Food Noise: Inborn Trait or Learned Habit?

SoCalGirl

SoCalGirl

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So what's your take? For those of us dealing with (or who used to deal with) that relentless, nonstop food noise — were we made this way (some genetic tweak so we'd survive and thrive on long space voyages), or is it a behavior we picked up and can't shake, like heroin, and we'll be stuck with it forever??
 
It's been with me for as long as I can recall — even back in childhood. I assumed everyone experienced it. When I gradually put on weight as an adult and fought against the food noise, I still believed it was universal, and that my inability to keep it in check was a personal failing.

Where I live, counseling isn't really available, and there aren't weight loss groups either, so I had never discussed this with anybody. In fact, I didn't even know the phrase food noise. I'd never come across it and had no clue it had a name. Then.....within a few hours of my first 2.5mg Mounjaro shot, the food noise stopped. Just gone. I couldn't believe it. I was completely blown away. Only at that point did I begin looking further into what tirzepatide does and how it affects people, and I soon came across the term "food noise". What a revelation that was!

Anyway, yeah, I think it's something some people are born with. I think if I ever stop taking these meds that the food noise will return. So, I don't plan to ever stop taking these meds!
 
I believe I was born this way, though surroundings can certainly set it off in a big way. I was raised in a household where food noise was the norm. Just like @tekkit, I assumed this was how everyone experienced things — the difference was that I lacked the discipline to keep those thoughts in check.
 
In my case, I believe it's a carb addiction that built up across 60 years, which makes me lean toward environmental causes. I'm attempting to break it by scaling back.
 
My brother and I grew up in the same household, are the same age, and share the same dietary background. Yet I was always far hungrier than he was. He stands about 2 inches taller, is naturally very slim (not muscular), and since I was around 10 I've weighed roughly 20lbs more than him. He simply isn't a snacker — I always was while growing up.

The only real shift came when I started paying attention to my nutrition in college, but that was driven by not wanting to be overweight. I've also always exercised more than he has, so I suppose that played a part too.

Genetics are strange, friend. Reta has me eating the way I always wished I could; no longer ruled by intense cravings.
 
My father and both of my grandfathers stayed tall, lean and wiry right up until they passed away, each of them in their early 90's. I was the same way—tall, thin and wiry—until roughly age 45, when I got fat. For me, I lean toward environmental causes. My view is that hyper palatable, processed foods wreck your metabolism, and that after you've put on weight and scrambled your metabolic signals, a semi-permanent adaptation sets in. I figure food noise is part of that adaptation, since a single shot of GLP1 makes it vanish and I never had it before I was heavy. I hope it can be reversed eventually, but whether the food noise goes away or not, I'll be on some form of GLP1 for the rest of my life.

In my high school class of 250 kids in 1977, there were hardly any fat kids. Maybe 3. Those few were likely born with something. The rest of us must have had something happen to trigger it.

Just my uneducated opinion.
 
In my view, this comes from exposure to sugar/glucose — so, environmental. That said, MANY of us were exposed to elevated glucose while in-utero. In other words, our environment shaped us before birth.

At 40 weeks, I weighed 10lb 4oz. I received too much glucose in utero. Just like all my siblings, I've dealt with this issue my entire life.

My theory is that my mother's chronic elevated glucose during pregnancy turned me into a sugar addict... the same way a baby born to an opioid addict comes out an addict too.

And consider how many people were fed baby formula loaded with corn syrup. A lot of us never stood a chance.
 
Genetics, surroundings, and the quality of what we eat all seem to factor in — it's likely a mix of many things.

Throughout most of 'human' history, getting food took considerable time and effort. That 'noise' — the persistent urge to go looking for food — would have offered a genuine evolutionary edge. The trouble now is that food surrounds us in abundance, around the clock, so a trait that once helped us survive has turned against us.

Some individuals are probably wired to be more vulnerable than others, yet our surroundings likely matter a great deal as well.
 
As a young kid, up until around age 8, I was at a normal weight. Then circumstances took over... our family relocated to America, and my dad started buying me plenty of junk food (I don't hold it against him — we were dealing with some messed-up things at the time), and that's when I turned into a fat kid.

