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Wednesday, 3 January 2024

This thing called food noise

I have recently been following the rise and rise of a new drug designed to dampen the appetite of those of us who eat too much (almost 40% of us, to judge by the overweight and obesity statistics; WHO, 2021). This drug is "Ozempic", developed for diabetes, but now being increasingly used as an appetite suppressant.

What I have found most interesting is patient accounts of the effect that Ozempic has on the incessant mental food chatter, or "food noise", that patients have experienced prior to going onto the drug. Food noise has been described as "increased hunger and appetite that results from altered gut and brain pathways which leads to weight gain and eventually obesity" (Schiffer, 2023, citing Dr Reena Bose), but I find this definition unclear as to exactly what this 'food noise' is. What makes it manifoldly clear is the description: "the nearly constant thoughts about food, the rarely-overcomeable internal dialogue of 'what does it matter if I eat this now, I’m never going to be able to lose this weight,' the struggle to not eat that after dinner snack only to have my brain think about the snack nonstop until I finally give in" (Gauntt, 2023). Whew: that is much more compelling and easier to understand.

An anonymised story (Sickness, misery and shedding, 2023) about an obese woman with a BMI of 35, also clearly explained food noise, and the effect of taking Ozempic, with "Imagine spending your adult life going about your ordinary business while voices are screaming in your head. You can’t turn down the volume and they [the food noise voices] barely pause except when you’re sleeping. Then, one day, you find a switch [Ozempic] and you flip it, and – gone. Silence." The writer followed this with "I’d never even realised how loud that noise was until suddenly I was free" of it (Sickness, misery and shedding, 2023).

I wonder if Lewis Carroll - he of Alice in Wonderland fame - got it right in the illustrations accompanying his books (1865), and the text. The 'Eat Me' instructions of the cake ("her eye fell on a little glass box that was lying under the table: she opened it, and found in it a very small cake, on which the words 'EAT ME' were beautifully marked in currants"; Carroll, 1865, p. 10); the "Drink Me" instructions and illustration of the medicine bottle (p. 10).

While Ozempic sounds like it might be a life-line for those who are struggling to lose weight, there appears to be a very high incidence of depressive side-effects accompanying it. Side-effects to the point of suicide. So Ozempic is not for the faint-hearted, or those without watchful whānau to circumvent those potential mental health side effects.

Food noise. Wow. Now we know it is a thing.  


Sam

References:

Carroll, L. (1865). Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Macmillan & Co, Ltd.

Gauntt, J. (2023, March 5). “Eat less and move more” is not the solution: What I wish my thin colleagues understood about obesity. Kevin M.D. https://www.kevinmd.com/2023/03/eat-less-and-move-more-is-not-the-solution-what-i-wish-my-thin-colleagues-understood-about-obesity.html

Schiffer, E. (2023, May 3). What Is 'Food Noise'? Here's How This Common Phenomenon Impacts Weight Loss Goals. https://parade.com/health/food-noise-meaning

Sickness, misery and shedding weight: My first two months on Ozempic. (2023, July 31). Stuff. https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/wellbeing/300939522/sickness-misery-and-shedding-weight-my-first-two-months-on-ozempic

WHO. (2021, June 21). Obesity and overweight. World Health Organisation. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight

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