Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2025/12/ozempic-changing-foods-americans-buy

472 944 6 months ago

news.cornell.edu

nemomarx4• 6 months ago

“The data show clear changes in food spending following adoption,” Hristakeva said. “After discontinuation, the effects become smaller and harder to distinguish from pre-adoption spending patterns.”

It's interesting that overall spending doesn't decrease that much in the end, although shifting from snacks to fruit is the kind of change health advocates have always wanted?

giuliomagnifico• 6 months ago

After discontinuation of Ozempic, people start to gain the weight again (and buy again more food), that’s why the spending changes again.

jacobthesnakob7• 6 months ago

Which is no surprise to anybody with common sense, the data for discontinuing GLP-1s show exactly the intuitive outcome. Zero diet change, zero habit change for the vast majority of users. Weight loss is accomplished via biochemical tricks to eat less volume of calorie dense junk food, rather than diet substitution. When the artificial appetite suppression ends, volume of the same food increases again leading to weight yo-yo. Plus why start to exercise when you’ve got a magic weight loss drug?

Don’t get me wrong, there are some people using these drugs to get out of a pit of inertia with weight and sedentary lifestyles. But it’s small. GLP-1 drugs will have most users hooked for life because they don’t have the discipline and motivation to maintain the weight loss without it. Cha-Ching!

FatherOfCurses5• 6 months ago

People must be getting prescribed this medication in a vacuum without any corresponding nutritional guidance. I can't see any way of going back to my previous eating habits, mainly because I've really had my eyes opened to how mindless some of my eating was before.

SkyPuncher3• 6 months ago

Processed foods are much cheaper per calorie than "healthy" options.

GLP-1 helped me kick my cravings for junk food, but that just meant I was eating more of the "expensive" stuff. Instead of $0.50 worth of Doritos as a snack, I'm eating $1.50 worth of Greek yogurt and $1.50 worth of fruit.

spockz2• 6 months ago

Around here fruit is significantly more expensive than snacks. In fact, replacing the snacks with healthy food in our case increased spending. So it is awesome that these households managed to cut spendings.

vidarh• 6 months ago

Yeah, I'm not on ozempic (though considering it, to get the last bit of the way to where I want to be and ensure I don't bounce back, which is frankly a lot harder than "just" the initial loss) but lost 20kg+ on diet changes, and the price of fruit and berries is shockingly high. But my dietary change still saved us a lot more from cutting takeaways alone...

calpaterson• 6 months ago

fruit is significantly more expensive than snacks

This is a commonly repeated claim but it's usually not true. Fruit is, in fact, pretty cheap:

In the US, bananas average $1.68/kilo: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_price_rankings...

A kilo is usually ~6 bananas. So a banana costs maybe 28c on average. Find a cost-competitive ultra-processed snack for the calories and satiety that a banana provides. Healthy eating might not is cheap but junk food, specifically, is not usually a cost optimisation.

bluedino3• 6 months ago

I can buy a bag of apples for less than what a pack of Little Debbie snacks cost.

Ensorceled3• 6 months ago

It's interesting that overall spending doesn't decrease that much in the end

Only after discontinuation. GLP-1s should be considered chronic medication for most people.

XorNot4• 6 months ago

My brother was on it for a bit (and should go on it again) and the thing he noted was that it makes it easy to not eat but it gives you no useful habits to keep that up because it's so easy.

Which makes sense. I still calorie count everything generally because I know I'll let myself creep portion sizes unchecked.

bargainbin2• 6 months ago

There was an interesting study recently that showed coming off actually caused weight re-gain an order of magnitude worse than yo-yo dieting.

The media spun it as GLP-1’s being evil and pointless, quelle surprise, but really it hints towards obesity being more than just “fixing your relationship with food” and acknowledging that there is more we don’t understand about why some people are fatter than others despite similar lifestyles.

Going to be an interesting decade as more data is gathered on these, that’s for sure.

reedf1• 6 months ago

I do think this could only be temporary victory over the food industry by the pharmacology industry. It's only a matter of time until food additives or varieties are discovered that partially ameliorate the effects of ozempic.

dizlexic• 6 months ago

... do you have any evidence to back up this claim?

A4ET8a8uTh0_v2• 6 months ago

As meta as this comment is, I can't help but note that parent may simply be engaging in pattern recognition.

Drakim• 6 months ago

I don't know about a full on conspiracy, but it's no secret that in the US they put a lot of additional sugar into products you wouldn't think had them.

brador2• 6 months ago

Additives already added to food exist to circumvent natural protections. Small leap to extend this to bypassing glp.

fellowmartian• 6 months ago

it’s actually true and they’re trying to develop GLP-1 resistant foods by using other sensory channels: https://archive.is/N0whF

vintermann5• 6 months ago

It's a prediction. Not a terribly unreasonable one as far as I can see. If a drug can move 5% of the ~trillion dollars spent on groceries in the US, there's a lot of money available for clawing those 5% back.

Demanding evidence for predictions like this is a bit... hm. Arrogant, maybe. A prediction is a commitment. We want people to make predictions. The evidence we get when those predictions come true or not. Would you be willing to make the opposite prediction?

notdang• 6 months ago

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/...

Here are some first steps:

Earlier this year, Conagra started labeling some of its Healthy Choice frozen meals with high protein and fiber as "GLP-1 friendly." A spokesperson said those meals are selling faster than rival products making similar claims on their packaging. The company plans to introduce new Healthy Choice recipes with the same labeling in May and work with grocers like Walmart (WMT.O), and Kroger (KR.N), to market them, the spokesperson said.

Nestle, the world's biggest food company, has also introduced new frozen meals that cater specifically to GLP-1 users, called Vital Pursuit.

Fast-casual Mexican chain Chipotle (CMG.N),on Tuesday added a "High Protein Menu" that features, among other items, a single cup of chicken or steak.

buellerbueller5• 6 months ago

The evidence is the future event/state/action that proves or disproves the prediction.

cjrp• 6 months ago

Why bother when the junk food industry can just lobby hard and make these drugs illegal

carlmr9• 6 months ago

The share of U.S. households reporting at least one user rose from about 11% in late 2023 to more than 16% by mid-2024.

I was wondering how you could get such a high impact overall. But it seems one in 6 households are on GLP-1 drugs in the US.

In my friend circle in Germany I don't even know one single person on this stuff.

It's insane to me that so many people need these to get off the processed foods killing them in the US.

Raed6676• 6 months ago

in europe there is a social stigma around GLP-1 drugs, a lot of people considered it cheating and lazy, so a lot of people don't dare talk about their usage

raverbashing• 6 months ago

Or, you know, just less obese people

u_sama7• 6 months ago

You also forget it is expensive and in many cases not taking charge by the respective healthcare autority of the country, so it leads to less consumption.

carlmr9• 6 months ago

There may be, but I haven't seen anyone lose significant weight either since this started.

Traubenfuchs2• 6 months ago

In Austria I have noticed a massive social stigma. I think that's embarrassing and backwards. As someone who is very athletic and takes nothing extraordinary besides creatine and whey protein I fully support anyone who wants to become healthier, with or without medication.

Foivos• 6 months ago

The social stigma in Europe exists, because these drugs are in limited supply. So, if a person who does not really need them is using them, the people who actually need them to stay alive might have difficulty accessing them.

blell5• 6 months ago

I read this online, I don't know where it was, so I can't give a source, it probably was on twitter:

"People really want these things - exercise, weight - to be important moral objectives for others, when they're not that important in the grand scheme of things. Now you'll just have to find another easy visual marker for ranking people by moral superiority."

u_sama7• 6 months ago

For artificial problems, artificial solutions. I think the state of food in the US is really bad, and one cannot compare such products to the superior EU food quality standards and eating habits (and city designs) which render the incentives really perverse

mistahenry2• 6 months ago

I lived in Germany and Indonesia. It’s easier for me now back in the US than ever to eat healthy.

I can buy pre-chopped Cole slaw, diced peppers / onions, etc. Whole Foods is best in class (Alnatura doesn’t come close)

While to me, the layman, it seems health regulation in general in Europe is more conservative about what can be put on the body / be consumed, I think it’s mostly Americans don’t want to eat healthy. And the portion sizes here are insane (just look at the evolution dinner plate. 1960s plates at an antique sale only pass for salad plates)

mschwaig• 6 months ago

A consequence of universal healthcare that people don't talk about much is that it turns unhealthy citizens from an individual cost into more of a collective one. So it makes sense that countries with universal healthcare regulate in favor of their citizens as opposed to their food industry, because they're paying for the consequences more directly.

vladvasiliu5• 6 months ago

These drugs are expensive and, at least in France, they're discussing offering them. I think this is the main reason explaining the difference in prevalence between the US and the EU.

Despite access to "superior food quality", weight issues are absolutely a problem in the EU, too. Maybe it's not at the same point as in the US, but 51% of the population of the EU (outside Ireland and Germany for some reason) are "overweight or obese" [0].

---

[0] https://drees.solidarites-sante.gouv.fr/publications-communi... In French, from the ministry of health, but there's a chart which should be clear enough for everybody.

davidmurdoch• 6 months ago

Meanwhile, YUM foods is probably working overtime trying to find a way to work around the effects of GLP-1.

staticassertion7• 6 months ago

I think the state of food in the US is really bad, and one cannot compare such products to the superior EU food quality standards

What quality standards are you referring to?

gedy• 6 months ago

Most out of shape guy I know is German fellow who likes "healthy food".

acuozzo3• 6 months ago

I think the state of food in the US is really bad

Or, perhaps, the state of mental health in the US is really bad.

mathgradthrow2• 6 months ago

Food is wayyyy better in America than Europe, are you kidding? Why do you think we're so fat?

blitzar2• 6 months ago

Your friend circle in Germany probably doesn't have many members who were a proud big boned 5"7' 300lbs (~140kg).

wongarsu2• 6 months ago

For good reason.

That'd be a BMI of 47. There isn't a lot of statistical data for such high BMIs, but [1] lists prevalence of BMI>40. In Germany 1.2% of men and 2.8% of women had a BMI over 40 in 2011, in the US it was 5.6% and 9.7% respectively in 2016. That's nearly four times as many as in Germany.

1: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7078951/

Esophagus44• 6 months ago

In my (obviously anecdotal) experience, that’s not who the primary GLP1 user is.

It’s the suburban mom (or dad sometimes) who wants help losing a little weight. Instead of being 300lbs like your example, she’s 160lbs and wants to be 140lbs.

seedless-sensat• 6 months ago

I am not American, but I think you are unfairly dismissing the massive benefits GLP-1s have for people who struggle to maintain a healthy diet. It really feels like a miracle drug.

It's insane to me that so many people need these to get off the processed foods killing them in the US.

Your comparison of your friends in Germany vs "insanity" in the US doesn't feel relevant

carlmr9• 6 months ago

I didn't dismiss any benefits. But so many people needing an anti-addiction drug to get off addictive foods IMO should raise alarm bells.

The food producers need to be sanctioned. It's unsustainable for a whole nation to be on these expensive drugs.

