Drugs Like Ozempic and Wegovy Cut Cravings and Turn Down Food Noise

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2 years ago

June 29, 2023

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Share on Pinterest People are reporting that drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy have helped changed their relationship, ending compulsive thoughts and constant distractions from food noise. AleksandarGeorgiev/Getty ImagesPeople who take Wegovy say it helps silence food noise. While food noise is not a medical term, experts define it as compulsively thinking about and being distracted by food.Experts say there are also ways to silence food noise without using medication.

For much of her life, food dominated Gray Beards thoughts.

I would wake up hungry and think about what I was going to eat for the day, she told Healthline.

As a kindergarten teacher, after waking up, she would immediately think about what to eat during morning and afternoon snack times and what to bring for lunch. Her thoughts were also preoccupied with what to eat for dinner and nighttime snacks.

Everything was centered around whens the next meal going to be, Beard said. After dinner, Id still feel hungry and think theres some ice cream, maybe Ill eat that. The food noise was always there. When I was bored, Id go snack.

Since she started taking the weight loss drug Wegovy about four months ago, she said the food noise has silenced.

[It] has been quieted and gone away, she said. My family now gets annoyed cause sometimes its 6:00 and theyre like, are you going to make dinner?’

During the first four months of taking the medication, she lost 16 pounds and experienced mild side effects, including constipation and nausea the day and day after she gives herself the shot. The side effects are manageable and she is happy with the pace she is dropping pounds.

I want to do it slow because I know from reading and research that the slower you lose it the more likely you are to keep it off, Beard said. Im trying to feel better about myself and Im trying to get my confidence up so to me its not about the number on the scale or how skinny I may look; its how I feel. What is food noise?

While food noise is not a medical term or diagnosis, Dr. Rekha Kumar, practicing endocrinologist in NYC and Chief Medical Officer of Found, said patients who have challenges with their weight or eating behavior describe food noise as a preoccupation with food, healthy food, trying to avoid unhealthy food, planning the next meal, or thinking about whether to stop eating.

The term is similar to hedonic hunger, which researchers define as preoccupation with and desire to consume foods for the purposes of pleasure and in the absence of physical hunger.

Kumar noted that many clinicians who treat disordered eating conditions also use the term.

To me, it always implied an overwhelming effort patients are making to control their eating behavior when our biology should do much of that naturally (with some element of mindfulness rather than total preoccupation of thoughts on this), Kumar told Healthline.

She explained that the reason glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists like Wegovy and Ozempic might help to silence food noise is because they restore the gut-brain connection that might not be functioning properly in people who are living with overweight, obesity, prediabetes, diabetes, or polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

The hormone GLP-1 in Wegovy is a hormone that signals fullness to the brain after a meal, she said.Are there ways to silence food noise without drugs?

Foods that are higher in protein, fat, and fiber can raise your natural levels of GLP-1, said Kumar.

Avoiding getting overly hungry and starting a meal with protein and vegetables can help as well, she said. Getting adequate sleep will keep appetite-regulating hormones stable and reduce the risk of food noise. Regular exercise, which raises natural endorphins and adrenaline can also help increase fullness.

Healthy eating is a combination of eating healthy foods and having a healthy relationship with food, said Christina Brown, MS, ACSM CPT, nutrition and weight loss coach.

While some people may not be able to quiet food noise without the use of medication, she points out that, for others, there are also effective ways that can help silence it that dont require weight loss medication.

She suggested working with a therapist to determine the reason why you are constantly thinking of food or using food for emotional purposes.

Many of us have an unhealthy relationship with food, which often causes the food noise. We need to heal that relationship in order to truly get rid of the food noise, she said. Taking a weight loss drug may help to mute the food noise, but it will not completely silence it.

Her biggest concern with weight loss drugs is that the people taking them may not make any healthy lifestyle changes, such as learning to eat healthy and exercise daily.

