Stephanie Fein MD [00:00:00]:
Hello, fabulous. Dr. Stephanie Fein here with Weight Loss for Fertility. And today we are talking about food noise. It is such an important topic when we're talking about weight loss because it is something that leads to urges, which leads to eating when we're not hungry, which is another way of saying overeating. Whenever we're eating when we're not hungry, that's overeating, eating more than our body needs. That is what causes us to not lose weight or to gain weight. And so when we solve for overeating, and there's many wonderful ways of doing that, this podcast has almost 200 episodes regarding that.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:00:45]:
Dive right in. When we decrease the overeating or eliminate it, then we're at a weight a natural weight. But even better than that is we have a very calm, instinctual relationship with food. And we can create that even if we don't have that now. And that's why I'm here because it's possible. If it wasn't, that would just be mean, but it totally is possible. We can retrain our brain. It's really our brain.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:01:15]:
And when we retrain it, because it was bombarded with everything from diet culture and all the rest of that stuff growing up, People didn't know so many things that we now know. We can change our relationship with food. And there's so much peace there. Oh my gosh. It's really quite something. So that's what we do in general here. But today we are talking about food noise. Now, the reason today we're talking about food noise is because I was reminded of this because of an experience I just had.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:01:49]:
Often things will come from that, clients, me, anything I can use to help. And it's a pattern I noticed and changing it has made all the difference. So in general, I no longer have a lot of food noise. Thank goodness. I used to, and we're going to talk about that a little more, but right now in general, I don't. And so I notice when I do. I did start noticing some creeping in and this is the, it's so sneaky too. Yeah.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:02:18]:
Because what I noticed was that I just wanted more sweets. Now we don't, there are no restricted foods here, so it's not a problem that I wanted sweets. So I was like, oh, interesting. I want sweets. Okay. And then I was having more, but then what happened is I would have some dessert type of thing. And that again, no problem. But then I would want some in the morning too, which I never have.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:02:44]:
Hmm. And then I was noticing the food noise really loudly. So how I think it happened was the food— I'm going to call it food noise, but it didn't even seem like that. It was really subtle. I was just like, oh, I'm in the mood for something sweet, which normally I'm not. Then I wanted to do something about it because it wasn't my normal. I knew it wasn't. And I started to notice what I noticed.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:03:11]:
Is that I had been having, I was going to say a glass of wine, but you know what? It wasn't even, it was like half a glass of wine at the end of the evening. I got into that habit a little bit, even just a little. So it's not that I was having multiple glasses of wine or anything. I was just having a little glass of wine. Again, no restriction on what I eat. So it wasn't a problem. But what I noticed is when I had that, I then had the food noise for other sugar. And it, that makes perfect sense.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:03:43]:
It's actually biological because wine is basically sugar. And so it was like I was having sugar, which made my brain want more sugar. That is something that physiologically happens with sugar. It happens with all forms of sugar and refined carbs. Yeah. Carbohydrates. It acts similarly in the brain where it's a higher concentration than the brain is used to of that glucose spike that happens because of refined sugar and refined carbs. So it's a physiologic issue that happens in our blood, which affects our brain, which then leads— one of the things it can lead to is food noise.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:04:29]:
It can lead to other things too, of course. Yeah. One of them, the obvious ones being diabetes. It doesn't always lead to diabetes, of course, but that's what I'm saying about physiologically, right? So we have mechanisms in our body that are impacted by sugar, but we also have brain patterns that are affected by sugar. And again, this is not to say we can't have sugar. We absolutely can. What I want us to know Is how it affects our body. I always want us to go into things eyes wide open.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:05:04]:
Now it took me a little minute to figure this out and I have actually seen it before, but I guess it's been a while or I don't know, but I was enjoying my half a glass of wine, but then I wasn't because of how it affected the rest of my day. And that is what I want to talk to you about, the food noise. So the food noise is really annoying. If you've ever had it, I know you know this. Yeah. It's just a persistent thing constantly bugging me all the time in my head that I want more sweets. And I don't want more sweets, but my brain does. And it will do anything to keep getting it.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:05:43]:
When I realized this, then I knew what I had to do, which was make decisions about my wine. And what I mean by that is when I decide to have wine, It's not just the decision to have wine that moment, like how will it affect that meal or whatever. I want to take into account the fact that I will have residual food noise. I will have increased food noise for the next, I don't know, I don't know how long, but I'm thinking at least 24 hours, if not maybe 48. And that's fine. I absolutely can make that decision, but I want to know the decision that I'm making. And I was thinking about it. Having wine is like picking up a 20-pound weight when I go for a walk.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:06:33]:
I could just go for my walk or I could pick up a 20-pound weight and go for my walk. It's possible to go on my walk with a 20-pound weight, but it just makes it harder. And that's what wine does for me. It just makes it a little more challenging the next day. Now there's a lot of things that are more challenging the next day, right? If we— with wine, like if we drink a lot of it, we'll have a hangover or we'll be tired or our sleep will be impacted. There's so many things. And for me, food noise is one of them. There are plenty of times when I may say, I really want to have wine and I will deal with the consequences when I know what the consequences are.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:07:17]:
Then I can decide to deal with them. That's the beauty. But what I wasn't okay with was how intense it got. And I was— I didn't even need the wine. It wasn't like wine was vital to my life. Now our brain will have us think differently. It will say wine is very important. And that's the food noise that leads to the urges, that leads to the having things when we don't want them.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:07:41]:
And I've done past podcasts on urge work. Urge work is a really fabulous way of handling the urges that the food noise can trigger. And I will hook that up in the show notes so you can see that episode too. But connecting the wine, or otherwise known as sugar, to the increased food noise was the issue for me. Because when I stopped having the wine, which again was not a vital, important part of my life, Honestly, so much easier. Like shockingly. Then sweets just don't even come into my head. It's really remarkable.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:08:23]:
And this is what I want to— this is the point I wanted to make to you. The difference is night and day. I just don't want it. It's again, I'm not restricting it. I'm not saying I should never have it. I'm not saying you shouldn't, you better not. And none of that is going on. I literally don't want it.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:08:40]:
It makes such a difference. And I'm point— I want to point out, I point this out to myself and to you. It was about the first sugar. It wasn't about me being a good person or a bad person or a strong person or a weak person. It was about the sugar I was consuming. It's fascinating and such an important point because we so often blame ourselves And it's a physiologic issue in our brain. And we can make— and the decision we can make is ahead of time. Now I could have also experimented with wine, had it with a bigger dinner, had it less of it.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:09:20]:
I had half a glass. So I mean, it can't be, but like, that's how little affected me. It's amazing. But my point is I could, now that I know this, I can play with it a little bit. For me in general, since it wasn't something that was so vital to my life, I easily can go without wine most of the time. I will. Absolutely decide to have wine other times, but I, on a nightly basis, I am now like, oh, you know what? Not worth it really. And just noticing that was really helpful.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:09:50]:
So that's the point of this episode is I want you to know food noise is modifiable. What I mean by that is certain things make it more intense, the food noise. And we could— Can discover those things for ourselves. And then we can ease the noise because we're going backwards, finding out like, why am I eating when I don't want to? If we go backwards, it may be because of the food noise. And then we may be able to do something to impact the food noise. And when we have less food noise, we're overeating less. And then not only that, but in such an easier way. We're not— remember, we don't use willpower around here because that doesn't work.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:10:32]:
We just don't want it. That's always what we're going for. It's so much easier to make a decision like that when we don't want it, then we don't have it. It's very easy. And you'll know, you can know the difference. I don't know if there's some food you hate, you don't want that food. Now I'm not saying we want to hate anything, but I'm wanting you to feel the feeling of not wanting something. I'm sure there's a food like that.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:10:58]:
I was just thinking. Like I love banana pudding. I know there's lots of people who don't love banana pudding. So it would be very easy for them to not have it. That's what I'm talking about. That kind of ease. Oh, I just don't want that. Yes.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:11:11]:
Those are always the kinds of decisions we're going for because they're so easy to make. And we can do that with the decisions we make, with the choices that we have. And I'm going to go into that a little more. So Certain things make food noise more intense. We can discover what those things are and then ease the noise for ourselves. And here's the way we do that. Awareness is king or queen. Awareness is the most important.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:11:43]:
This is why I'm making the podcast. I'm bringing this to your attention that first of all, food noise is modifiable and it can be physiologic and it's our brain and our brain is impacted by the ways we think, the exposures that it has, the foods we eat, the sleep we get, everything. So we want to be aware when we have intense food noise, what it's for, when it is. When we can identify the surrounding circumstances, then we can see which ones we want to play with or can play with. Now, I've done other podcasts about food noise before. Again, I'll hook that up in the show notes. Okay. But there we talked about things that can increase food noise.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:12:29]:
And I'll mention some of them here too. Hunger. Remember, if we get overhungry, the food noise is louder. So when you're looking to see what circumstances surround your more intense food noise, hunger may be one of them. Then food types. That's what I was alluding to here with sugar. Yeah. There might be meals that have less protein for you, and therefore maybe you're hungrier and then you have more food noise, or something about the meal increased food noise, whether it had low protein or maybe high sugar or refined carbs.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:13:08]:
Those may set it off for you more. Sleep is a big one. If we don't get restful sleep, That can increase food noise. And then thirst, right? So hydration, making sure you're hydrated. Thirst can mask as hunger. It can also lead to food noise. So these are just some of the major ones: hunger, food type, sleep, hydration. When you're becoming aware of your food noise, like when it's most intense, these are great places to start looking.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:13:41]:
And then we modify them. We drink more water, we get better sleep, we eat when we're hungry at -2. We don't wait until we're overhungry. And then we can play with the food types on our plate. Maybe it's rice works better than potatoes, or maybe bread works better when you have meat on it. I don't know. You're going to have to figure that out for yourself. But the wonderful thing is you can.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:14:08]:
Yeah. Experimenting is a great thing to do and noticing the difference in food noise is key. So you just play with those variables until you have peace or at least more balance and ease when it comes to food noise. There are trade-offs you may not be willing to make and that's amazing. Again, eyes wide open. We just want to know. It's not that we're saying I'm never having any more sugar ever in my whole entire life. Right.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:14:35]:
You can make that decision if you want to, but you absolutely don't have to. We're looking for balance and ease here. I will say, just for the record, if you do take refined sugar and carbs out of your system, you will have really low food noise, almost nonexistent. That's really true. As long as you're getting sleep and drinking your water. That is not a requirement. To me, that's a hard— I don't think that's sustainable. And remember, I'm I'm always going for sustainability.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:15:08]:
I want you to have a different relationship with food in general so that anything that comes your way, you can handle and manage. And you have decades and decades ahead of you having to have a relationship with food. So I always want sustainability. But I did want to say that because food itself, sugar and flour, does have impact on your brain. Okay. I personally am not deciding to do that. And I am happy to work with people who are, but also happy to show you this moderate version, which is just being aware of the decisions that you're making. That's all.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:15:44]:
We're grownups. We get to make whatever decision we want. And when we have all the information, it makes it much easier to make decisions. So that's what I got for you today. Food noise is modifiable. That's such an important point to know. Sometimes it feels like it's not. Food noise is modifiable.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:16:02]:
Certain things make it more intense. We can discover those things and ease the noise. Remember, awareness is key. So you start to notice when you have more intense food noise, you identify the surrounding circumstances. Consider hunger, food types, sleep, hydration, and then play with the variables until you have peace. Or ease. I guess those are similar. If you want help with this, I am here and I would always love to work with you.
Stephanie Fein MD [00:16:34]:
Find me on Instagram @StephanieFeinMD, or visit my website stephaniefeinmd.com and click the Lose Weight with Me button. We will be connected. Until next week, I am sending you so much love. Mwah.
