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Smiling woman using Calocurb to block food noise with natural GLP-1 support

Your Defense Against Food Noise

Have You Heard About "Food Noise"?

Have you heard people talking about "food noise" lately? This term has become super popular since weight loss medications like Ozempic and Wegovy hit the market. These medications were originally created to help people with diabetes control their blood sugar, but doctors noticed they also helped with weight loss.

What Are These Weight Loss Medications?

These medications work with a hormone in your body called GLP-1. Think of GLP-1 as your body's natural "I'm full" signal. It's released when you eat and tells your brain you've had enough food. It also slows down how quickly food leaves your stomach, making you feel fuller faster.

Medications like Ozempic and Wegovy are artificial versions of this hormone. They trick your body into thinking you've eaten enough, even when you haven't. As people started taking these medications, many reported something interesting: the constant thoughts about food in their heads had quieted down.1,2 They called this reduction in food-related thoughts "quieting the food noise."

What Exactly Is Food Noise?

Food noise is that non-stop chatter in your head about food. It's not just occasional cravings or thinking about a doughnut when you pass your favorite bakery. (I’m looking at you, Kettle-Glazed Doughnuts, every time I visit Hollywood...) Food noise is much more persistent:3

  • Waking up and immediately planning what you'll eat that day
  • Thinking about your next meal while you're still eating your current one
  • Constant worry about whether you should or shouldn't eat certain foods
  • Not wanting meals to end because you're already looking forward to eating again
  • A "relentless salesman" in your head pushing you to eat more than you need

If this sounds familiar, you're definitely not alone. A recent poll of almost 1200 people found that 57% experience food noise,4 and videos explaining food noise on TikTok have been viewed 1.8 billion times!

Food noise is “persistent, intrusive thoughts about food that are disruptive to daily life and make healthy behaviors difficult.”5

Who Experiences Food Noise?

Food noise affects many different people, but is:5

  • More common in women than men
  • More intense in people who are actively dieting
  • Sometimes more noticeable in people with higher BMI scores
  • Less common in people over 55 and retirees

However, food noise can affect anyone regardless of race, ethnicity, income, education level, or employment status.

What Causes Food Noise?

Scientists believe food noise is related to how our brains react to food cues (the sight, smell, or thought of food).6 Some people can ignore their effects (even physical ones such as stomach rumbling), but others react to food cues a lot. What’s more, for those with loud food noise, food cues are not even necessary to promote constant thoughts about food.5

Some of the factors that influence food noise (beyond food cues) are shown in the table.6

Table comparing constant and transient appetite influencers for natural GLP-1 support

As you can see, some of these factors (whether long-term or day-to-day) are beyond your control, so you shouldn’t feel guilty for having loud food noise.

Measuring Your Food Noise

Scientists have created a simple questionnaire to measure food noise.5 Take a minute to rate yourself on these statements, thinking about the past two weeks only:

  1. I find myself constantly thinking about food throughout the day.
  2. My thoughts about food feel uncontrollable.
  3. I spend too much time thinking about food.
  4. My thoughts about food have negative effects on me and/or my life.
  5. My thoughts about food distract me from what I need to do.

For each statement, rate yourself:

  • Strongly disagree – 0 points
  • Disagree – 1 point
  • Neither agree nor disagree – 2 points
  • Agree – 3 points
  • Strongly agree – 4 points

The higher your total score (out of 20), the louder your food noise. Because the FNQ is a new measure of food noise, there are no studies yet that show how different scores are associated with different conditions, exactly what different scores mean in terms of health or body mass, or how different treatments affect the FNQ. In this initial study of almost 250 participants, the average FNQ score was 7, and the scores ranged from 0 to 20.5 People with heightened reactivity to food cues are at risk of increased food-seeking behavior and overeating,6 so it’s reasonable to assume that those with higher FNQ scores/louder food noise — which is not dependent just on food cues — are also at increased risk of these activities and ultimately, of weight gain.

How Calocurb Can Help Quiet Food Noise

Lifestyle changes that are suggested to help quiet food noise include avoiding extreme diets, eating more protein and fiber, increasing exercise, improving sleep, and reducing stress. While these are healthy recommendations, if they were truly helpful in reducing food noise, we wouldn’t be looking at rates of overweight and obesity that have quadrupled since 1990,7 so they’re clearly often not enough on their own. That's where Calocurb® comes in.

