For those who have never heard that term before, it’s a way to describe what so many of us with obesity have had to contend with all of our lives. Some people call it food chatter. I have described it is a low hum that plays in the background no matter what is going on. Day. Night. When I wake up to pee in the middle of the night. First thing in the morning. Last thoughts before sleep.
whatamIgoingtoeatwhenamIgoingtoeatwhereistherefooddidthekidshidetheirHalloweencandywhere
wouldtheykeepitwhencanIgolookingforitdoIhavetogooutIcanswingbyMcDonald’sforfries
howmanyfriesis2superzedenoughmaybeIshouldget3I’lldecidewhenI’minthedrivethruwhat
timeisdinnerwhatwillIhave…
It is a constant stream of inner voices telling me to forage for food.
Food Commands; I Obey
I’ve hidden food my whole life. It was something I learned from my mom. I don’t remember how I knew her hiding places… maybe I sniffed the chocolate out… but I found her stashes and ate as much as I could until I worried she would know and stopped. Do you remember Ayds Diet Chews?
My mom, always on a diet, had these in the tippity-top shelf in the kitchen. I had to climb on a chair, then the counter and raided the Ayds box. They were speed in a caramel chocolate squish candy. I ate several at a time. How I found them is beyond my comprehension, but I did. And I ate them. They did not help me lose weight.
Even when I lived alone, without the kids, I hid food. Not sure why the voices convinced me a famine was on the horizon, but I distinctly remember bags of Snickers, M&Ms, and orange slices stuffed out of sight just in case.
On the way to the Y to work out at 4:30am, I would swing by Carl’s Jr. and get a burger with fries and a Diet Coke. I went to the Y, sat in the parking lot and ate my meal. I rarely went in and if I did, I rode the exercise bike for about 10 minutes, got off, and left. On the way home, I would go to Carl’s Jr. again, get another huge burger. As I drove home, I would think about where I could hide the food until my partner went to work and I could eat it. Mind you, we had plenty of food at home. I would get home from “working out” and make myself a burrito pizza with tons of cheese on it.
What Is Going On?
The more I learn, the more sense food noise makes. My body has glitches in the There’s-Enough-Food-You-Don’t-Have-to-Scrounge-for-It department. I have watched a hundred videos about this topic and the one below has been amazing in helping me understand what is going on in my brain and body. I could follow the pathways from Hypothalamus to my stomach and then outwards to the rest of my body. Plus it has real-world proof of what the body’s chemicals do to demand eating even when the stomach is full.
Silence
The GLP-1 medications quash those food voices almost immediately. It’s a bizarre silence when it first happens. Many don’t realize the quiet until someone brings it up. I’ve felt bereft wondering how I was going to know what and when to eat.
I have had experiences with the loss of food noise. With Fen-Phen, the voices were quieted and it was a crazy relief to not have them constantly in my head. Until I talked to others on Fen-Phen (this was 1995), I didn’t realize how many people had food noise and what a shocking discovery it was that the chatter was quieted. I’d had that low hum of searching for food my whole life that I could remember. (I had my tonsils out at 6-years old and I immediately went from a kid who didn’t care about eating to being a voracious and never satisfied child.) When I went off Fen-Phen, that annoying incessant dialog began again.
I had a Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass in 2001 and while I don’t remember the food noise turning off like a light switch the way it did with Fen-Phen or GLP-1s, I do remember having less chatter than there had been. Was it lowering my blood glucoses and lipid panel by the minute amounts of food I was eating? I’m not sure of the food noise mechanisms yet.
GLP-1 Noise Suppression
I was on Trulicity (starting in Fall 2022) not knowing what it did so wasn’t conscious of food noise being there or not being there. I wish I had known I was on a GLP-1 (I didn’t even know what that was until recently) and could have paid more attention, but in retrospect, I’m glad I didn’t know what I was on. I could just let the medication do its job.
I had 6 weeks between Trulicity and Mounjaro (which I started in early September 2023) and within a couple of hours of the first dose of Mounjaro, the voices vanished. It was startling how fast and completely it happened. I rejoiced for the return of inner sanity and not having to always do what the voices said to do or struggle to ignore them.
I have Bipolar Disorder 1 and have hallucinations (auditory, visual, olfactory, and tactile) almost all the time. The food noise reminds me of that. Just a constant dribble of sensory input. Random thoughts, visions, smells, touches I can’t control or make go away no matter what medications I am on. I have simply learned to live with them. Blessedly, my voices do not tell me to DO things. They just yack in the background of my world.
So to have the food voices gone because of Mounjaro, that’s a huge difference in my inner and outer world. When the hum is gone, I am not compelled to follow their orders or suffer. I can co-exist with the hallucinations I have from other brain clicks and glitches.
One less thing is alright to me!
