food noise
A mental preoccupation with food that is differentiable from hunger and from cravings but tends to urge people to overeat.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“I try to ignore the food noise when I am bored.”
“She finds that constant food noise makes it difficult to focus on her work during the afternoon.”
“Despite having eaten a full meal, he struggled to quiet the persistent food noise that urged him to seek out another snack.”
first recorded 21st c.
Attested since 2007, the term relies upon a metaphor in which mental preoccupation is rendered as a persistent internal clamour. The condition is framed as a noise inside the head that cannot be silenced, possessing a quality not unlike that of an earworm.
The expression entered wider usage in the early 2020s, coinciding with a shift in the application of GLP-1 receptor agonist medications. As the indications for this class of drugs expanded from the treatment of diabetes to general weight control, the term became a standard descriptor for the intrusive thoughts such treatments were reported to suppress. It was not in widespread use before this pharmaceutical expansion.
- 01
box of toys
[Cockney slang]noise
- 02
eat one's own dog food
To use or consume the economic goods or services that one is producing; to be part of a closed household economy.
- 03
food baby
A protruding belly resulting from the consumption of a large quantity of food; the contents of one's digestive system causing the protrusion.
- 04
food chain
A hierarchy.
- 05
food for thought
Information or knowledge that is worthy of contemplation.
- 06
make a noise in the world
To attract great notoriety.
- 07
make noise
To scold, condemn, or criticize very harshly.
- 08
put food on the table
To provide enough money to cover basic necessities.
Last updated August 10, 2026