Strategies for identifying and minimizing the effects of food noise

In recent years, the term food noise has become a popular topic in the media alongside anti-obesity medications, such as GLP-1s, as these medications appear to mitigate the intrusive thoughts of food and improve chronic health conditions like obesity and diabetes. Registered Dietitian Nutritionists (RDN) are on the front lines of these life-altering health problems, helping patients maintain a balanced diet to support their health.

A recent literature review from Penn State Nutritional Sciences Department researchers Daisuke Hayashi, doctoral candidate, and Travis Masterson, assistant professor of nutritional sciences, offered practical strategies for RDNs to support their patients who are dealing with food noise while trying to manage their diabetes care.

“RDNs are better equipped to understand the experiences of their patients and help them suggest changes in their treatment when the RDNs have a greater level of awareness regarding food noise and how it impacts diabetes care and management,” said Hayashi. “We wanted to provide guidance to RDNs and other healthcare professionals on how to identify and mitigate food noise in their diabetic patients, as anything that makes it more difficult to make healthier food choices can significantly impact diabetes care.”

The researchers collected and published effective strategies in an article, published by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, that allow RDNs to achieve goals recommended by them to help improve the health of diabetic patients affected by food noise.

The researchers suggested that RDNs should ask patients questions about food-related thoughts, be attentive to the role food plays in their lives, and, from their responses, assess if the patient is responding to physiological hunger or food noise. 

RDNs should also counsel their patients to differentiate between physiological hunger and food noise, according to the researchers. By listening to the patients’ experiences and teaching them how to distinguish between thinking about food because of hunger or meal planning and the experience of intrusive food thoughts, RDNs can help their patients understand when their actions are being driven by true hunger or when environmental cues are the culprit. 

Once a patient understands the difference between physiological hunger and food noise and can identify them, the researchers recommend that RDNs help patients identify their food noise triggers and work on resisting them. By considering the patients’ exposure to environmental cues in real-world and digital spaces, their stress levels, and the amount of sleep they get, RDNs can encourage patients to restructure their real-world environments and limit their exposure to food cues to prevent future triggers. 

Finally, the researchers suggest that RDNs should apply an interdisciplinary approach, reaching out to other health professionals as needed, to address all aspects of their patients’ care. 

Although these strategies are aimed at RDNs, they can also be used by anyone who believes they may be impacted by food noise to better identify it and mitigate its impact.

“Much remains to be done in terms of research to successfully tackle food noise and help people whose lives are impacted by obsessive and intrusive thoughts about food,” said Masterson. “As new data comes out, important insights will be produced that can be applied to the management of food noise, chronic diseases (including diabetes), and the care provided by RDNs to their patients.”

Food noise is a relatively new area of study, and the researchers, as part of Masterson’s Health, Ingestive Behavior, and Technology (HIT) Lab, are currently working on several projects to help scientists, clinicians, and the general public understand what it is and how to manage it effectively.

Originally published in July 2025.