If you think an outside perspective is irrelevant I'm also not sure why you don't just move on and not comment.

thunfischbrot• 6 months ago

It does not read dismissive to me. They are surprised, yet not necessarily judging those who use it.

There can be a discussion about the perverse incentives of systems without judging the individuals.

Ensorceled3• 6 months ago

I think you are misreading the comment you are replying to:

Your comparison of your friends in Germany vs "insanity" in the US doesn't feel relevant

It's incredibly relevant, why are GLP-1s less needed in Germany vs. US (and other countries like Canada)? This is the insanity they are talking about, not the users of the medication.

only-one1701• 6 months ago

I’d advise folks to consider a) the relationship between poverty, stress, and obesity Nd b) the income inequality of the United States relative to Germany

kayo_202110302• 6 months ago

... and that "bad" food in the US is frequently cheaper and easier to find than "good" food.

temp8830• 6 months ago

Absolutely. The American way of life traps people in a zoo. There is nothing to do other than work (if you are lucky), eat, and consume junk media. For ones who are poor the only difference is the degree to which the food is also junk.

Aurornis8• 6 months ago

You cited poverty as a reason but then switched to income inequality as the statistic.

When citing poverty, simply look at poverty rates, not a different statistic. Income inequality is higher in countries with higher incomes, like the United States.

Regardless, obesity is not limited to people in poverty.

conception• 6 months ago

An astonishing number of people are type two diabetic in this country due to poor health and poor access to healthcare. But glp1 is covered as a diabetic treatment so a tremendous number of folks can get it at a reasonable cost.

kristopolous• 6 months ago

The supermarket "super user" category of people who bought a lot of food and people who are using it is likely not a small crossover

vovavili3• 6 months ago

Nothing surprising for me. Unless you're in the top percentiles in terms of self-discipline, becoming obese is usually a one-way road. GLP-1 is a lazy solution for a problem that primarily stems from laziness.

TaupeRanger• 6 months ago

"Lazy" is a pejorative term, which makes your comment sound denigrating to users of GLP-1s. If that is your intent, then your issue with people using medicine to help them avoid diabetes and heart disease is that....it's too easy?

carlosjobim4• 6 months ago

So what? Why does that bother you? Is the (European) hatred towards your fellow brothers and sisters so strong that you prefer them to be chronically unhealthy, when there is a solution for them?

pjc502• 6 months ago

Obesity is not evenly distributed by age or demographic. If you're a relatively young person in the workforce, you probably don't know such people. But it is true that obesity is much less prevalent in most of Europe. Even the places with less "healthy" diets, suprisingly.

amanaplanacanal5• 6 months ago

But obesity rates are going up there, too, they are just lagging behind the Anglo world.

rootusrootus36• 6 months ago

But it is true that obesity is much less prevalent in most of Europe

Let's put this into perspective. On average, the US has about twice the obesity rate as Europe (though in both cases there is a fairly wide variation regionally). And Europe has 4 or 5 times the obesity rate of Japan. So relatively speaking, Europe is not in a position to argue that their regulations or lifestyles are the answer.

tyjen• 6 months ago

The overall food quality in Germany is significantly higher than in the US. Visit an Aldi or Lidl in Germany, then visit one in the US; night and day difference in food quality.

You can tell Germany cares for its population via food regulation and from what's offered; whereas, it's a toxic trash heap in America solved with drugs or paying a higher premium for healthier items. The healthier items in America should be a baseline instead of pricing out people. Feels like Americans are paying for a premium upfront or downstream via pharmaceutical/healthcare solutions.

bryanrasmussen• 6 months ago

The healthier items in America should be a baseline instead of pricing out people.

what percentage of people on Ozempic etc. are poor enough that they would be priced out by healthier food?

11235813213• 6 months ago

I haven’t seen that difference between German Aldi/Lidl and American Aldi; are you thinking of any particular items? Americans just buy more food.

brianpbeau4• 6 months ago

It's not just processed foods, there is also a genetic struggle as well. Looking at my family living in the US and in the EU, being overweight is a thing for a large portion of us. Even in my grandparents generation of family had issues as well, and they were all blue collar manual workers that lived before processed foods.

This is not to say you are wrong. The food supply in the US is not healthy. The bad news is that the same greed that destroyed our food will find ways to get around the ways GLP-1s work.

xenospn2• 6 months ago

I’m sure in 5 years all processed microwave meals and fast food will be “fortified with GLP-1”.

LeifCarrotson• 6 months ago

There's negligible "genetic" difference between German and American gastrointestinal systems. No DNA mutations occurred in your grandparents that caused all of their children and children's children to be overweight.

There may be cultural or behavioral issues - attitudes and habits around cooking, expectations of what a meal includes or does not include, taste preferences on what's too sweet or too fatty, etc - but it's not genetic.

lm2846916• 6 months ago

there is also a genetic struggle as well.

Weird that it virtually did not exist pre ww2 and that it now affects 75%+ of your population

phkahler2• 6 months ago

> It's not just processed foods, there is also a genetic struggle as well. Looking at my family living in the US and in the EU, being overweight is a thing for a large portion of us.

It's not genetic, this is just your family refusing to take responsibility for their own eating habits. The proof is people who have bariatric surgery so that they can't eat as much, and people on GLP 1 drugs so they aren't hungry. Both groups lose weight. It's not your genes, it's the fact that you put too much food in your mouth (and probably the wrong kind of food). As an overeater myself, knowing this does not help reduce intake... People have to make changes and stop blaming genetics, or thyroid (there are drugs for that too) or whatever it is they think is beyond their control.

RobinL• 6 months ago

I was curious for a UK comparison so I looked it up.

At the start of 2025, about 3% of adults in UK had used GLP-1 drugs in past year in the UK. And "most GLP-1 for weight loss in the UK is from private, rather than NHS provision" [1].

[1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12781702/

esperent• 6 months ago

I assume that translates to it being really hard to get in the NHS so people are resorting to buying it themselves. I wonder what the percentage would be if it was easy to get from the NHS?

Aurornis8• 6 months ago

UK numbers are always interesting because the NHS leans conservative about access to many types of care and medication.

For another example, rates of COVID-19 vaccination are significantly lower in the UK not because people there don’t want vaccines, but because the NHS only makes them narrowly available to people above a certain age or with a strict set of conditions.

ChromaticPanic3• 6 months ago

Maybe it's just not as talked about. Why would anyone bring it up. I can already sense the condescension in your statement.

arghwhat2• 6 months ago

I think it's a bit more popular outside the US than you make it out to be. As an anecdote, I know a handful of people on it in Denmark - and that's despite the local Danish price being higher than the German one and Denmark having notably lower obesity and diabetes rates than Germany.

I imagine you'll find that people of certain lifestyles tend to cluster together a bit, with those with more active lifestyles and healthy diets likely to have their friends and family be of active lifestyles and healthy diets, and in turn less likely to be in need of such drugs. Lifestyle changes are difficult to implement by nature.

Although, the term "processed food" is awful as it covers so many unrelated things. The problem is ultra-addictive, ultra-high glycemic index foods consumed in large amounts partly due to their addictive qualities - a quality some processed foods have.

For reference, Danish sausage sandwich toppings are highly processed foods, but it won't drive anyone to obesity or diabetes. Elevated blood pressure, perhaps. Junk takeaway, candy and sugary cereals on the other hand...

amelius• 6 months ago

Processed foods are easier to modify. Hence, given corporate greed, they are addictive and unhealthy.

11235813213• 6 months ago

Mintel (market data company) claims 8% of Germans have tried a weight-loss drug in the last year and a further 15% are interested. https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2025/08/11/glp-1-affec...

omgJustTest3• 6 months ago

i considered it, but the gym was a much better option.

for everyone who says "i've tried etc doesnt work" all i would say is, possibly if you dont have the time due to kids etc.

Otherwise, get to it!

aucisson_masque4• 6 months ago

Even easier than the gym, and cheaper ! Eat less shit. Simply.

If you eat only vegetable and meat, you’re going to have a hard time gaining weight.

thw_9a83c• 6 months ago

but the gym was a much better option.

If you live in a suitable city, there is an even simpler solution. Just walk to wherever place you need to go.

Unfortunately, the century of individual automobile ownership has made most cities unsuitable for this natural mode of transportation.

yourusername• 6 months ago

You can't out excercise a bad diet. You can hit the weights for 2 hours straight every day and eat those calories back with a single bad dietary choice (like a handful of peanuts or a single large cookie).

bubblethink• 6 months ago

It's not that it doesn't work. It's not the primary tool for weight management. Gym is great for strength, muscle, cardio, and general fitness, but weight management is mostly about counting calories that go in. The calories that you burn are a function of your metabolism first and to a lesser extent the amount of exercise you do. The exercise side of things is < 500 kcal for most people per day.

SketchySeaBeast3• 6 months ago

If I go for a 10k, I burn ~1100 calories (I'm a big dude). I can eat that deficit no problem, hell, I was able to maintain my weight during my marathon training last summer.

It's always a balance, there's always nuance, and there's no one single solution.

nwienert3• 6 months ago

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iM103vKdI5E

SecretDreams• 6 months ago

It's insane to me that so many people need these to get off the processed foods killing them in the US.

Completely agreed. That said, I've been to Germany a handful of times but not in the last 7 years (sadly) and two things always stuck out to me:

* There's way more attractive/healthy looking people.

* There's wayyyy more young attractive people that smoke (wtf!).

Not sure if the smoking has subsided, but it was far more prominent than in NA since I've last visited.

heraldgeezer4• 6 months ago

Americans (and increasingly us Europeans) are pigs.

The society is built to sit in a chair 8h, get in your car and drive 1h home and sit in a chair. Then repeat.

Also "eating 3 meals a day"

I eat 3 full meals, I blow up like a balloon. I don't get it. It's like they have to constantly eat. When I was a teen or in my 20s yes. Now in my 30s its game over.

It is also the way society, public transport, cities are designed.

I walk 4km to work when its nice out here in Europe. Could I do that in the USA?

xenospn2• 6 months ago

The entire world eats 3 meals a day. Even if you eat 6 meals a day you can easily lose weight. It’s about the contents of the meal, not the frequency.

phkahler2• 6 months ago

> I walk 4km to work when its nice out here in Europe. Could I do that in the USA?

I had a business trip to Germany (from the US) and found it enlightening. We all went out to eat after work one night and a couple of the local Germans had to walk 20 minutes from the restaurant to the train station to go home and didn't think anything of it. It wasn't a big deal to walk, but you'd never do that here in the US - or at least in Michigan where we have no real public transportation.

tonyedgecombe5• 6 months ago

One of the heaviest people I worked with only ate one meal a day.

infecto5• 6 months ago

I don’t think it’s any more insane than 40% of Germans believing in the efficacy of homeopathic remedies. Different cultures and different problems.

The obesity problem is a lot lower in Germany compared to the US. As all things I am sure it’s a combination of factors.