The other issue is that because they have not created any healthy lifestyle changes, as soon as they stop taking the weight loss drug, they will gain the weight back, and typically gain even more back than they lost, Brown said.

Taking the drug for the remainder of ones life in order to keep the weight off concerns her. She said people should question whether the side effects are worth it and if there are long-term ramifications of taking the drug.

Keeping this in mind, Beard said she isnt sure how long shell take Wegovy.

She is also leaning on lifestyle coaching provided through the Ro Body Program. Over the years, she tried weight loss plans like Weight Watchers, Medi-Weightloss, and FASTer Way to Fat Loss, as well as different workout regimes. While she found some success with all of them, she has found it challenging to keep the weight off.

After seeing her sister lose 30 pounds while taking Wegovy, she was intrigued. Her doctor also suggested the medication for weight loss and health reasons, but Beards insurance didnt approve it.

She received access to the medication through the year-long Ro Body Program, which provides her with health coaching and a weekly curriculum that includes educational information on healthy eating and exercising.

A lot I already knew because Ive tried so many different programs, but the biggest thing its helped me with is mindset, said Beard. Dont completely turn off food noise

While silencing food noise is something Beard strives for, she realizes that learning to eat when her body needs fuel is important for a healthy lifestyle.

I can see how it might be easy to not eat [on Wegovy], but I am trying to make healthy habits so I try to eat three meals a day and make real healthy choices, she said.

The greatest benefit of taking Wegovy is that she no longer feels like mindlessly snacking, and doesnt have as many cravings for unhealthy food or alcohol. When she thinks she is hungry, she has learned to question whether she really is before grabbing food.

Food can be so controlling in your lifeI have a better understanding of whats going on in my body now, she said.

After taking Wegovy for two or three weeks, she said the silencing began. However, after taking the medication for several months, she said she is learning to keep the food noise at a manageable volume.

[Its] just freeing not having to think what could we do today? Lets get ice cream, lets go out to eat. Things now are not centered around that, said Beard. If my daughter does something special, Im like what can we do that is not food related to celebrate these things? Lets get our nails done or have a movie night, so Im feeling a lot better mentally.

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Terror group supporters posted on TikTok, YouTube and Google from site targeted in Indian airstrikes

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3 hours ago

May 11, 2025

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Terror group supporters posted on TikTok, YouTube and Google from site targeted in Indian airstrikes

Social media accounts expressing support for a Pakistan-based terror group linked to al Qaeda appear to have posted recent videos from a Pakistan mosque targeted by Indian airstrikes.

Sky News has found videos posted on TikTok, YouTube and Google that appear to be filmed at the Markaz Taiba Mosque in Muridke. The captions and usernames contain expressions of support for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and a group called ‘313’.

Sky News has found and geolocated multiple videos that appear to be filmed in the area where the captions include either or both ‘313’ and LeT.

Some of the videos show men in the streets with guns. Another post captioned a video of children doing martial arts training inside the targeted mosque, “we are little soldiers, and we fight the non-believers”.

The caption uses the hashtag #جہاد313, which translates to ‘313’ jihad.

‘313’ appears to refer to the 313 Brigade, a proscribed terror organisation in Pakistan.

In a TikTok video posted to the Google page for Markaz Taiba Mosque in Muridke, a man can be seen walking along the street with a gun.

The account that posted that video wrote in their description, “Lashkar Taiba, Mujahid Force, ‘313’ and Markaz Taiba Muridke”, self-proclaiming their support for the groups.

India’s retaliatory strikes on Pakistani-adminstered Kashmir and Pakistan on 7 May came after a deadly attack in Indian-administered Kashmir last month.

Gunmen opened fire on tourists, killing 26 people and injuring dozens in a popular holiday spot near Pahalgam, Kashmir, on 22 April.

LeT were accused by India of involvement in the Pahalgam attack through their proxy the Resistance Front, which claimed responsibility for the attack.

