Is loud food noise actually a form of executive dysfunction rather than just hunger?

It's often described that way conceptually. Food noise as persistent, hard-to-redirect attention on food resembles other ADHD-related difficulty shifting or dismissing intrusive thoughts, rather than being purely a hunger signal. That said, it's not formally classified as an executive function measure in clinical research; it's more of a descriptive framework people use to explain the experience, which many find resonates even without a hard clinical definition behind it yet. References: https://obesitycanada.ca/healthcare-professionals/adult-clinical-practice-guideline/