I don’t think it’s fair to call purely a processed food problem but I am sure it does not help.

lumost• 6 months ago

Eh, the drugs work. A great many people in the US struggle with weight despite shifting to high quality foods, fad diets, exercise etc. I'd honestly attribute the root cause to high general stress levels in daily life.

rib3ye• 6 months ago

Overeating doesn’t just happen in a bubble - there is a confluence of issues creating anxiety and stress in Americans’s daily lives leading to the obesity issue.

infecto5• 6 months ago

I agree with this take too. Culture influences it but I don’t think anyone can be singled out being immune. We are stressed and overworked. Simple food takes work. We no longer have a village. If you have kids so many are just stuck at home.

I compare it to my childhood which was a while ago but not that far and I would go out in the middle of the day with instructions to come back home before dark. I would be running all over town on my bicycle. Now parents in the US are obsessing over travel sports and keeping booked calendars for their kids. Both parents will be working. There is nobody around put a meal together.

Aurornis8• 6 months ago

In my friend circle in Germany I don't even know one single person on this stuff.

Most people don’t announce when they’re taking a new medication.

GLP-1 drugs are popular in Germany, too. Not quite to the level of some other countries but a quick search shows about 1 in 12 individuals in Germany.

Note that the US number quoted above was for households not individuals, so the numbers of households in Germany with at least one member on a GLP-1 is higher. This isn’t a uniquely American phenomenon, despite attempts to turn this into another America-bad comment thread.

It's insane to me that so many people need these to get off the processed foods killing them in the US.

GLP-1 drugs don’t make people stop eating processed food. They reduce food intake and cravings. It’s still up to the user to make healthy choices about what to eat.

Also it’s been about a decade since I visited family friends in Germany but there was plenty of processed food to be had when I was there, too.

nwienert3• 6 months ago

Well said, to add though they do make you crave certain foods differently - fruit more, processed foods less.

CGMthrowaway4• 6 months ago

I was wondering how you could get such a high impact overall. But it seems one in 6 households are on GLP-1 drugs in the US.

I had the same question and did some back of the envelope math. The data I have seen says the average American eats 400-700 excess daily calories, and 3600 daily calories total. That means 10-20% excess per person. If everyone started eating the right amount overnight, grocery spend would drop 10-20%.

But since it's 16% on these drugs, and figure since they are Losing Weight (not maintaining), safe to say those 16% of Americans are eating 20-30% less... 20-30% times 16% = 3-5% decrease in spend.

So it tracks, roughly. And we are not at the bottom yet.

__alexs2• 6 months ago

1 in 12 is wild. That means about 50% of all obese germans are on GLP-1s.

Y_Y2• 6 months ago

I don't think you've eliminated the likely hypothesis that overly processed food and GLP-1 use are significantly more prevalent in America. I don't think anyone would argue that these things don't exist at all in other countries, but we can still talk about degrees.

rootusrootus36• 6 months ago

Most people don’t announce when they’re taking a new medication.

Indeed, I do not announce it even to many people in my own circle of friends and family. Plenty of people (as you can clearly see just in this discussion) see the issue as one of morality and the get very judgy. If you use medication to help yourself become healthier, you have cheated.

Sometimes I wonder how much comes down to religion. After all, isn't gluttony one of the deadly sins?

NoLinkToMe10• 6 months ago

To be honest I don't even have a single fat friend, and I'm not picking my friends on looks. I couldn't imagine anywhere close to 1/6 taking this medication.

fullstop• 6 months ago

I don't know a single person on it either (USA), but it's not exactly something that people talk about. I am naturally quite thin, as is the rest of my family, but there's certainly no shortage of hefty people here.

elictronic4• 6 months ago

It’s not just hefty people. Swimsuit season is a thing. A interesting metric would be gym memberships during the run up to summer. I expect they will be going down over time.

weird-eye-issue• 6 months ago

They are probably still eating processed food just less of it...

zelos2• 6 months ago

It's not just a US thing. Obesity rates in the UK and Germany are similar and I know plenty of people on GLP-1 drugs in the UK.

nvarsj• 6 months ago

Why is it insane? You sound like someone who says to depressed people “just be happy”.

I’m on tirzepatide but not for obesity. It completely cures my life long IBS. These are miracle drugs imo and should be as cheap and widely available as possible.

jacobthesnakob7• 6 months ago

Do you seriously think that you’re not in a minority of people taking GLP-1 drugs for IBS and not weight loss?

nasmorn3• 6 months ago

The part of the population that deals better with our food system want to feel morally superior.

While I am in that part, I realize that having a fairly balanced feeling of hunger is just as much of a privilege as needing glasses to see is a disadvantage. Certainly some people just say fuck it and ballon to 200kg but a lot are just unhappy at 90kg in what should be a 65kg body being hungry every day and still overweight.

Yes if they ate only carrots and Brokkoli they would probably solve their weight problem but it is a hard ask to make in a world that looks like ours. Makes alcoholism look like child’s play since you cannot just abstain from food

nicbou• 6 months ago

When talking about ADHD medication, a doctor asked me why someone would choose not to wear glasses if they could see well with them.

There are some flaws with this argument, but I keep it in mind when I feel like others are "cheating" by getting a good trait that I was born with. We should not insist on people getting things the hard way.

semiquaver2• 6 months ago

  > such a high impact overall

The 5.3% figure is on a per-household basis and only applies to households with at least one GLP-1 user.

inglor_cz• 6 months ago

I am 47, Czech, slightly overweight (183 cm / 87 kg at the beginning), but with a lot of this fat concentrating on my belly. I don't eat horrible processed food and I exercise quite a lot, but I still wasn't satisfied, so I decided to try Mounjaro on the lowest dose (2,5 mg).

I don't think that I told anyone in my friend circle, so if you were my friend, you would not know.

4 kg down in 2 months, effortlessly, plus many metabolic parameters improved. My blood results are now similar to what I had when I was half that age.

What is more interesting is the general feeling of being better. Something subtle shifted in my overall bodily feeling, in a positive direction. I am more optimistic, sleep better, I like to go to the gym more. They opened a brand new gym right next to where I live and I didn't omit a single day since January 2, because I enjoy it.

Kreutzer• 6 months ago

Perhaps they are less forthcoming about taking it. I wasn't aware my father was on it until I saw his medicine cabinet.

matwood3• 6 months ago

In my friend circle in Germany I don't even know one single person on this stuff.

It's my understanding in the EU that it's generally harder to get. Generic GPL-1s in the US are pretty easy to get shipped direct with very little doctor interaction.

Aunche• 6 months ago

This is one of the major reasons why Americans are stuck with expensive private healthcare that never gets talked about. People who are used treating their insurance as an all-you-can eat buffet will feel like their health coverage is getting worse under a socialized healthcare system that is pressured to keep costs down. No government is going to foot the bill for a costly drug under patent when they can do perfectly fine with cheaper older generics a fraction of the price.

micromacrofoot2• 6 months ago

It's insane to me that so many people need these to get off the processed foods killing them in the US.

hah, they're not using them to get off of processed foods... they're using them to reduce the impact of processed foods

dboreham2• 6 months ago

That's not how these drugs work. Think of it in terms of there being a programmable neural network in the gut (and associated brain I/O areas). This network is designed to get the animal to eat appropriately. But food makers figured out ways (by thousands of years of machine learning) to tweak its weights such that it tells the animal to eat too much. GLP-1 works by un-tweaking those weights (not quite: more like it clamps some of the inputs to the network but the result is the same). So it does indeed work by stopping the consumer from eating as much.

Mountain_Skies• 6 months ago

16% is a huge number. Really hope this doesn't end up being one of those cases where a hidden negative isn't known until years later because that's a really large chunk of the population that would be impacted. That said, lots of people do seem to be getting a better life now because of the drugs.

brightball• 6 months ago

There are so many things going on in the US impacting our health. Nobody's been more passionate about fixing it than RFK Jr but there are so many entrenched financial interests it's a long road.

kingkawn• 6 months ago

Nobody telling you because you have only judgements about it instead of empathy

DVassallo• 6 months ago

The rate of type 2 diabetes in Germany is almost the same as the USA at 9.8% vs 10.7%. Ozempic is a T2D drug.

jjtheblunt• 6 months ago

I'm in the US and have a large friend circle across multiple states (from having moved for work over the years) and also do not know one single person using them. However my friends tend to be quite active.

The Added Sugars (that's how they are listed on labels in the US) are _insanely_ and insidiously pervasive in US food. it's truly nefarious.

elictronic4• 6 months ago

A close family member and myself are both on them. They get very upset if I ever mention them using them while I happily tell anyone about myself. Wanting to lose weight is shameful to many.

Wait for swimsuit season and I have a feeling your even active friends might start without telling anyone.

paul79862• 6 months ago

We all drive to where we’re going we do not walk or bike daily like most Europeans do. When in Europe for my ten day trips I always come back five to ten pounds lighter.

Myself I count calories (1500 to 1800 a day for middle aged dude) and lol drive to do my daily five mile walks on a rail trail.

Foods here if ur lazy and just buy whatever indeed are lasted with preservatives but you can put some effort into ur health to maintain a European look :)

blell5• 6 months ago

Because you are on vacation. That’s why you walk. Europe is much bigger than Amsterdam and Berlin. People drive everywhere here too. You should look up average steps per day by country and you will see the difference between the US and European countries is practically inconsequential, especially taking into account how few calories walking burns.

doug_durham• 6 months ago

Most Europeans do not bike daily. Most drive cars where they need to go. You are not losing 5 to 10 pounds in 10 days (unless you are dehydrating yourself). 5 pounds would be a 17,500 calorie deficit or 1,750 per day. The base metabolism for a male is around 1800 calories. That means that you'd be eating 1/10th of a banana every day to get that type of loss. For me a century bike ride (100 miles with 5,000ft of climbing) consumes about 2,900 calories. Are you doing century bike rides every day while only eating 1,200 calories while in Europe?

rconti3• 6 months ago

It's household spending, not nationwide. Presumably you'd see similar findings among German households on "this stuff".

Within six months of starting a GLP-1 medication, households reduce grocery spending by an average of 5.3%.

thatfrenchguy• 6 months ago

I mean, 75% of americans are overweight or obese right? It's wild that the richest / least obese counties in the US still have 15% of people who are obese ( https://datacommons.techsoup.org/ranking/Percent_Person_Obes... )

BeetleB• 6 months ago

I live in the US and I don't know of anyone taking this drug. But if they were, why would I know?

rootusrootus36• 6 months ago

Indeed, aside from online, where I don't feel consequences from admitting it, very few people know I've taken a GLP1. None of their business, and I don't need to waste seconds of my finite lifespan nurturing their need to feel morally superior. Let everyone worry about their own problems, I'll worry about mine. And I wish they were all as easily solved with GLP1s...

cthalupa17• 6 months ago

I'm quite open about my usage in real life because I want to be honest about how I achieved my weight loss - I'll also show some pride in all of the lifestyle changes I made, but I don't hesitate to mention the GLP-1 use and impact it has had. I'm not ashamed of it and if me being open helps normalize it, all the better.

