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Some obesity and type 2 diabetes medications that contain semaglutide—a compound that mimics the body’s natural response to eating—may change the way people think about food, according to experts.
People taking these drugs, including Ozempic and Wegovy, report experiencing less “food noise,” Marcio Griebeler, MD, director of the Obesity Center at Cleveland Clinic’s Endocrinology and Metabolism Institute, told Health.
Food noise is a colloquial term. It refers “to the constant thoughts or recurring ruminations about food which could contribute to overeating and thus living with overweight and obesity,” Priya Jaisinghani, MD, an obesity medicine specialist at NYU Langone, told Health.
Some people with overweight or obesity experience more “food noise” than other people, Griebeler explained. “It’s harder for people to lose weight because of that,” he added. Thus, curbing “food noise” may help some people achieve and maintain a lower weight.
Below, experts explain why “food noise” is important, what can happen when a person experiences too much of it, and how medications like Ozempic and Wegovy can help patients manage it.
Thinking about food and hunger isn’t always a bad thing. In fact, Griebeler said, it’s a crucial bodily response that occurs as a consequence of what doctors call the gut-brain connection, which is the communication pathways between the brain and the gastrointestinal system.
This system enables the body to suppress hunger after you begin eating. It also allows the brain to recognize when the stomach is empty and you need more food. “If you’re hungry, you’re going to release hormones that will make you eat,” Griebeler said.
These cues—the ones that tell the body to eat and when to stop eating—are crucial in helping people maintain adequate nutrition. “We need these systems to survive,” Griebeler said.
Excessive food noise may be due to an imbalance in the communication between the brain and gut. This “could contribute to overeating and thus living with overweight and obesity and developing weight-related complications,” Jaisinghani said.
There are some factors that may contribute to an imbalance and thus increase food cravings, an element of “food noise.” These include:
Feeling stressedNot getting enough sleepHaving certain health conditions, such as metabolic syndrome and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)GeneticsTaking certain medications, such as antidepressants, birth control, antipsychotics, and beta-blockers, which are used to control blood pressure
Although “food noise” can be linked to food addiction or other eating disorders, experiencing increased “food noise” doesn’t necessarily mean that you have one, Griebeler said.
However, if you think you’re experiencing a higher-than-normal amount of “food noise”—for instance, if obsessive thoughts about food profoundly affect on your daily life—you should speak with a healthcare provider who can help address the root of the problem.
“It’s important to speak to your doctor about what specific symptoms you have from it including thoughts about food cravings, increases in hunger and appetite, and the degree to which you may be experiencing this,” Jaisinghani said.
Your provider will be able to help you make a plan to decrease the amount of “food noise” you’re experiencing, which may include dietary modifications, stress reduction, medication therapy, and behavioral modifications, she added.
Medications such as Ozempic that contain semaglutide can help people with weight-related health conditions by reducing “food noise.“
“We are not telling patients to go on a diet, which they may stay on for a day, a month,” Griebeler said. Instead, these medications “work on those pathways from brain to gut.”
They can do this and, in turn, reduce “food noise” in several ways, Jaisinghani said.
For one, these medications delay gastric emptying, or the process by which food is moved out of the stomach. They also may “increase feelings of satiety,” making people feel less focused on food. Lastly, it’s possible that these medications can affect dopamine pathways in the brain, possibly making food less rewarding.
When a person stops taking a medication with semaglutide, they may start experiencing “food noise” all over again. “Because [the medications] work on those pathways from the brain to the gut, once you stop them, the ‘food noise’ will increase,” Griebeler said. Eventually, this could cause a person to gain weight they lost while taking the medication.
Griebeler said that it’s important to consult a doctor when you’re considering starting or stopping medications with semaglutide so that they can explain how these drugs work and how they can change a person’s lifestyle.
“We are not here to make patients stop eating; that’s not the goal,” Griebeler said. “We are here to help the body adjust and control the food intake and the energy expenditure.”
If you’re interested in taking the medication to lose weight, you should speak with an obesity specialist, he added. “It can cause side effects and problems, so you should see a specialist who can treat this as a chronic condition,” Dr Griebeler said. “Not just for a month, but long term.”