My own view leans toward environment, since certain countries don't struggle with this problem nearly as badly as we do. There's nothing wrong with eating. The issue is that we have basically 0 outlets for burning energy — whether that's walking, biking, or anything else. On top of that, healthy food that actually tastes good isn't really available to us. All we've got is fast food slop handed out at drive-thrus.
 
tekkit said:

It's been with me for as long as I can recall — even back in childhood. I assumed everyone experienced it. When I gradually put on weight as an adult and fought against the food noise, I still believed it was universal, and that my inability to keep it in check was a personal failing.

Where I live, counseling isn't really available, and there aren't weight loss groups either, so I had never discussed this with anybody. In fact, I didn't even know the phrase food noise. I'd never come across it and had no clue it had a name. Then.....within a few hours of my first 2.5mg Mounjaro shot, the food noise stopped. Just gone. I couldn't believe it. I was completely blown away. Only at that point did I begin looking further into what tirzepatide does and how it affects people, and I soon came across the term "food noise". What a revelation that was!

Anyway, yeah, I think it's something some people are born with. I think if I ever stop taking these meds that the food noise will return. So, I don't plan to ever stop taking these meds!
Click to expand...

I'm the same way. I can recall being 8 or even younger, eating potato chips and feeling upset that my plate would soon be empty. As a little kid, I had that same thought about ice cream.

At primary school, I had two friends and all three of us were unusually tall - around 5'10 by 4th grade - yet they NEVER ate and never snacked. Meanwhile, I felt like I would die if I wasn't eating constantly.

It's wild. Then after my first Tirz shot, it alllllllll disappeared, and my only thought was, OHHHHHHHH, so this is what life is like for everyone else!
 
For me, at least, I'm fairly sure the cause was environmental, though genetics likely play a part as well. My parents grew up as poor farm kids, and both had lived through the Depression even before that. With such a HUGE family, dinner was basically a race to see who finished first and might get the rare chance at seconds. As a kid, I never understood movie scenes where people sit in a restaurant, the food shows up, and instead of digging in right away they just sit there and TALK with the food right in front of them! WTH?! That made no sense to me at all, and it only clicked once GLP quieted all of that down for me.
 
I've asked myself whether this works the same way as a dog that's driven by food.

Honestly, I'd probably be the heaviest dog in the house — raiding the leftovers and begging for more.

It's a relief that one shot each week can switch all of that off.

So are dogs shaped by their environment, or are they just born that way?

For me, I'd say it's a bit of each.

When my wife was pregnant she put on 50lbs, and I put on 35lbs.
 
Skidude said:

I've asked myself whether this works the same way as a dog that's driven by food.

Honestly, I'd probably be the heaviest dog in the house — raiding the leftovers and begging for more.

It's a relief that one shot each week can switch all of that off.

So are dogs shaped by their environment, or are they just born that way?

For me, I'd say it's a bit of each.

When my wife was pregnant she put on 50lbs, and I put on 35lbs.
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What a great husband! 😍
 
A lot of food additives are designed to be addictive. Poor dietary patterns can teach us many food-related problems as time goes on. Food can be physically addictive. With enough dedication, it can be corrected over time.
 
Redz said:

A lot of food additives are designed to be addictive. Poor dietary patterns can teach us many food-related problems as time goes on. Food can be physically addictive. With enough dedication, it can be corrected over time.
Click to expand...
the fact that these products are engineered to be addictive is exactly why stopping at a single chip has never happened for anyone, at any point in history
 
I can recall a time when it wasn't there. I began life as a thin child.

I can also recall a period when it held complete sway over me, even though back then I had no idea that was happening.
 
My view is that it comes from both sides.

Roughly 3 years ago I went all-in on clean eating, following the 80/20 rule. I kept that up for about 4 months, and even during that stretch the sugary cravings never went away. I often worked around them using homemade desserts and plenty of fruit, but eventually the noise won out.

And it doesn't make things any easier that food gets pushed at us so aggressively, with misleading claims and gimmicks. A "good source of" protein, fat, fiber, and so on. Would you call a 10pc nugget meal from McDonald's a good source of protein? Probably not, yet that's exactly what they're doing right now on their apps and kiosks.
 
In my case, I believe it was something I learned. I was raised in deep poverty by parents who were addicts. There were stretches when I'd go days with nothing but bullion cubes as my "food". Because of that, whenever food was available, I'd eat a great deal of it. Later, as a teen and through my twenties, I was very physically active, so the heavy eating carried on. When I stopped being so active, the urge to overeat stayed with me. I think that urge, paired with a diet heavy in junk carbs that ramps up hunger, is what brought me to where I am today.
 
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