But most people on the internet that I speak to that are on them have had specifically negative encounters from people learning - lots of moralizing, lots of denigration. A whole lot of them now specifically don't bring it up unless explicitly asked.

aidenn0• 6 months ago

I live in the US. If those numbers are true, then it seems likely that I know at least one person on it. I however don't know that I know someone one it, since people (at least in the US) don't usually announce "Hi everybody, I'm taking weight loss drugs." Being overweight is seen as shameful, and losing weight through any means other than diet and exercise is an admission of failure.

rootusrootus36• 6 months ago

The best part is feeling the judgement from someone who thinks taking GLP1s is a moral failure when they are carrying an extra 50+ pounds themselves. I have met many people who seem to believe that being fat is actually the higher moral ground than using medication to help solve it. And these are religious people, too! Don't they know about gluttony?

sgwizdak4• 6 months ago

I started a GLP-1 in October. I've been eating healthy and exercising for a decade, but I was still in the obese category and blood sugar tests indicated I was at the edge of pre-diabetes. If I pushed hard on calorie reduction or exercise, I could gain 10-20% improvement, but it seemed like that would always reverse itself when I'd hit an injury or got sick. I'm hitting my mid-40s and decided it was time for a drastic change. I could have continued yo-yo dieting or opt for a solution that gets me to a healthy BMI within a year.

I gained a lot of weight during puberty, coupled with a less healthy diet in my youth. I suspect many folks are in the same boat - by the time they realize they need to eat/exercise, it's too late. Their metabolic system has been compromised by either diet, hormones, genetics, whatever.

In four months on a GLP-1, I've dropped about 18kg and since I coupled resistance training, I've increased on various strength parameters. The sudden reduction in weight has benefited my activity level substantially. There tends to be two classes of folks - those who need to stay on this drug forever and those who don't - I'm hoping in the end I fall into the don't, but I'm going to let the data from my continuous glucose monitor decide that.

I highly recommend the book "Ozempic Revolution" if you're considering the pros/cons of this path.

93po4• 6 months ago

it's too late. Their metabolic system has been compromised by either diet, hormones, genetics, whatever.

I do want to be clear to anyone reading: there is no "too late". One's system does not become somehow damaged at some cliff of weight and eating habits. It doesn't become irreparably meaningfully physically more difficult to lose weight. What can happen is a shift in many systems that effectively make one feel hungry all the time and psychologically react very strongly to those hunger cues, which makes people eat more. Outside rare circumstances, if you eat less, you will lose weight. I do have a lot of compassion for the psychological side of things being extremely difficult, though.

NoLinkToMe10• 6 months ago

Wdym you were eating healthy for a decade and still obese? How does that work. A diet where you eat to obesity isn't healthy.

And how did surpressing your hunger via GLP-1 drugs (a pure change to a more healthy diet for you) lead to big changes, if you apparently already had such a healthy diet.

Seems to me your diet was unhealthy for a decade and now isn't.

liampulles• 6 months ago

My dad was in a similar situation a couple months ago. He has been very obese for decades, which started after he stopped smoking. He does not eat fast food, has long ago cut out sugar and he favors whole foods in his diet. It was getting a shock blood sugar result and diabetes warning that pushed him to take Mounjaro (similar to Ozempic) that actually cut his weight down.

In his own words, what he noted as being the main contributor to his obesity was the moment to moment urges to just eat something (I empathize with that a lot - I'm also obese). Losing that desire made sticking to good portions and fixed calorie intake windows much easier. He has lost ~50kg of weight in the last year and now walks and bicycles around everywhere for hours every day.

I wish you luck!

skywhopper• 6 months ago

You really don’t know what you’re talking about and should not make inflammatory comments.

seanmcdirmid2• 6 months ago

There are vast differences in obesity rates between rural and urban areas, and red states vs blue states. Someone in San Francisco California is going to see a lot less obesity than someone in Plano Texas. I’m sure it is similar in Europe, with the caveat that Europeans are healthier than Americans in general.

case540• 6 months ago

Title is misleading, it’s “[Among households with an ozempic user], grocery spending reduced by 5.3% on average. It’s not overall

viccis• 6 months ago

It's insane to me that so many people need these to get off the processed foods killing them in the US.

If you understood how super stimulants work, then you wouldn't have found it "insane."

NeutralCrane• 6 months ago

It’s not just the processed foods. It’s the sedentary lifestyle. US cities are so car centric that actually getting a minimal baseline of healthy activity requires working into one’s schedule. When I lived in Japan, everything is so walkable/bikable that it makes a significant difference in the base activity level of average individual. I imagine Europe is similar.

Drupon• 6 months ago

Look he's doing the "we are not like that in Germany" meme

MagicMoonlight• 6 months ago

They wouldn’t tell you that they are on it

mgraczyk• 6 months ago

Over 50% of the German population is overweight, and over 20% is obese

I think many Germans will start using these drugs once they become cheaper

IAmGraydon• 6 months ago

I got the poison, I got the remedy.

francisofascii2• 6 months ago

a handful of categories showed increases. Yogurt rose the most, followed by fresh fruit, nutrition bars and meat snacks.

Interesting. Wonder what it is about yogurt and ozempic users. Probiotics?

layble• 6 months ago

protein

astrange3• 6 months ago

Probably that it's a soft food and so is easier to eat when you have no appetite. Protein isn't that relevant.

nemomarx4• 6 months ago

I'd believe probiotics are involved. It seems to cause some gut issues as digestion slows down, so you really want to stay on top of fiber and a few other things?

FatherOfCurses5• 6 months ago

Yeah, I found out the hard way about that about two weeks into my journey and it was not a pleasant experience.

eru5• 6 months ago

People who start on a new drug also make lots of other lifestyle adjustments. Especially when it's a weightloss drug.

You'd get some of that effect, even if the drug was actually a placebo. But if it's working, then people have an even better motivation to make changes.

Yogurt is widely seen as healthy, so people who want to change to a healthier lifestyle might pick it.

(Yogurt might actually be healthy, I don't know. That's almost besides the point for the effect here.)

4ggr02• 6 months ago

if you buy plain, unsweetend Yogurt, then yes. can even buy some probiotic Yogurt to help digestion etc.

sweetened Yogurt with fruit or chocolate or caramel or whatever on the other hand is basically a dessert and not particularly healthy.

stasomatic• 6 months ago

It’s hard to force yourself to eat at all while on Ozempic. Yet, you need the protein, and yogurt, cottage cheese and protein bars go down easier than regular meals.

petesergeant• 6 months ago

It’s hard to force yourself to eat at all while on Ozempic

If that's true for you, or someone you know, your dosage is too high, and/or you should consider dosing a lower amount more frequently.

warmedcookie• 6 months ago

I see this sentiment everywhere, but I eat more than I did now that I am on Ozempic (1.7). I've always been perpetually starving + lift weights every day since I was a teen though.

Haven't noticed muscle mass decrease either, at least from the perspective that I can do the same reps / sets for my weight routine.

t-38• 6 months ago

It's probably just because yogurt is commonly considered to be a "healthy" food, but given Ozempic's bone-density effects maybe there could be cravings for calcium-rich foods?

astura2• 6 months ago

When I had severe loss of appetite (caused by mental illness) yogurt was the easiest food to get down, by far, and the least likely to come back up. The lack of chewing also really helped because everything tasted like cardboard and chewing on wet cardboard is really unpleasant.

apparent4• 6 months ago

Protein, to combat the well-publicized muscle loss that can occur.

cheald2• 6 months ago

Yogurt's been a staple of mine ever since I started eating clean years ago. It's high in protein, can be mixed with all sorts of protein powder, fruit, nuts, and seeds, and is always quick and easy to prepare. The probiotic effects are an excellent benefit, but the real trick for me is that it offers that junkfood-like "quick snack" availability while being actually pretty nutrituious. It makes a pretty solid default snack.

dougb5• 6 months ago

To clarify the headline, this is the effect for households that use a GLP-1, not the country overall.

Within six months of starting a GLP-1 medication, households reduce grocery spending by an average of 5.3%.

bearjaws• 6 months ago

That is pretty astonishing given 10% of Americans use semaglutide / tirzepitide.

Spending on savory snacks dropped by about 10%, with similarly large decreases in sweets, baked goods and cookies. Even staples like bread, meat and eggs declined.

I can't read the paper (paywall), but that means something like the 10% of Americans who are on it must switch to purchasing almost no junk food.

nemomarx4• 6 months ago

It's the change for households where at least one person is taking it, not the entire population. So the effect size doesn't seem that large considering

sumtechguy• 6 months ago

I personally do not use it, but know someone who does. She says it is more like a appetite suppressant. You just do not feel that hungry. Her doctor also said 'if you eat like crap this stuff will punish you'. Basically you will have some stomach cramps.

Now are you saving money? Not particularly. The food which is better for you is also a decent amount more expensive. On top of the 1k per month the meds cost. Now many people can get the meds covered by insurance but some cant.

Cost wise it is pretty much a wash. As you are eating less but you are spending more. So there could also be people are watching what they eat more closely in addition to the medication.

My wife also says it is a change of diet not a diet.

eranation• 6 months ago

That’s an astonishing number. Wouldn’t that be more than enough to cause a decrease in grocery prices?

Traubenfuchs2• 6 months ago

Your assumption of the existence of a grocery market competing on price might be wrong.

eru5• 6 months ago

If they aren't competing on price, what were they competing on to have Wal-Mart take over so much market share? Did people just switch to shopping at Wal-Mart because they like the greeters?

And what about Aldi and Lidl? Why do people put up with these weird German hard discounters, if not for lower prices?

mpyne• 6 months ago

There are other major factors also influencing grocery prices, such as tariffs. It may because that was are seeing a significant influence on price, but one that is counteracted by other influencers.

mrits3• 6 months ago

Do you think we get our little Debbie snacks from Paris?

eru5• 6 months ago

It depends on how elastic grocery prices are.

And so far it's 5.3% reduction in the spending of <16% of households on the drug for a total reduction of less than 1%. Compared to eg tariffs and general inflation, that's a bit hard to distinguish from noise.

quitit• 6 months ago

This headline is a touch misleading as it gives the impression of being across all US households, the quote is:

Within six months of starting a GLP-1 medication, households reduce grocery spending by an average of 5.3%. Among higher-income households, the drop is even steeper, at more than 8%. Spending at fast-food restaurants, coffee shops and other limited-service eateries falls by about 8%.

tzs2• 6 months ago

That works out to something like $30-100 a month for most households. A bit disappointing for those hoping the savings on food would pay for the drug at the current drug prices.

jasongill• 6 months ago

The cash-payer (no insurance) price of GLP-1's has fallen by about 70% since I started on them 18 months ago, from around $1100/mo to $350/mo, for brand-name non-compounded (Ozempic, Zepbound, etc). Many people also stretch that 1 month supply to last longer, as well (eg "click counting").

