‘An insatiable itch’: Why some people are turning to weight-loss medications to help quiet food noise

Food noise is incessant internal chatter about food that some people experience, which can make it hard for them to make healthy decisions about their nutrition. The conversation around it has grown, especially online,

Savannah Mendoza used to spend most of her paychecks on food delivery apps and at fast food drive-thrus, trying to satisfy a compulsive craving. After she started taking a popular medication used for weight loss and diabetes, she saw it as something else: food noise. “It’s so obsessive, and it’s not a good feeling. It’s a very ugly feeling, because you’re just locked down on that singular thought of you wanting to eat,” she said. Food noise is incessant internal chatter about food that some people experience, which can make it hard for them to make healthy decisions about their nutrition. The conversation around it has grown, especially online, as more people taking popular weight-loss and diabetes medications realized the drugs seemed to turn off the noise. Semaglutide and tirzepatide are both glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, known as GLP-1s, that work by telling your body that you just ate, triggering it to release more insulin and slowing the movement of food through your stomach. The medications are prescribed to treat type 2 diabetes under the brand names Ozempic and Mounjaro, and their twin versions Wegovy and Zepbound have also helped millions of people lose weight. Mendoza, 27, started to constantly think about food when she was in her early 20s. She would claim she had to run errands but instead hit up a drive-thru and eat in the car. On some mornings, she would sneak bites of ice cream straight out of the tub while packing her daughter’s lunch.