to think “food noise” is becoming one of those phrases people hide behind rather than actually dealing with their eating habits?

[foodywoody]

I keep hearing people say they have “food noise” and that’s why they’re constantly thinking about food or snacking, but isn’t that just hunger, boredom, habit, or emotional eating dressed up in a nicer label? I’m not saying it’s not real for some people, especially where there are medical issues involved, but the way it’s thrown around now makes it sound like no one has any control over it at all.

It just feels like another way to remove any personal responsibility. Not everything needs a label. Sometimes it’s just about eating properly and getting enough protein and actually addressing emotional eating.

How is comparing the lack of understanding around women's hormones different to the understanding around the hormones associated with eating @sunflowersandsunsets ?

Because you’re comparing a recognised medical condition (menopause) that rightly needs to be treated in most women with normal human food cravings that practically everyone on this planet experiences because it’s hardwired into us as a species.

It’s a bit like saying “well, lots of people get anxious before exams and interviews, therefore they all have anxiety and need to be given medication for it”.

I think this is where you're missing the point. With the comparison you used
-Anxiety would be food addiction
-feeling anxious would be having food noise

So yours and OPs argument would be that people aren't allowed to say they're feeling anxious because a lot of people feel it.

There's so many different levels of anxiety as I believe there is with food noise. Some closer to the the food addiction level and some closer to the feeling of being a bit worried.

I'm guessing from your posts you're the 'a bit worried sometimes'

Who are you to say someone couldn't get prescribed medicine for the 'close to addiction' stage?

Medicine, psychology, any study of the human body is extensively studied and then re-studied as science advances, which is why we are able to advance health care, test theory and have new research findings and advanced medical knowledge, so yes. New findings are presented all the time-just today they have begun to show advances in prostate cancer treatment as a result of many, many years of research. The same with obesity studies-we were actually told not to use obesity as a research proposal in university because the area is so heavily funded and studied, so we couldn’t possibly find something new. Research finds evidence regularly hence the rise of the understanding of “food noise” and then advancement of gpl-1 medicine. And as a lay person, we would only hear about something once the extensive research and evidence has been gathered, tested, reviewed and peer reviewed, just because you heard about it in the last 4 years, doesn’t mean this hasn’t been studied for decades before that. I assume you’re not working in a health field otherwise you’d probably be aware. I can’t remember the number of the study but if you type “food noise study” in to google theres a good pub med article that has synthesised many studies and explains food noise in understandable terms. Obesity is not just a simple issues that can be addressed by discipline and a little bit of exercise, it’s a complex and multifaceted health issue that is driven by a number of factors, and usually not the least bit the fault of the individual. May I warmly suggest that if anyone doesn’t understand something in its entirety then you take the time to read some peer reviewed studies, they are not gatekept. Take the time to understand what it is you are curious about, because otherwise it’s ignorant and judgy to come on a public forum and cast aspersions on something you do not understand.

Are you new to forums?

Yes, it’s addictive for me. Funny how I don’t seem to want to shovel vegetables or meat into my mouth - only biscuits and chocolate.

@sunflowersandsunsets my point is that PMT, menopause and all the medically diagnosed issues around women's reproductive cycles and hormones were NOT understood in some cases until about a few decades ago! Imagine you lived 50 years ago and you just had to "suck it all up" and not pathologise and name the issues. Now we know, because of ongoing research and discoveries that there are medical solutions to some of the issues. Well can you not consider that the same might be true for "food noise"?

Ugh, not a fan of people commenting on something they have no experience with. Unless you've lived with this monkey on your back you have no idea. Im able to eat "normally' for the first time in my life and the mental anguish is much lessened. People who are addicted to smoking/drugs/alcohol dont get this much hate for trying to overcome their medical issues. There's an interesting book Food Noise by Dr Jack Mosley if youre actually interested in the facts n science behind the phenomenon.

It may be true that we’re learning more about it but that doesn’t mean it needs to treated and medicated like some kind of condition that needs correcting or fixing.

Not every single thing we experience as a species needs a label and a medical solution - we’re not robots who are designed to never cravings or hunger or whatever.

