NOTE: I am not a medical professional or therapist, this episode is not to be used as medical advice it is based on my experiences, thoughts and opinions.
Right around the time I made the decision to quit dieting, stop pursuing intentional weight loss and heal my body image from the wrath of diet culture, weight loss jabs came on the scene.
I’d spent a few years creating a bubble of anti diet and fat positivity – at least online – unfollowing peers, coaches and friends who put the term ‘fat loss’ on a pedestal, and still talked about moderation as if it wasn’t just another diet. Slowly but surely the bubble popped, and the conversations about GLP-1s made their way onto my social media feeds.
Up until then I’d not heard the term ‘food noise’, and yet I knew exactly what people were referring to; the never ending thoughts about food, portion size, control and what I was eating or planning to eat. I’d noticed that this noise had started to quieten as I practiced eating intuitively. My relationship to food, hunger, fullness and my body image had become positive for the first time as an adult.
My body size had stayed the same, which as a yo-yo dieter had never been the case before, and I’d found peace with so many areas of my life – whilst also becoming a rage filled cupcake because of all this *gestures wildly*.
When you divest from diet culture, you realise that it was never about food or movement, it was about control, silence and keeping you distracted. It’s a system designed to fail, and keep us so focused on our bodies and how we look that we don’t have the resources to fight.
Kate Manne describes the term food noise as hunger, appetite and cravings rebranded, and I think we used to simply refer to it as “food issues”. The interesting thing is that hunger, appetite and cravings are all normal, human, biological responses. We are born with them.
So, why have they become an issue for so many of us, and why are we trying to quieten them? Why do some folks not experience food noise? And why has this term suddenly become a normal part of conversation?
I’m exploring all of these questions, sharing my thoughts about food noise, and how I’ve quietened the noise without the use of weight loss jabs with you in episode 31! Please note there is a content warning at the top of the episode, we will be discussing; hunger, appetite, cravings, emotional eating, food addiction, body image and intuitive eating.
It has taken me almost a year to get my thoughts and feelings in order, and I still have so many unanswered questions because context and nuance are so important when we talk about this stuff. I’d love to know your thoughts about food noise, your own experience with it and any other nuance I’ve missed.
Chapters:
00:00 Content Warning For Episode
02:04 Understanding GLP-1s and Their Impact
03:38 NHS Guidelines for GLP-1s
04:34 The Impact Of Diet Culture And Concerns Over Prescribing GLP-1s
14:03 Defining Food Noise
16:11 The Biological Responses to Hunger
18:42 The Influence of Genetics on Eating Behavior
24:22 Other Ways We Can Quieten The Noise
30:11 Body Change and Intuitive Eating
32:45 The Misunderstanding of Food Addiction
37:40 The Nuances of Intuitive Eating: Trusting Ourselves
42:53 Autonomy and Informed Choices in Dieting
On a personal note, I’ve noticed that I’m feeling a little burned out and creatively depleted, so next week I’ll be resharing an episode from last years summer series: 5 Summer Survival Tips from A Fat Gal
These have been some of my most popular episodes, and I’m looking forward to sharing it with you again as I take some time to refill my creative cup. I have the rest of this season planned, and I’m already thinking about season 05 which will be coming in September.
If you have any questions, guests you’d like me to chat with or topics you’d like me to cover feel free to drop them in the comments or the chat here on Substack.
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