The phrase “food noise” has become hard to miss in conversations about weight, cravings and GLP-1 medications. People often use it to describe a relentless mental chatter about food, one that can feel disconnected from physical hunger and difficult to quiet.
A new Penn State study does not prove how common food noise is, whether it should be treated as a diagnosis or whether weight-loss medications reduce it. Instead, the content analysis, published in Nutrition & Diabetes, looked at how the term is being used on TikTok and whether those descriptions align with researchers’ early efforts to define it. The study found that most videos described food noise as negative, distressing and intrusive, while nearly half mentioned GLP-1 medications as a way to “mute” those thoughts.
“The term food noise is everywhere. It’s being picked up by lots of people, and businesses are trying to capitalize on the term for marketing purposes,” said Travis Masterson, assistant professor of nutritional sciences at Penn State. “By exploring how people describe food noise, what it maps to and what can alter it can help bring evidence to differentiate between which claims are backed by science and which are not”
The researchers created a new TikTok account in June 2024 and analyzed the top 100 recommended videos tagged with #foodnoise. After excluding one duplicate, they reviewed 99 videos, looking at who was discussing the term, how they defined it and what themes appeared most often.
More than 70% of the videos were personal testimonials, while 22% were created by health care professionals. Most creators appeared to be women age 30 and older. More than 85% of the videos described food noise negatively, often as all-consuming or relentless thoughts about food. Among videos that offered a definition, nearly 94% described food noise in a way that aligned with the researchers’ current theoretical definition.
That definition overlaps with a more established area of nutrition and behavior research called food cue reactivity. Food cue reactivity describes how the mind and body respond to signals linked with food, such as smelling popcorn at a movie theater or craving something sweet after seeing a dessert video. Food noise may describe a more persistent version of that experience, especially when food-related thoughts feel intrusive or hard to ignore.
“What we’re seeing in the videos, for example, are people saying that food noise isn’t problematic just for their eating behavior and health but it’s distracting them from other activities,” Masterson said. “It could impact how effective they are at work or if they have the cognitive resources to exercise or spend quality time with their family.”
The study is especially timely because of the rise of GLP-1 receptor agonists, a class of medications used for type 2 diabetes and weight management. Researchers did not specifically search for medication-related content, but about half of the videos mentioned weight-loss medications, mostly GLP-1 drugs. Many creators described the medications as turning down or quieting food noise.
That does not mean the study proved GLP-1 medications reduce food noise. TikTok testimonials can show how people describe their experiences, but they cannot establish cause and effect.
The study’s value is different. It captures a public conversation that is moving faster than the science. As the term becomes more common, researchers say clearer definitions could help separate useful discussion from marketing claims or oversimplified advice.
“It was important to us to understand food noise from the perspective of real people,” said Daisuke Hayashi, first author of the study and a postdoctoral scholar in nutritional sciences at Penn State. “Oftentimes, people are not listened to if they struggle with their weight or eating. They’re told it’s an individual failure or they’re labeled as lacking willpower when that’s rarely the case.”
That point matters because food noise is often discussed in the same spaces as weight loss, cravings and dieting, all of which can carry stigma. If people experience persistent, distressing thoughts about food, dismissing those thoughts as a lack of discipline may miss the biological, psychological and environmental factors involved.
At the same time, turning food noise into a catchall label could create confusion. Thinking about food during the day is normal. Hunger, cravings, meal planning and pleasure in eating are not automatically problems. The term becomes more meaningful when people are describing thoughts that feel intrusive, distressing or disruptive.
The researchers said future work may examine comments on food noise videos to better understand how viewers respond to the topic. They are also interested in how food noise may fit into the moments before eating, including when a normal eating event becomes something more difficult to manage, such as a binge eating episode.
For now, the study offers a careful first step. Food noise may be a useful phrase because it gives people language for an experience that can feel isolating. But it still needs scientific clarity before it can be used confidently in clinical care, product claims or treatment decisions.
This work was supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Brazilian Fulbright Commission.