Not to say that it's cheap, but they are no longer the high-priced drugs only for the glitterati that you may be thinking.

buellerbueller5• 6 months ago

While you might be right in what you have presented, your calculation of the total savings is not including reduced medical spending.

jjk1666• 6 months ago

I mean considering most drugs don't result in any cost savings on routine household spending, that's still pretty welcome.

insane_dreamer2• 6 months ago

That's not "a touch" misleading. It's very misleading.

HDThoreaun7• 6 months ago

Unless the title was changed, it says "average" which to me pretty clearly means it's measuring individual or household consumption

UncleOxidant• 6 months ago

Thank you. It didn't make sense that if 16% of the population was on these drugs that grocery spending overall would be down over 5%.

otikik2• 6 months ago

I think it’s not ozempic, it’s people not able to afford as much as before

cbg0• 6 months ago

This study looks at households where someone is using something like Ozempic, not all households. It's the second paragraph of the story and the first sentence of the linked study.

fph• 6 months ago

True, but another factor is that the families where someone is taking a 300$-per-month medication have less money left to spend.

otikik2• 6 months ago

It’s not cheap, especially in the US. That extra expense has to come from somewhere

francisofascii2• 6 months ago

Maybe? Although it sounds the study was able to differentiate between families where people were taking a GLP-1 vs families who were not.

awakeasleep• 6 months ago

Read the article or just the headline?

helsinkiandrew• 6 months ago

Yet they seem to be spending more in restaurants:

Ozempic Users Actually Spend More Dining Out.
..In casual dining establishments, they spend 25% more than non-GLP-1 households do, the market researcher says. Data firm Numerator shares similar findings, noting that while GLP-1 users report eating out less and cooking at home more, their spending says otherwise: “Verified purchase data reveals that their fast-food buy rate is up 2%.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-02/ozempic-g... (archive: https://archive.ph/V6Erv)

potato3732842• 6 months ago

GLP-1s are a fairly strong proxy for having enough discretionary income to justify luxury expenditures like eating out or whatever.

ChromaticPanic3• 6 months ago

Maybe a bias on wealthier households in the US who can afford these drugs. Personally, my total food spending is down 30%. GLP 1 is $66CAD after insurance.

rootusrootus36• 6 months ago

I can't say exactly what the numbers are, but anecdotally, there are a lot of "research" users buying tirz (and reta, for that matter) for a few bucks a week on the gray market. The better known sources sell out batches in a week or two, which amounts to 750K-1M worth of product (at gray prices, not retail). There's a reason you're starting to see regular news stories about it.

I'm curious how these below-the-radar users skew the numbers. Maybe not at all?

ChadNauseam• 6 months ago

Wow, it's hard to think of a better example of a correlational study measuring something that would obviously be confounded by the thing being studied. Don't forget that most GLP-1 users are obese and many will continue to be after treatment (as it only causes a reduction in 10%-20% of body weight). And they're rich. So the headline is "rich obese people spend more in restaurants than average".

No shade on people taking the drug btw. I'm on tirzepatide myself.

firecall• 6 months ago

Do we know what the reason is for the limits of around 10-20%?

phil2111• 6 months ago

as it only causes a reduction in 10%-20% of body weight

This was simply when the studies ended. Weight loss for most definitely tails off, but doesn't completely stop if you continue longer than the 18mo SURMOUNT-4[0] study went for with Tirzepatide.

I also do not know if this was patients going on maintenance dosing, staying the same, or ramping up doses to the full 15mg max dose. Would need to re-read it as it's been some time.

fwiw Tirzepatide is actually around 25% average loss vs. 20%. My anecdotal evidence from my peer group shows that the vast majority can go further than 25% (if needed) and then maintain it - but that does require significant lifestyle changes to maintain. The few who simply kept eating junk but less of it had far less drastic results.

I do consider it a performance enhancing drug for dieting due to that fact. Those that use it as one tool of many seem to do incredibly well. Those that use it as the only tool have much worse outcomes. No surprises there, but it was surprising to me how durable so far those who decided to make life changes have stuck with it now over the course of around 3+ years.

My random guess would be that if you use it to break habits and establish new ones, you tend to become a super responder. I like to tell people it was perhaps roughly 60% of my weight loss (36% or so, but I tapered off due to hitting my goal) was due to the drug, 40% due to other factors like eating better and creating new workout habits. The drug simply made it much easier than previous attempts at dieting, and the results turned into a feedback loop.

Another pet theory of mine is that if you use it to break a food addiction, you end up being able to stay on the wagon easier. This is based on other life experiences with other substances - the longer you stay off, the easier it becomes (for most) to abstain. Especially if you create new habits in their place. I no longer crave those late night taco bell runs like I once did even when (mostly) off the drug itself.

[0] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38078870/

quesomaster90005• 6 months ago

Not GLP-1, but moved onto an OMAD diet which is essentially a 23hr daily fast with nothing but neat espresso, cigarettes and water in between - although occasionally I have a small treat or sugary drink.

But now I eat almost exclusively at restaurants and enjoy it, and overall it's cheaper than cooking at home given wastage with many ingredients and desire for variety.

I do eat very simply though, usually south & east asian food.

drivebyhooting• 6 months ago

How can eating at a restaurant be cheaper than at home? Could you give examples?

mh2266• 6 months ago

cigarettes are an explicit part of the diet...?

protocolture2• 6 months ago

Doesnt surprise me honestly. I have done this too. I buy a few things and eat only a small amount of each. Like a taster.

iambateman• 6 months ago

My initial question was whether this 5% was overall or just for households with someone using ozempic.

It looks like it’s just for users, not across the board.

rconti3• 6 months ago

Households that contain one or more users.

Within six months of starting a GLP-1 medication, households reduce grocery spending by an average of 5.3%.

cdvonstinkpot• 6 months ago

This isn't surprising to me. I'm on Topamax as an appetite suppressant & I notice a similar effect. A lot of the time a Soylent will do the trick, or a small snack that can't even be considered a meal.

aucisson_masque4• 6 months ago

Notably, about one-third of users stopped taking the medication during the study period. When they did, their food spending reverted to pre-adoption levels – and their grocery baskets became slightly less healthy than before they started

That’s very interesting and it confirms what i thought about this drug. It’s a life long commitment. As soon as you stop, you end up becoming your old self whereas you don’t lose all the gains when you stop paying a nutrition expert.

toomuchtodo2• 6 months ago

This is more like someone who is bipolar who is functional when on meds, and goes back to being bipolar when they go off their meds. A nutrition expert cannot fix your brain chemistry, and will power is an illusion. A long term fix is needed for the GLP-1 pathway to properly regulate to the target metabolic profile. Fractyl Health is working on this.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46348199

donkey_brains• 6 months ago

will power is an illusion.

Lol, what? No one has ever abstained from anything, huh? No one ever quits drugs or alcohol, and no one was ever able to control their weight before this drug? Well, guess that absolves us of all personal responsibility then!

rootusrootus36• 6 months ago

It’s a life long commitment

Yes, it is managing a chronic disease, you can expect to take it indefinitely. People suggesting otherwise are doing a disservice. Especially when they are medical professionals who should know better.

kayo_202110302• 6 months ago

This is wild. 5.3% isn't a small amount, at least not for US consumers.

All economies have deep and sometimes non-obvious dependencies. I'm interested in what happens next.

Will food stores lay off workers? Will they change their mix of offerings? Where is the new equilibrium going to be?

As an example from the piece:

Only a handful of categories showed increases. Yogurt rose the most, followed by fresh fruit, nutrition bars and meat snacks.

Will the unit prices of these products go up to compensate for the losses in savory snacks?

bargainbin2• 6 months ago

We’re seeing similar in the UK, fast food restaurants are having to adapt and dieting companies have outright collapsed.

Sounds conspiratorial, but when you look at the revenue impact this is having, the deluge of baseless articles about it making your eyes fall out or “users who stop taking it gain the weight back” or whatever malady they can make a tenuous link to, it all make a lot more sense.

The biggest food companies do not want people to be thinner. They want people to buy their low-quality, high-margin products.

mrits3• 6 months ago

How are they baseless? Why wouldn’t you gain the weight back? You have less muscle mass, out of control cravings, and the thought that you can just get back on later.

zelos2• 6 months ago

Regaining the weight quickly after stopping taking the drugs seems reasonably well substantiated? https://www.bmj.com/content/392/bmj-2025-085304

sjw9875• 6 months ago

“users who stop taking it gain the weight back” is not a baseless claim.

Most of the people on GLP will come off the drugs and regain the weight back to their original weight, if not heavier, just like people who temporarily restrict eating in any other way (discipline). You need real lifestyle change. Even the people shilling the drugs tell people that.

Personally, I hope all of these business fail. Screw the fast food industry, dieting companies (they don't want customers to actually succeed), and the pharma companies that are restricting access to people who actually need GLP drugs.

dayyan• 6 months ago

So, the body positivity campaign was a psyop.

snvzz2• 6 months ago

The "fat influencers" either died or awakened to reason thus abandoning their unhealthy lifestyle.

stevenjgarner• 6 months ago

I wonder how much the 2026 SNAP food stamp item rule changes will move this needle further, with several states using new federal waivers to restrict "junk food" items like soda, candy, energy drinks, or prepared desserts?

vaadu• 6 months ago

I would bet big bucks that the people not on SNAP are healthier than those on it.

SNAP is supposed to be about nutrition.

fortran77• 6 months ago

People know in GLP-1 will tell me it “changed their metabolism”. Few fat people want to admit that they’re simply eating less, and if they ate less without drugs they’d also lose weight.

I worry that eventually fat people on GLP-1 will figure out a way to over eat, just as people with stomach reduction learned to sip calories all day long and get fat again…

dgacmu• 6 months ago

The title snippet here is potentially misleading. From the paper:

Households with at least one GLP-1 user reduce grocery spending by 5.3% within six months of adoption,

The reduction is only within those households using GLP-1 drugs, NOT across the US as a whole. Same for the other claims in the paper.

(That still suggests that these drugs are responsible for a 0.8% drop in total grocery spending in the US, which is remarkable.)

seydor• 6 months ago

But why is a Danish product being accused of something that an American product also does

ukoki• 6 months ago

Interesting to consider the effects of GLP-1 drugs on the environment then

didntknowyou• 6 months ago

hopefully it's reducing the demands of snacks filled with artificial crap and shifting the trend to give manufacturers an incentive to focus on healthier alternatives

stivatron• 6 months ago

Happened as such on my home as well. And, although i wasn't expecting it, cut off lots of money on booze and beer.

dabadabahn• 6 months ago

This matches with another study that found that Ozempic reduced people pooping by 4.2% on an average.

alistairSH3• 6 months ago

I'm confused by the language...

Within six months of starting a GLP-1 medication, households reduce grocery spending by an average of 5.3%.

A household doesn't take Ozempic, a person does. Are they implying that if everybody in the household takes Ozempic, as a group they see a 5% reduction? Or, any one person in the household causes a 5% reduction for the group? The average household in the US is 2.5 people...

rconti3• 6 months ago

Presumably it's difficult to figure out individual grocery spending, so they measured the household level spending.