LeT, which is designated as a terrorist organisation by the UN Security Council and the UK, focuses on fighting Indian control in Kashmir and is based in the Punjab region of Pakistan.

Pakistan denies allegations of terror camps operating in the country. This region has been in the control of the Punjabi government since 2010. The Punjab government condemned the Indian strikes, and declared a state of emergency across Punjab.

Muskan Sangwan, senior intelligence analyst at TRAC, a terrorism research and analysis consortium, told Sky News: “Brigade 313 is al Qaeda in Pakistan. It’s an umbrella organisation for members of several groups like Taliban, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Haqqat ul-Jihad-al-Islami, Jaish-e Muhammad, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Jundullah.”

Ms Sangwan explained that ‘313’ refers to the number of companions said to have fought with the Prophet Mohammed in the Battle of Badr.

TRAC have seen a recent uptick in TikTok videos and other social media posts that refer to ‘313’.

Many of the accounts are linked to each other.

Ms Sangwan said: “They [the TikTok users] mostly use ‘313’ as a hashtag… trying to push that hashtag to as many people it can reach on social media.”

Sky News sought to verify the location by comparing before and after videos from the strike location, and using the video released by the Indian army conducting the strike.

One video showing damage at the strike location was posted by a user with 313 in their TikTok username.

Below is satellite imagery that shows the destruction of the site.

In one TikTok, the video is captioned “bring your arms and ammunition and go to war”. The text on the screen of the TikTok is ‘313’ and he is carrying a gun.

The group are comfortable with having an online presence. On the Google tag for Markaz Taiba Mosque in Muridke, men pose for a group photo. Almost all the people in the photo have used ‘313’ on TikTok.

Ms Sangwan explained: “With these people from Muridke, pushing this propaganda on social media would generate a lot of significance in terms of recruitment and in terms of gaining support from local people and from other people.”

Sky News’ Asia correspondent Cordelia Lynch has reported on the ground in Muridke.

India says it struck Markaz Taiba, a site in Muridke about 15 miles (25km) from the border, which has long been claimed to be a terrorist training site associated with LeT.

MEMRI, a US-based research group that monitors terrorist threats, told Sky News: “It has been known for decades that Lashkar-e-Taiba has its headquarters in Muridke.”

Sky News contacted the Pakistan Ministry of Defence for comment. Khawaja Asif, Pakistan’s defence minister, told Sky News: “This appears to be a random video with background music added later – consistent with how TikTok trends often function. If this is to be considered credible evidence, we could produce millions of similar clips ourselves.”

Mr Asif also said that any suggestion that the mosque was used as a base by terrorists was a “completely false, social media made up hoax”.

On 7 May, after the strikes in Pakistan, the Indian subcontinent branch of al Qaeda issued a statement condemning India’s actions and encouraging its supporters to wage jihad against India.

The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.

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Putin wants direct talks with Ukraine, but Zelenskyy and allies demand 30-day ceasefire from Monday

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3 hours ago

May 11, 2025

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Putin wants direct talks with Ukraine, but Zelenskyy and allies demand 30-day ceasefire from Monday

Russia’s president has suggested fresh peace talks with Ukraine in Istanbul as part of “direct negotiations” but also “without preconditions”.

Vladimir Putin put forward the proposal as European leaders including Sir Keir Starmer threatened him with fresh sanctions if Russia failed to comply with an unconditional 30-day ceasefire starting on Monday.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told CNN that Moscow will need to consider those terms.

On Saturday the prime minister met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, recently elected German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Kyiv.

Speaking at the Kremlin in the early hours of Sunday, Mr Putin did not directly address the 30-day ceasefire proposal but instead offered to restart peace talks Russia and Ukraine held in 2022.

“We propose the Kyiv authorities resume the negotiations they interrupted at the end of 2022… to resume direct negotiations… without any preconditions… to begin without delay next Thursday 15 May in Istanbul,” he said.

Russia’s own unilateral three-day ceasefire, declared for the 80th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany, expired on Saturday, and Ukraine said Russian forces have repeatedly violated it.

