Scientists Just Studied People Who Can’t Stop Thinking About Food

Newsweek · Maria Azzurra Volpe · 2026-11-06 09:04 UTC

New research has uncovered surprising patterns about who experiences the phenomenon, though some findings remain unexplained.

Do you often reach for a snack after a meal even though you feel full? Or find yourself craving food throughout the day despite not being hungry? You may be experiencing "food noise," a phenomenon that affects nearly one in five people in the U.S. but doesn't yet have a universally accepted scientific definition.

A new study from Penn State, published in Obesity Science and Practice, has found that 18 percent of people in the United States report frequent or constant food noise, and some demographics are more affected than others.

Daisuke Hayashi, a postdoctoral fellow in nutritional sciences and the study's lead author, told Newsweek that scientists currently know very little about what happens in the brain during food noise.

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