Calocurb is a natural alternative to prescription medications. It contains Amarasate®, a bitter extract from hops flowers grown in New Zealand. The special capsule releases this extract beyond your stomach, where it activates bitter taste receptors in your gut. These activated receptors then trigger your body to release its own natural GLP-1 hormone - the same hormone that the prescription medications mimic.

In clinical studies, Calocurb:

  • Doubled GLP-1 production in response to eating8
  • Led to people eating almost 20% fewer calories8
  • Reduced overall hunger by 25% in men and 30% in women during fasting9,10
  • Decreased food cravings by 40% in women during fasting10

Just as with the prescription GLP-1 medications, many Calocurb users report that it "shut off my food noise," helping them feel more in control around food.

Take the Calocurb Challenge

If you're about to start using Calocurb, here's a challenge for you:

  1. Take the food noise questionnaire above before starting Calocurb
  2. Start taking Calocurb as recommended (gradually increasing to a dose where you notice feeling full faster, usually two capsules taken at least an hour before your two largest meals)
  3. After 4 weeks on your effective dose, retake the questionnaire
  4. See if your food noise score has decreased!

The average FNQ score was 7 in the study,5 so if your score is in the range 5-9, you have some food noise, but it’s probably (hopefully!) not interfering too much with your eating habits. If your FNQ score is below 5, then food noise is hardly a problem for you at all (lucky you!). However, if you’re in the top half of the scale, from 10-20, you have above-average food noise, and if your score is 15-20, it’s loud! As noted earlier, it’s reasonable to assume that particularly loud food noise is likely to be associated with food seeking behavior and over-eating... which is reinforced by the finding that FNQs tended to be higher in people with higher BMIs.5

Many people find that quieting their food noise makes healthy eating much easier and more enjoyable. When you're not constantly bombarded by thoughts of food, you can focus on eating when you're truly hungry, feeling fuller faster, and needing less food to feel satisfied. Take the Calocurb Food Noise Challenge to see if you can turn down the volume on your FNQ score.

References

  1. Blum D. People on drugs like Ozempic say their “food noise” has disappeared. New York Times. Published June 21, 2023. Accessed April 17, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/21/well/eat/ozempic-food-noise.html
  2. Cassata C. Drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy cut cravings and turn down “food noise.” Healthline. Published June 28, 2023. Accessed April 16, 2025. https://www.healthline.com/health-news/drugs-like-ozempic-and-wegovy-cut-cravings-and-turn-down-food-noise
  3. Sterling M. What Is Food Noise? [video online] 2024. https://www.tiktok.com/@maggiesterlingcoaching/video/7451282092228431150
  4. Stop Obesity Alliance and WeightWatchers. Beyond hunger: understanding food noise. George Washington University. Published January 31, 2024. WeightWatchers PDF
  5. Diktas HE, Cardel MI, Foster GD, et al. Development and validation of the Food Noise Questionnaire. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2025;33(2):289-297. doi:10.1002/oby.24216
  6. Hayashi D, Edwards C, Emond JA, et al. What is food noise? A conceptual model of food cue reactivity. Nutrients. 2023;15(22):4809. doi:10.3390/nu15224809
  7. World Health Organization. Obesity and Overweight. www.who.int. Published March 1, 2024. Accessed September 26, 2024. WHO Fact Sheet
  8. Walker EG, Lo KR, Pahl MC, et al. An extract of hops modulates gut peptide hormone secretion and reduces energy intake in healthy men. Am J Clin Nutr. 2022;115(3):925-940. doi:10.1093/ajcn/nqab418
  9. Walker E, Lo K, Tham S, et al. New Zealand bitter hops extract reduces hunger during a 24h water-only fast. Nutrients. 2019;11(11):2754. doi:10.3390/nu11112754
  10. Walker E, Lo K, Gopal P. Gastrointestinal delivery of bitter hop extract reduces appetite and cravings in women during fasting. Obes Pillars. 2024;11:100117. doi:10.1016/j.obpill.2024.100117
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