During the summit in Kyiv, European leaders secured the backing of Donald Trump after briefing him on the progress made on the so-called “coalition of the willing” plans in a 20-minute phone call.

“All of us here, together with the US, are calling Putin out,” said Sir Keir.

“So we are clear, all five leaders here – all the leaders of the meeting we just had with the coalition of the willing – an unconditional ceasefire, rejecting Putin’s conditions, and clear that if he turns his back on peace, we will respond.

“Working with President Trump, with all our partners, we will ramp up sanctions and increase our military aid for Ukraine’s defence to pressure Russia back to the table.”

It comes after President Trump called for “ideally” a 30-day ceasefire between Kyiv and Moscow, and warned that if any pause in the fighting is not respected “the US and its partners will impose further sanctions”.

During Mr Putin’s statement on Sunday, he insisted he would support peace talks: “We are committed to serious negotiations with Ukraine.”

He told reporters: “Their purpose is to eliminate the root causes of the conflict, to establish a long-term, lasting peace. We do not rule out that during these negotiations it will be possible to agree on some new truces, a new ceasefire.”

Putin cobbles together response to 30-day ceasefire demand

The Kremlin billed this as a meaningful statement from Vladimir Putin but how much does it actually mean?

His comments are exactly the same as what Moscow has been saying for weeks, only repackaged with a date. The latest attempt to avoid committing to a 30-day ceasefire.

Next Thursday – 15 May – is when he’s proposing to hold direct talks with Ukraine. Only then, he says, can they discuss the details of a longer truce.

Istanbul is apparently the venue. The trouble is, Turkey doesn’t appear to know about it. The Russian leader said he’d call President Erdogan tomorrow.

Given America’s apparent support for Europe’s ultimatum to Russia (ceasefire or sanctions), he had to respond with something new.

But this felt like a proposal that had been hastily cobbled together in the corridor outside.

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Pope prays at tomb of predecessor during first outing since election

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3 hours ago

May 11, 2025

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Pope prays at tomb of predecessor during first outing since election

Pope Leo XIV made his first outing since his election on Saturday, making a surprise stop to pray at the tomb of his predecessor.

On Saturday afternoon, the new pontiff travelled to a sanctuary dedicated to the Madonna in the town of Genazzano.

The sanctuary is managed by Augustinian friars, the order the pope belongs to, and has been a place of pilgrimage since the 15th century.

The pontiff’s namesake. Pope Leo XIII, elevated it to a minor basilica and expanded its convent in the early 1900s.

After praying, Leo greeted the faithful gathered outside and offered a blessing.

On his way back to the Vatican, he stopped to pray at Pope Francis’s tomb at St Mary Major Basilica.

Earlier in the day, Leo held his first formal audience and said the Catholic Church must take the lead in facing threats to workers, such as AI.

The 69-year-old said the technology posed “new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labour”.

The leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics referred to AI as he explained his choice of name to the cardinals who elected him.

He said he identified with his namesake Pope Leo XIII, who was pontiff from 1878 to 1903 and addressed workers’ rights and capitalism at the dawn of the industrial age in the 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum.

The late pope, who laid the foundation for modern Catholic social thought, criticised both laissez-faire capitalism and state-centric socialism.

“In our own day, the church offers everyone the treasury of its social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labour,” Leo said.

The Pope also made clear he will follow in the modernising reforms of his predecessor Pope Francis to make the Catholic Church inclusive, attentive to the faithful, and an institution that looks out for the “least and rejected”.

Leo said he was fully committed to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the 1960s meetings that modernised the church.

Toward the end of his pontificate, Francis became increasingly vocal about the threats to humanity posed by AI and called for an international treaty to regulate it.

Francis brought his message to the G7 summit of world leaders last year, insisting AI must remain human-centric so decisions about when to use weapons or even less-lethal tools always remain made by humans and not machines.