So when one (or more) people in a household begins taking the drug, the household spending goes down by that much.

HDThoreaun7• 6 months ago

How can they measure individual grocery spending habits? People buy groceries for their whole household.

hare2eternity4• 6 months ago

If the dataset includes household size you could limit the analysis to that subset. Alternatively you could focus on households with lower average basket sizes and hypothesise that those households have fewer adults. Obviously those measure aren't going to be anywhere near perfect but might be informative.

alistairSH3• 6 months ago

Tracking household size as part of the study.

See my parallel comment... are they reporting 1/4 of a household eats 25% individually (for a 5% reduction across a family of 4). Or, does one person eating 5% less cause the other 3 to also eat 5%... if it's the latter, this potentially has health impacts across people who aren't taking the drug.

nottorp3• 6 months ago

Or, any one person in the household causes a 5% reduction for the group?

I'd go for this one. Which means the one person reduces their food intake by at least double the 5%.

Or possibly the other people in the household see them eating less and follow their example...

alistairSH3• 6 months ago

Yeah, that's probably correct - it just feels like a really odd way to present the data.

What I'd like to know is your last bit - is one quarter of a household eating 25% less on their own, or does "mom" on Ozempic cause "dad and 2 kids" to eat 5% less individually? The former isn't nearly as interesting to me as the latter...

cheald2• 6 months ago

You ever shop hungry? You buy way more, and often not the stuff you should be buying.

If the primary shopper in the household is on GLP-1, I would expect the household expenditures to drop.

LazyMans• 6 months ago

I thought it was interesting to see this around late 2023. Walmart had said the noticed a reduction in cart spend by those filling GLP1 prescriptions at their pharmacy.

observationist2• 6 months ago

How does this pass as science?

There's no economic correction. They're making causal claims without identifying mechanisms. Self selection bias, self reporting, the people being polled are the type of people who answer polls. Massive conflicts of interest with one of the authors benefiting from the company collecting the data. They don't collect causal medical information, and cannot justify any of the causality claims they're asserting, with virtually none of the confounders able to be corrected for from the data that was collected, nor able to be trusted or validated, based on how the data was collected.

Oh, Journal of Marketing Research. The paper is the marketing, got it.

This Numerator guy on the paper is an enshittification leech doing his best to profit off of the casual corruption of science. Stuff like this should be ridiculed and torched wherever it surfaces.

All the legitimate universities and publication platforms should try having actual standards and nuke these types of submissions from orbit, but instead I'm sure they're happy to get their little chunk of clickbait revenue.

This is legitimately nuts. We can choose not to let this be how people become wealthy and degrade everything they touch.

edit: Go down the rabbit hole and look how these people grift. Companies like this are exactly and precisely why we can't have nice things.

rootusrootus36• 6 months ago

I agree with this take 100%. But also, anecdotally, I do know a number of people who saved enough on their grocery bill to pay for their GLP1. But whether that applies across the whole population, I've no idea.

observationist2• 6 months ago

I'd guess a majority of people could save more than enough in groceries just by planning meals and making an effort to budget instead of going on autopilot to afford GLP-1 drugs. Heck, I'd bet a majority of households eat way too much fast food and restaurant meals, and just doing things on purpose would mean hundreds of dollars a month per person in savings.

"Doctors recommend this one simple life hack to revolutionize your grocery budget!" Or something like that.

GLP1 confounds things with the psychological impact as well; it apparently allows for more executive agency, disrupts the impulsive behaviors and cycles people get into, and might allow for some high discipline strategies that the simple calories difference in groceries don't account for.

It's not that there's no interesting questions to be asked, this paper is just awful. Everything about it is bad.

93po4• 6 months ago

it's frustrating how much the entire world operates this way. the only solution i've found is to close my laptop and spend less time on the internet reading these things. maybe my apathy isn't the best thing ever but it certainly makes me feel better to ignore the things i can't change

alexfoo3• 6 months ago

It's not just GLP-1 type drugs.

My grocery spending has fallen significantly since I started ADHD medication. Both lisdexamfetamine and methylphenidate absolutely zeroed my appetite. When I walk around a grocery store I'm no longer tempted by anything I didn't actively go in to buy. This is a huge shift from my pre-medication days.

jollyllama• 6 months ago

This comment is more insightful than it may appear initially. It looks like the 5% drop is in comparison to the pre-Ozempic spending. To what extent is the cut on spending monetary i.e. "I am spending more on this drug and will cut back my other expenses." Sure, Ozempic will kill the cravings, and that is probably the main driver, but from a 5000 foot view, this is using money to buy drugs instead of foods. In a very abstract way, it's the same as buying amphetamines to lose weight, just with a different (arguably smaller) set of side effects.

Also, I can't find the comparison in the study to spending by non-Ozempic households. Is it possible that they decreased their spending during the time frame too, for other economic reasons? All this to say is that I think the story is more complex than the headline indicates.

alexfoo3• 6 months ago

"I am spending more on this drug...

I'm in the UK and got my ADHD diagnosis on the NHS (well, via Right To Choose) so the maximum I'll ever pay for my medication is about US$150/year. [1]

If I had a private diagnosis I'd be paying about half that a month for the same medication.

Anyone with a BMI over 35 is likely to qualify for GLP-1 type drugs on the NHS too. Not sure how long they'll keep prescribing them to you if you take them and lose lots of weight. Most people I know on GLP-1 type things are paying lots (US$200 or more) a month privately.

1. £114.50 for a Prepayment Certificate covering all prescriptions for a year: https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/help-nhs-prescription-costs/nhs-pr...

codezero• 6 months ago

This happened when I started Adderall, but eventually appetite came back after a few years.

Melatonic3• 6 months ago

Both those drugs are also known to suppress appetite in many people - to the point that some used them solely as appetite suppressants.

They also do have significant risk of side effects (not trying to say anything about their used for ADHD which is well proven). Probably not a great idea to be prescribing tons of stimulants to people who don't need them (especially because these are drugs which are in large shortage often)

amanaplanacanal5• 6 months ago

Since we are taking about ADHD, these drugs also help with executive function and impulsivity. Even without their appetite suppression effects, they might help ADHD sufferers stay on task with losing excess weight.

siliconc0w2• 6 months ago

This is why if we can get them down to ~$50 I think they are clearly +ROI just on the individual level.

I snack, drink less, and feel like eating out significantly less. Or when I do those things, I eat the take-out meal over multiple-meals. 1-2 less takeaway meals and a svelter grocery bill due to the less booze or snacks probably is at least $50 if not more.

jdhdjdjd333• 6 months ago

Something feels extremely dystopian about this statement that I cannot quite put my finger on.

I hate to say it, but I do not think taking meds to curb snacking sounds healthy. Just learn some self control.

okrad• 6 months ago

Easier said than done.

Snacks could also be healthier. The bread we are sold could be less like pound cake. Easier said than done.

ndsipa_pomu• 6 months ago

Self control is only effective for some people, so for others, meds can be the best option. We have plenty of natural selection that makes us crave calorific foods and often that craving will override our decision making. (Disclaimer - I'm not on weight management drugs nor intend to be)

gpt52• 6 months ago

Your comment completely doesn't understand how hard it can be to be on a sustained diet.

The funny thing is that ever since starting to take GLP-1, I've kind of gain empathy to the "just stop eating so much" crowd. When you are on GLP-1, you lose a lot of the feeling towards food, so it's easier to understand how a person who has never had the same level of urges and difficulty would feel.

FWIW, there is no research on "natural" diet that shows sustained long term meaningful weight loss. And even the most controlled and extreme short term diets of people in controlled living spaces with prepared food shows 17% weight reduction at the state of the art. While GLP-1 medication reach 20%+ on average without any lifestyle change. It's just not comparable.

HDThoreaun7• 6 months ago

Something feels extremely dystopian about this statement and I have no issue putting my finger on it. Stop judging others for how they want to live their life

seanmcdirmid2• 6 months ago

Poor people can stop being poor by just earning more money.

siliconc0w2• 6 months ago

I have done experiments like water fasting for 2+ weeks while ruck sacking up one of the steepest hills in Los Angeles every morning. I have done multi-day solo hikes in pretty miserable weather. I consider my self control pretty strong, but unless I am extremely vigilant and accept a very poor quality of life (i.e. strictly the same meals day after day), I slowly gain weight.

cthalupa17• 6 months ago

If "just learn[ing] some self control" was a viable solution we wouldn't have an obesity epidemic in the first place.

It's not like obese people don't know they should be eating less and healthier foods.

armenarmen• 6 months ago

Anyone else notice the lack of crowds at their gym post new years?

01100011• 6 months ago

No, I quit the gym last year.

sjw9875• 6 months ago

I don't think this is based around GLP drugs. I've noticed the gym, swimming pools, running and cycling routes I usually frequent have been lower every year for the past 5 years or so (the spike in January is smaller every year).

I think new years resolutions are dying out, or people are doing non-fitness based resolutions (eg. Dry January) more often now.

alphazard• 6 months ago

Strange to think that the whole obesity epidemic was essentially people buying 5% more calories than they should have.

rootusrootus36• 6 months ago

Only strange because everyone who likes to be holier-than-thou claims the problem is all about stuffing your face with candy. Your number is off by as much as a factor of 10, by the way. The average American gains a pound a year or so, which is 1% or even less of a surplus.

jjk1666• 6 months ago

Your conclusion is correct but the average weight gain is rather misleading. If people were actually gaining weight at that rate, then obesity would take decades to develop. In reality it's really more of an S curve where people quickly put on a lot of weight and then it levels off afterwards. So the overwhelming majority have stable weight, but a small fraction have very quickly increasing rates at any given time, leading to a small positive average.

ilamont• 6 months ago

The shopping app I have used in my area for the past 7 or 8 years shows the number of "deals" in each category. This week there are 36 deals in "Cookies, Snacks & Candy" (up from 20-25 from winters past) and 19 in "Frozen Food" which is also higher than years past.

The big processed food brands are clearly more aggressive in their discounts. Lower demand overall from GLP1s or common sense is part of it. But the other factor relates to the huge increases in prices starting during the pandemic.

I mean, 13 ounce bag of Doritos for $7.29? A box of freaking Cheerios for $5.99? Few people will touch that, so they're in a situation where they must discount heavily to move product. These particular products are on sale 2-3 weeks every month at $2.29 to $2.99 (see https://www.starmarket.com/weeklyad)

cptcobalt• 6 months ago

Notably, about one-third of users stopped taking the medication during the study period.

This isn't always the patient's choice—my insurance/PBM (CVS Caremark) dropped coverage for the GLP-1 that I was taking (Zepbound) and had several rounds of prior-authorization shenanigans over a few months before they approved the previous-generation GLP-1, Wegovy. Now I've had to start the ramp-up of a different medication again, which hurt and stalled progress. Evil.

foxyv• 6 months ago

Insurance companies should have to refund your premium when they do this for the time period they are making a decision. It's gotten absurd how badly they are abusing patients.

anon70002• 6 months ago

Frankly, it should be considered fraud.

wincy5• 6 months ago

I got a sleep apnea diagnosis so have that in my back pocket if they try to push me off Zepbound. I also had substantial mental health and physical side effects (like crying hysterically at 3am in the bathroom while vomiting) from that drug that I made sure my doctor documented.

