Red Hoffman, MD, ND, FACS on Weight and Healthcare

[Red Hoffman, MD, ND, FACS]

This post made me think a lot so thank you. When I think back to my 20s (and when I read through my old journals from those years) I think of food noise. I was literally tortured by never ending thoughts about food. I thought about food day and night, almost fantasized about it. I think it was driven by restriction (even when I was eating enough calories, there were always things that were “bad” and off limits. And certainly I never had any noise about broccoli). I still get these thoughts today… it’s much less noisy because I either give my body what it’s thinking about or, in other situations, I talk to myself lovingly and ask my body what’s going on (I like to do this in the bath which has always been a very calming place for me). Sometimes it’s anxiety or fear that I haven’t yet named, and when I do that, the other thoughts go away. Sometimes I really just want something so I go get it. For me, what I call noise is very different than hunger- which I experience as “I must eat right now.” That thought is less about any particular food and more about just getting energy and glucose into my body. It’s also more often accompanied by other physical feelings, like my stomach rumbling or having low blood sugar, and it directly correlates to waiting too long to eat. It’s not mentally unpleasant, but can certainly feel physically unpleasant, whereas my “noise” always felt like mental torture.

Thanks again for this discussion.