I guess I just find it disturbing that people seem to want to medicate their way through life.

I've gone though eating disorder help and there is no help so how do I just get over mental illness?

@sunflowersandsunsets I will happily take a paracetamol when I get a headache, antihistamine when I am bitten by mosquitos, take antibiotics when I get a chest infection or UTI, have my teeth filled by the dentist when they have holes in them. I took the contraceptive pill to ensure I didn't have unwanted pregnancies. I have a chronic inflammatory arthritis which I also am hugely grateful I can take medication for. I've recently added HRT to the medications I take and it has been transformational. I am delighted that life has not burdened you with any health conditions that you have ever needed to medicate, but for those of us who are less fortunate, the breakthroughs in medical science of the last 150 years have been literally life-changing and I will continue to hope that this remains a frontier that keeps on moving forwards.

On the contrary, I have multiple conditions that need medicating and that will need medicating for the rest of my life.

I’m just not convinced that the vast majority of people struggle with cravings to the point of needing to be on lifelong medication 🤷‍♀️

It’s also worth saying that all medication comes with side effects and we’ve not been using WLI’s for long enough or consistently enough to know that they’re not going to cause a mass of problems in the next 20+ years.

Just to add - you talk about paracetamol for headaches but the equivalent here would be believing your headaches are the result of a migraine disorder that require you to take daily prevention for life, rather than just being a normal part of being human.

Of course some people have migraine disorders and need the lifelong medication but it’s far from being the majority. We all get headaches just like we all get food cravings and experience food noise - it doesn’t mean we all need to be on lifelong injections for it.

@sunflowersandsunsets so we finally get to the nub of it. Medication is fine, just not for fatties!!!!

What on earth are you on about? I didn’t mention weight once 🙄

So, what medication are you talking about @sunflowersandsunsets ? If it is fine to take all the medications you are on and that I mentioned, what medication is it not ok to take for food noise?

I just don’t believe it’s okay to medicate the human condition - we are animals and are designed to experience hunger, cravings and desires - it’s normal. Just like headaches, feeling anxious and feeling sad are all normal. They don’t all require lifelong medication so I’m not sure why food cravings suddenly seem to require it.

I’m not going to give you my entire medical history to pull apart either - sorry 🤣

Agreed, this is nothing more than fatphobia from the ‘have more discipline brigade’, thinly veiled as “don’t over pathologise everything”. Medication fine for those with “acceptable” complaints but not from obese people. This from the op, and many other responders who have no idea about obesity, the science, and scientifically proven difference between a simple craving and food noise. The distain and judgement from some people is disgusting. Just another thread from “huns-net” living up to its reputation though I suppose!

Except I haven’t once said that 🤣

It seems as though nobody can disagree with WLI’s these days without being told they’re fatphobic or hate obese people. It’s boring.

I don't want your entire medical history @sunflowersandsunsets - why on earth would you think I am that interested in you as an individual? I am interested in is some people's obdurate resistance to gaining a better understanding of the mental and physical disruptions that can lead to people having very dysfunctional relationships with food.

I am also in favour of understanding why people become addicts, why people become criminals, why some people seem to age much faster than others. I hope medicine carries on making discoveries that help women and their hormones, men's erectile dysfunction, carries on understanding autism, adhd, OCD etc. There is so much we still don't understand, that are normal parts of being human and I'm all for increasing that understanding and if it means attributing labels to things, then why wouldn't we want to do that.

And there speaks someone who has never experienced what is termed as ‘food noise’! Your ignorance is showing @foodywoody

But I’m not saying we can’t try and understand it 😬 of course we can and of course knowledge is a good thing but just because we understand something, doesn’t mean we need to medicate it.

For example people with headaches are told to drink more water, or get their eyesight checked, or take a break from screens - they’re not just put on lifelong headache medication.

I just find it weird that the default for food cravings is now “take this lifelong injection” rather than actually dealing with reasons why people are experiencing these cravings that are apparently so severe they can’t cope without drugs.

We used to call this 'sugar cravings' or just plain old hunger.

Ah! Now I see who you are.

Do you ever say that you are lickerish? Or use the word appetency? Welcome to the every changing world of English...