Melatonic3• 6 months ago

For those that really need to lose weight I think these drugs are likely hugely beneficial. Obesity has so many downsides and is a huge net drain on healthcare systems.

In terms of long term effects the only medical study I saw that concerned me was done on rats and showed a decrease specifically in the muscles of the heart. This was taking into account general weight loss and appetite suppression (which might more generally affect muscle mass). Not hugely concerning for the obese that might see massive benefits but for those who are already a healthy weight and taking it to get 6 pack abs it might be something to consider.

knowitnone3• 6 months ago

There is lots of talk about food in these comments but the other part of the equation is exercise. You can eat as much as you want but then you have to burn those calories with exercise and most people don't.

padjo4• 6 months ago

Trying to lose weight through exercise is a fool’s errand. It’s fine for maintaining but if you want to lose weight au natural then you’re better off spending your mental energy on learning how to deal with being hungry all the time.

subpixel3• 6 months ago

It's insane to me that so many people need these to get off the processed foods killing them in the US

The American diet is insane, full stop. However, I've just begun a GLP-1 regimen to address a willpower problem, not a nutritional problem. I'm not quite young anymore and have given lots of other approaches a shot over the years, but have persistently failed to achieve a weight that is not a threat to my health.

So far, what being on a GLP-1 gives me is a steady state that most people probably find quite unremarkable: I don't crave a snack, and I don't thirst for alcohol. Both of those desires have had real control over me for a very long time.

anon70002• 6 months ago

And crucially, many of those bad foods can be pretty addictive. They’re quite literally engineered so that you want to eat a lot of them and buy more. So it’s not surprising many people struggle to change that habit when the food ecosystem is working against you. Junk food both tastes better and is easier to eat than home-cooking a very healthy meal. You’re not exactly set up for success here.

bsder3• 6 months ago

They’re quite literally engineered so that you want to eat a lot of them and buy more.

Even if it's not intentional, I find that the enshittification seems to run along these lines.

The things that finally drove it home for me this year were "peppermint bark" and "ranch dip". I used to buy this stuff or use the premade. This year I worked out how to do them properly myself.

People raved about both. But I noticed that they ate far less of them (including myself!). My suspicion is that the difference was that I used actual chocolate and actual buttermilk. I suspect the extra fat made people sated and they quit eating afterward.

I'm finding this applicable to more and more foods. I'm no genius chef, but simply using standard ingredients causes people to eat very differently.

GeorgeTirebiter• 6 months ago

I looked at a recent football (US) game, and I could not believe the pictures of the grease bombs they were pushing as 'food'. I literally felt ready to gag when I saw some 'chicken nuggets' or whatever was in the fried outer coating.

theshrike79• 6 months ago

Sugar, salt and fat in the perfect combination makes _anything_ tickle an ancient part of your brain, making you crave more of it.

joshocar3• 6 months ago

I also think there is an education gap. People grow up eating processed food and don't learn to cook. People often try to cook, but online recipes are not really teaching you anything and are often far more work than they need to be or turn out bad, so people think or learn that cooking a meal takes a long time, is a lot of work, and doesn't taste as good. Cooking becomes the exception rather than the norm.

In reality you can have a piece of salmon, with a veggie and side in ~20m with 2m of prep and 2m of cleanup. An online recipe would have you cooking down a sauce, making a complicated side, and use some random ingredient that you need to buy for that one meal.

throw8383833jj• 6 months ago

Also, these ultra processed foods set up unrealistic expectations of what "good" food should taste like. years of eating UFP ruins the taste buds. So, once you start eating real foods like whole grains, beans, fruits and vegetables (especially if its cooked without truckloads of oil), you think it doesn't taste good when actually the problem is your ruined taste buds.

Bombthecat2• 6 months ago

I wonder if we will create a Glp for gaming, they are also addicting.( And created to get you addicted)

What a world we live in...

mptest• 6 months ago

also remember it's pretty much the only addiction you are compelled to partake in even when "cured". No other addiction are you biologically compelled to do it (that i can think of) but for those with addiction issues and food as one of them it's often the hardest to shake because shaking addiction is easiest done simply by never touching it. Don't have that option with food. Even healthy food can be eaten in excess.

IG_Semmelweiss• 6 months ago

This didn't happen in a vaccum.

The tobacco companies like RJR, packed with scientiests researching how to make cigarrettes more addictive, were trojaned into mass food companies like Nabisco [1]

It should not be a surprise that there's been a relentless pursuit of addictive food ever since.

[1] https://legalclarity.org/inside-the-rjr-nabisco-leveraged-bu...

xnx2• 6 months ago

engineered so that you want to eat a lot of them

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperpalatable_food

cush2• 6 months ago

Alcohol is no joke. It can take hold of families and persist for generations. Kudos to you!

mettamage2• 6 months ago

Alcohol is no joke.

I never got this, other than seeing it's hard for others. So in that sense I agree. I've seen the effects on others and how hard it is to quit. That's no joke indeed.

I just don't get why I find it quite easy to stop drinking for a year (or longer). While I haven't been able to stop for life, doing those yearly challenges is relatively easy, for me.

If I'd be a normal person then that's whatever. But I say this I say this as a person whose whole family consists of alcoholics. Genetically, I have to have an addictive personality. Yet, I find myself I can easily not be addicted by substances.

What I find harder:

* YouTube (I recently have been able to stave off a social media addiction but YouTube specifically is tougher)

* Coffee

Maybe I should make a blog post. Throw in my 2 cents. While anecdata is anecdata, if it helps one person it'd be a good thing.

vlod• 6 months ago

I have a few drinks a week max, doesn't really bother me if I don't drink.

A friend of mine revealed they have a drink with dinner (at home) every evening, sometimes more and they still go out drinking.

I was pretty shocked. I think trying to break this dinner habit (if you're doing this) is a good starting point.

riffraff• 6 months ago

Congrats and good luck!

If I may ask, do you think you will be able to cope with the lack of willpower once you stop taking the drug?

I don't want to sound dismissive or argumentative, I'm asking out of pure curiosity, forgive me if I sound negative, I'm rooting for people who try to improve their health.

lurking_swe2• 6 months ago

that’s the dirty secret. once you start this drug you basically need to be on it for life.

I mean, you _can_ get off it, but studies show the effects reverse pretty quickly. Crucially, if you decide to get off of the drug, you’ll likely end up in a worse position than you started. Why? Many Ozempic patients lose some bone density. That can be an issue as you age. So if you get off the drug, your food habits revert to baseline, you gain the weight back, AND you have less bone density than when you started. Not a great plan.

If you need it, can tolerate the side affects, and can afford it, staying on ozempic for life makes the most sense. I believe the idea is that you can reduce the dose after you’re in a good weight range, and continue taking it as “maintenance”.

subpixel3• 6 months ago

Time will tell. I have experience losing weight but could never lose 10lbs - my goal is at least 20. And I have experience taking and tapering off other medication.

I also play sports and work out and am making time for those pursuits - literally calendering workouts as opposed to maybe sometimes doing it.

In years prior the stakes were pretty low. My last bloodwork was a wake up call. I’m optimistic I can stay where I want to be once I get there.

I’m more concerned about alcohol, and falling back into the habit of saying yes to that weird desire to have a drink at 6pm on a Tuesday that turns into a few more.

DrBazza• 6 months ago

The American shopping experience is weird as well. There's a spectrum of supermarkets.

Versus the UK, any US supermarket I've ever visited (I lived there for a couple of years) seemed to have far less fresh food, especially vegetables and fruit, but stuff in boxes was piled high.

Then again, the UK vs. Spain or France is weird, by the same metric, they have even more fresh food than us in supermarkets, and much less boxed stuff.

Geography and having continent sized country probably doesn't help either.

davidzweig• 6 months ago

And huge selection of frozen meals. These I actually found better than expected.

alex43578• 6 months ago

Is that accounting for just how much bigger the US supermarkets are?

The ones by me, ranging from cheap grocery stores, Walmart/Costco, through premium grocery stores, all have plenty of fresh food available.

They absolutely have aisles and aisles of frozen, packaged, etc; but outside of like specialty tropical fruits, there's nothing reasonable you could walk in for and not find fresh or at least frozen w/ minimal processing.

chrisco255• 6 months ago

What grocery store chain in the U.S. are you referring to? Every major chain grocery store generally stacks fresh food around the entire perimeter of the grocery store, reserving the aisles for boxed, canned, and frozen food.

You can find dozens of varieties of fruits and vegetables, tons of fresh beef, pork, chicken and fish, milk, cheeses, even bread, in every major chain grocery store in the U.S.

speleding• 6 months ago

The difference can be explained in large part by urban design: many US shoppers need a car to drive to the supermarket and only go there once a week or less. In Europe you live much closer to a supermarket, so you go more often and get more fresh food and less frozen or canned.

Some Americans are surprised to learn that many supermarkets inside cities do not even provide parking, everyone walks or bikes there. People go to the supermarket every day.

refurb• 6 months ago

Ive never been in a US grocery store that didnt have 20-30% of floor space dedicated to fresh veggies and fruit.

Where you shoppin’?

sharadov• 6 months ago

No idea what you're talking about!

I live on the west coast in the US and the sheer variety of fresh produce would put any supermarket in the UK to shame, even Spain. California produces 40% of the nation's veggies and fruits.

m4632• 6 months ago

I don't see this. The US markets have lots of fresh vegetables and fruits (though lots of processed foods too). There are also lots of healthy alternative supermarkets in most cities.

dwaite2• 6 months ago

Less fresh food? Or a similar amount, in a larger building?

Fresh food spoils quickly and often goes around the perimeter as a draw to get people to navigate the whole store.

Shelf stable and frozen foods last much longer, and are what they try to fill the middle of the store with. This can be deceptive in terms of feeling equivalent - all stores are going to have ketchup, but one may have room for two kinds and another has room for 20.

ChrisRR• 6 months ago

to address a willpower problem, not a nutritional problem

I think those are one and the same.

replwoacause• 6 months ago

What does are you on that brings you these effects? I take 5mg weekly and find the effects mild but appreciable.

m4632• 6 months ago

Processed food is easy, tasty (in a shallow way) and more available than the alternatives. I think the real problem is that it's hard to give up "easy" when so many things vie for time and attention in the US.

xnx2• 6 months ago

Processed food is easy, tasty (in a shallow way) and more available than the alternatives.

Fiber is also removed so you can eat faster (less chewing) and don't feel satiated.

