increase your appetite, as the hormone helps to suppress appetite. Also, high levels of ghrelin and low levels of leptin can increase food noise.

 

When does food noise become an issue?

Food noise becomes an issue when it affects your mental health, impacts your relationships, makes you avoid social situations, and leads to unhealthy eating habits.

 

What is the main difference between food noise and hunger?

Hunger occurs when your energy stores are reduced because you haven’t eaten for a lengthy period. You start feeling hungry because your body needs more energy to continue functioning properly.

On the other hand, food noise is tied to your body’s reward mechanism. You feel driven to eat something even when you are not hungry.

 

How does Ozempic quiet food noise?

Ozempic molecules easily penetrate the blood-brain barrier and effectively regulate brain activity. Ozempic’s main component is Semaglutide. Semaglutide is one of the  GLP-1 receptor agonists that help to slow gastric emptying and control blood sugar levels, thus allowing you to feel full for a long time and helping you reduce food intake. 

For this reason, Ozempic can help you lose weight and maintain your desired body image and body mass index. Clinical trials conducted by researchers from Penn State College of Medicine have shown that Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs can treat opioid use disorder.