Let’s talk about something way more common than you think, but still makes you feel like you’re the only one dealing with it: food noise. You know, that constant voice in your head questioning every bite, telling you when, what, and how much you should be eating. The one that never seems to take a break—judging, obsessing, criticizing, and critiquing every food choice. Yeah, that noise.

Why You Have Food Noise

I’m about to shift your perspective on this: Food noise is a symptom, not the problem. You weren’t born with it, and you definitely don’t have to live with it forever. It didn’t just appear one day out of thin air.

Diet Culture

Everywhere you look, there’s messaging about the “right” way to eat. Diet culture is sneaky—it tells you what foods are good or bad, how many calories are acceptable, and even what your body should look like. You’ve been absorbing this stuff for years, whether you were actively dieting or not. And now, every time you sit down to eat, that voice chimes in, making you question, “Is this a good choice or a bad one?” It’s a never-ending judgment call, and it’s exhausting.

Family Influence

Maybe you grew up in a household where food was tightly controlled. Perhaps your mom or another family member was always talking about calories, diets, or how they needed to “earn” certain foods. Even if it wasn’t explicit, those messages stick. They become part of your inner dialogue—so when you eat a “bad” food, you hear those voices questioning, doubting, making you second-guess yourself.

Fear of Weight Gain

Somewhere along the line, you started to believe that if you didn’t control your food intake, everything would fall apart. Maybe you’ve had moments where you felt out of control around food, and now that fear is driving you to micromanage every single bite. The food noise is your brain’s way of saying, “Hey, I’m keeping you safe by keeping you in control.” But is it really? Or is it just making you more anxious and stuck in a cycle of overthinking?

Perfectionism

If you’re a perfectionist (and let’s be honest, a lot of us are), food can become another area where you feel the need to “get it right.” Food rules, restrictions, and guilt become louder than your actual hunger or satisfaction. Your brain is constantly telling you that you need to make the perfect choice, and if you don’t? It’s a failure. And perfectionism? It’s a slippery slope that keeps you mentally trapped in fear of making the wrong choice.

Past Dieting or Restriction

If you’ve ever been on a diet or restricted your food intake, your brain remembers that. It’s learned to see certain foods as dangerous or forbidden, like you have to “earn” them. Even if you’re no longer physically restricting yourself, your brain still carries those patterns of restriction, which leads to the noise you hear every time you want something that used to be “off-limits.” That lingering mental restriction creates tension around food, making it hard to ever feel truly free.

And the thing is, that noise? It thinks it’s keeping you safe. It’s convinced it’s protecting you from what it perceives as danger—overeating, gaining weight, losing control. But is it really?

How Food Noise Pretends to Keep You Safe

It feels like the noise is keeping you in control, right? Like it’s keeping you safe from eating “too much” or gaining weight. But what it’s really doing is keeping you trapped—constantly thinking about food, never truly at peace, and ultimately, pushing you toward binge eating. The more you try to control, the more you rebel, and the cycle continues.

You reach for a snack, and immediately that voice kicks in: “If you eat this now, you’ll ruin your appetite for dinner. Maybe just wait a little longer.” Suddenly, you’re obsessing, trying to bargain with yourself, and feeling like you need to earn that snack. What happens next? You deny yourself, but later, you’re so hungry (and frustrated) that you end up eating way more than you intended. Cue the binge.

You’re at a restaurant, scanning the menu, and the noise is there: “Should I get the salad? That’s the safe choice, right? But none of them sound good…” Now you’re caught in this mental back-and-forth, trying to convince yourself to pick the “healthy” option even though you’re craving something else. What happens? You leave the meal unsatisfied and end up bingeing later because that salad didn’t hit the spot.

You’ve just finished dinner, and the noise sneaks in with: “You shouldn’t have eaten that much. Now you’ll have to cut back tomorrow.” Instead of feeling satisfied, you’re stuck analyzing every bite, and by the next day, you’re already planning how to restrict. The result? You end up swinging back into bingeing because the restriction sets you up to feel deprived.

The Illusion of Control

This isn’t control—it’s destruction in disguise. It’s keeping you stuck in a mental loop where food is always on your mind, and you never feel truly free. It feels like safety, but in reality, it’s fueling the exact behavior you’re desperately trying to avoid.

As Christy Harrison, author of Anti-Diet, explains: “Diet culture sells us the illusion of control—if we can just master the ‘right’ way to eat, we’ll be happy, healthy, and safe. But this supposed control often leads to a loss of control, because the human body resists restriction. Dieting and food rules breed a preoccupation with food, which only increases cravings and feelings of deprivation.”

Geneen Roth, author of Women, Food, and God, echoes this by highlighting how this false sense of control disconnects us from our bodies: “Control is a story we tell ourselves to justify our compulsions. We think if we can control what we eat, we can control everything else—our weight, our emotions, even our lives. But the more we try to control, the more out of control we feel.”

It’s this constant mental tug-of-war that leaves us feeling powerless around food. Evelyn Tribole, co-author of Intuitive Eating, adds: “When you place restrictions on what you can eat—whether that’s through calories, portions, or certain foods—you set yourself up for a cycle of deprivation, cravings, and then overeating. The very rules designed to ‘keep you safe’ around food end up driving you toward the behaviors you want to avoid.”

So while the food noise makes you feel like you’re maintaining control, it’s really pushing you deeper into the binge-restrict cycle. The more you try to tighten the reins, the louder the noise gets, and the further away you drift from actually being free around food.

How Do You Stop It?

So, how do you stop the food noise? Two things that are simple, but not easy: stop engaging with it and shift your thoughts about food. Every time you engage with that noise—whether it’s by debating with it, stressing over it, or following its “rules”—you’re giving it power. You’re essentially telling your brain, “Yep, you’re right. Food is something to be scared of, something I need to control.” And that’s exactly how the cycle keeps spinning.

But what if, instead of engaging, you could simply recognize the noise for what it is—a symptom of deeper fears and beliefs—and then practice shifting your perspective? This doesn’t mean arguing with the food noise or trying to silence it completely (because, spoiler alert: that rarely works right away). It’s about acknowledging it without giving it the power to dictate your actions.

What Does This Look Like in Practice?

Think of the food noise like a two-year-old throwing a tantrum. You don’t give in to every demand or scream. You stay calm, let the tantrum run its course, and respond with understanding, but you don’t let it control the situation. It’s the same with food noise. You can’t always stop it immediately, but you can choose not to fuel it. Here’s how:

• The noise says: “You shouldn’t eat that snack. You’re not really hungry.”

Shift the perspective: “I hear you, but I’m choosing to eat this because my body is asking for food. I trust my hunger.” You’re not fighting the noise, but you’re also not letting it control your decision.

• The noise says: “You need to order the salad. It’s the safest option.”

Shift the perspective: “I hear you, but I actually want something else, and it’s okay to honor my cravings. I don’t need to control this meal to feel safe.” Acknowledge the noise, but don’t let it bully you into making a decision that won’t satisfy you.

• The noise says: “You ate too much at dinner. You’ll need to restrict tomorrow.”

Shift the perspective: “I ate until I was satisfied, and my body knows how to handle it. I don’t need to make up for it by restricting tomorrow.” Recognize the urge to overcorrect, but let it pass without engaging.

This practice isn’t about shutting down the noise completely; it’s about learning to live with it without letting it dictate your behavior. By recognizing the noise for what it is—a symptom—you can gradually reduce its hold on you. Over time, the more you shift your perspective, the quieter that food noise gets. Just like a two-year-old eventually tires out, so does the noise when it’s not getting the attention it craves.

You Weren’t Born With Food Noise—And You Don’t Have to Live With It

Here’s the truth: you weren’t born with food noise. Babies aren’t lying there, stressing about whether they’ve had too much milk or wondering when their next bottle is coming. Nope, they eat when they’re hungry and stop when they’re full. Somewhere along the way, your brain picked up these patterns—these rules, fears, and restrictions about food—and internalized them. But here’s the good news: anything learned can be unlearned.

Now, I’m not saying it’s going to happen overnight. It takes practice and patience. But the first and most important step? Realizing that this food noise? It’s not you. It’s not something you’re stuck with. It’s just a symptom of something deeper—whether that’s diet culture, control, or fear—but it’s not your identity. And because it’s a symptom, it can be worked through.

The more you practice not engaging with the noise, the quieter it becomes. Slowly but surely, it loses its grip on you. And that freedom you’ve been craving—the ability to eat without obsessing over every bite? It’s absolutely possible. It’ll take time, but it’s yours for the taking.