DANmode• 6 months ago

Thank Christ. Grocery’s been a tip in the US for almost 20 years. Pendulum swinging back way overdue.

ada19816• 6 months ago

Just a reminder there are no shortcuts; doing the work to actually heal yourself and fast, etc. will always beat this sort of thing in the long run.

literallywho2• 6 months ago

There are plenty of shortcuts. I've fixed my sleeping schedule by taking lorazepam and melatonin every night. I've gotten over many illnesses faster than healing naturally by taking many a pill. Why shouldn't there be medicine for issues with weight, especially for people who haven't been able to beat it themselves in decades? I've been fat most of my life and managed to lose a significant chunk of it by myself and regained it all over the following 5 years. Honestly, at this point, it's not happening without something like Ozempic. And I think it's the same for many people. Also, I don't care for the "not natural" debate, personally. If I wanted everything to be natural, I'd live in the woods and hunt animals.

ada19816• 6 months ago

You lose .5-1 lb of fat every day you water fast; you will naturally increase stem cells, peptides, growth hormone, etc.

You can do this for months if needed.

You will reset your immune system, insulin response, eat off cancerous cells, etc.

The bigger opportunity is to figure out why all of these things are going on, typically unprocessed emotional trauma, environment, and choices.

venndeezl2• 6 months ago

"Heal yourself" is an emotional relative.

If epigenetic markers have activated there is no meditating them "off". Many other factors existthat foster diverse set of biological traits that are not toggled off by sitting by water.

Don't play doctor online as observers may be confused and make poor choices relative their unique circumstances.

Stick to over-charging people wracked with guilt and seeking salvation, and the bizarre longtermism you think you're bringing to fruition. Gonna stick around 10,000 years to ensure it all goes according to plan?

ada19816• 6 months ago

Choosing to avoid the trend of glp1s and instead figure out how to adopt a healthy lifestyle is not a threat.

But I do appreciate the life advice from someone with a 4 day old anonymous account!

renewiltord• 6 months ago

There are lots of shortcuts haha wtf. The entirety of civilization is shortcuts. Vaccines are shortcuts to prime your immune system, antibiotics are shortcuts, my eyeglasses are shortcuts. This is such guruslop that has no relation to reality. Surgeries are shortcuts, bicycles are shortcuts, gyms are shortcuts.

The whole point of us doing all we do is to ensure that we get good at making more and more shortcuts.

ada19816• 6 months ago

I agree with this. I oversimplified my position.

Let me say this, fasting is something everyone would benefit from being familiar with and using regularly as a tool.

Much of what we are trying to accomplish or solve with traditional petroleum based pharmacy is accomplished for free and with no side effects, by fasting.

keyle• 6 months ago

In other news, water is wet. More at 11.

Is anyone surprised that hunger-affecting drugs used on a large scale are causing changes in consumer habits?

One might want to consider inflation in the balance...

deadbabe2• 6 months ago

Becoming addicted to food can seriously wreck your life. Nothing makes every aspect of your life harder than being fat. And it just sneaks up on people because no one talks about it, like alcohol, it’s just a thing people assume you will do.

When I’m hungry, I eat, and that’s it, I don’t think about food until hours later when I get hungry again. It blows my mind that there’s people that just never stop thinking about food, even shortly after they’ve eaten, even when they’ve had their fill. We don’t have to live this way. Try to think about food less, it starts in the mind.

pixl9713• 6 months ago

Most people get their eating habits in the first 5 years of their life. If your parents aren't looking out for you, you're screwed.

rootusrootus36• 6 months ago

Part of the problem is the prevalence of useless advice like this along with the implication that it’s a moral failing to be overweight.

I think I’d rather be fat than a thin, condescending jerk, because at least then I could GLP1s to help lose weight.

hexbin0103• 6 months ago

I try to think about food less but...

- Every large/medium train station is rammed full of food. Everyone on the train is constantly shoving food and alcohol in their mouths

- Every high street is full of fast food

- Every service station is full of fast food

- Every coffee shop has pastries etc all on display staring at you

- Even at the gym the other day I had to listen to two women talking about their favourite steak and chicken etc for 15 minutes (it's a small gym)

- People's homes are full of snacks and temptations and friends/family can't comprehend the concept of my wanting to lose weight.

- Grocery shops place unhealthy food at the entrance and the staples are often placed in a way to make you walk past the unhealthy foods. Online grocery shops force you to look at unhealthy food during your shop

- People just walking around town are eating in the street

We have a massive snack culture generally in the UK and it's become so normalised. Another thing you notice taking public transport is it's the default mechanism to entertain and keep children quiet, so kids are being taught to have a snack constantly.

Food is everywhere all the time here!

deadbabe2• 6 months ago

Yes, it’s similar to alcohol, where if you decide you won’t drink, any time you go out or to a social event it seems you can’t escape people drinking or offering you a drink.

You just have to imagine yourself as being different from other people and you don’t do those things that others do.

cthalupa17• 6 months ago

When I’m hungry, I eat, and that’s it, I don’t think about food until hours later when I get hungry again.

This was me up until my mid/late 20s. I never understood how people got fat. I didn't get it. It wasn't difficult for me to remain at a healthy weight.

Then my life changed. Worked my way farther up the corporate ladder. More work. Higher stakes on that work. Less time and mental energy for cooking, etc. More eating out, more ordering in. Less time in the gym. Eventually that turned into cooking only for special occasions or special meals (and these certainly weren't healthier, though they were delicious), and that less time in the gym turned into no time. Eventually I became obese.

And I realized my relationship with food had massively changed compared to where I was before. Physical hunger? Still easy to ignore. If it was just a matter of beating the feeling of hunger, it'd be easy. But I could not get food out of my mind. I tried mindfulness exercises, meditating, all sorts of things. No luck. But GLP-1s fixed it in a hurry.

I had to eat crow on all the thoughts and comments I had made about how easy it was to just not eat.

464931682• 6 months ago

Try to think about food less, it starts in the mind.

It starts in the gut. That’s what we are learning with GLP1s.

insane_dreamer2• 6 months ago

The best news was this:

Ultra-processed, calorie-dense foods – the kinds most closely associated with cravings – saw the sharpest declines. Spending on savory snacks dropped by about 10%, with similarly large decreases in sweets, baked goods and cookies.

cush2• 6 months ago

You know these diminishing profits have the food scientists at Pepsi, Coke and Nestle working tirelessly to fuel this arms race. Give it six months and there will be snacks on grocery store shelves so addictive even Ozempic can’t suppress them

socalgal22• 6 months ago

Prediction, the food and/or restaurant associations will start a campaign to claim ozempic causes autism (etc...)

apparent4• 6 months ago

Yogurt rose the most, followed by fresh fruit, nutrition bars and meat snacks.

I would guess that this is because people are replacing full-blown meals with smaller snacks. The meat snacks is probably because people are warned about losing muscle mass. Perhaps this affects yogurt consumption as well.

Notably, about one-third of users stopped taking the medication during the study period.

This seems pretty high considering they're only following people for 6 months. I guess people are most likely to have side effects at the beginning, but I feel like I've not gotten the sense that a third of people bail within the first year, due to side effects or other reasons.

rumplecat2• 6 months ago

A common reason people quit is that they miss the pleasure that eating previously gave them.

wincy5• 6 months ago

I’ve lost 110 pounds on Zepbound and still absolutely love food. My relationship has changed with it substantially, though. I used to feel a strong urge to eat, often, and anything I could shovel down. I felt like I literally could never eat enough. I had terrible heartburn all the time. I’d eat a box of zebra cakes on the way home from the store. Something was very wrong with me. Right now I’m enjoying a homemade matzo ball soup with rotisserie chicken and homemade stock. It’s been absolutely life changing. I still eat zebra cakes sometimes, although far less, and I’m hard pressed to finish two, much less an entire box.

I was able to lose weight before but it always required adhering strictly to a diet, or I’d just gain all the weight back. I’m so indescribably happy to be able to go on long bike rides, work on my house without getting tired after 20 minutes, and I go to the gym regularly. All this happened after the weight loss, not before. I think a lot of things we think are causing obesity is mixed up — the obesity for me seemed to be causing the dysfunction in almost every facet of my life.

newsclues• 6 months ago

That’s why I quit soylent.

Now all I eat is chicken, and potatoes (regular and sweet) with avocado oil, and drink water. Salt is a bit of a problem because I use too much.

Easy to lose weight or maintain it when you eat one meal a day ime

hexbin0103• 6 months ago

Yes, you need to find other pleasures in life. Use the clearer head space to figure out the emotional reasons for enjoying food so much.

Or just spend a long time in the Netherlands and they can teach you how people who enjoy food are indulgent and weird and therefore bad.

mihaaly• 6 months ago

I feel that analysing details and consequences based on the article is premature and marginal. The reduction of 5-8% of medication using households is barely beyond measurable (we have higher variation by the season). Yet they use the words 'striking', 'steep'. Also saying 'clear changes' in one part then admitting 'the reduction becomes smaller over time' (without specifics this time). The highest decrease of 10% for savory snacks is also modest at most (e.g. still consuming 9 pack instead of 10 in a reference period. having nothing good to watch on TV might have higher effect).

The data might really be useful for the food industry once, but only after the usage of the medicine goes beyond 16% currently. 5-8% change, even 10%, for 16% of the population is tiny.

To me the study sounds desperate to project significance, using adjectives rather than data for seeking attention.

apparent4• 6 months ago

Considering that only one person in a household might have gone on a medication, these percentages are actually more sizable than they might seem.

It would have been useful if this were broken out differently, to highlight the different impact in single-person households and larger households.

protocolture2• 6 months ago

I get a lot of side effects on it, and during those side effects, yoghurt is about all I can stomach.

snvzz2• 6 months ago

For Ozempic to "change the foods Americans buy".

Just how many Americans are on Ozempic?

wincy5• 6 months ago

Not enough! Every time I see an overweight person now (I lost 110 pounds), I want to suggest it. I convinced my sister to try it, and she’s shedding lots of weight!

goto1• 6 months ago

"The share of U.S. households reporting at least one user rose from about 11% in late 2023 to more than 16% by mid-2024."

roel_v5• 6 months ago

Double digit percentages, and within a few years, this'll be true across most developed economies.

Yes this is mind blowing once you think about it.

RGamma2• 6 months ago

Isn't it funny/shocking how efficiently the US free market creates both the problems and their "solutions" in a neverending self-escalating game of subjecting the consumers to their will (here: food vs pharma)?

wraptile• 6 months ago

Ozempic is not a product of US though

RGamma2• 6 months ago

You're right and AFAIK it wasn't primarily developed for weight-loss either. Still, there's something not quite right with the way this band-aid would be required at non-trivial scale in the first place. I guess there really is a level of commerce that is too excessive.

blurbleblurble• 6 months ago

Good thing the FDA is fighting back by suggesting people eat more pork, beef etc

gabs007• 6 months ago

That’s only part of the reason, I’m sure. We are refusing to buy groceries we usually would buy because of this idiot president!

notepad0x90• 6 months ago

We need a constitutional amendment, allowing us rights to certain medication like ozempic, caffeine, adderal, xanax and pot. If alcohol gets its own amendment, and repealing amendment, why not!!

(i'm entirely being satirical)

borroka5• 6 months ago

There is a mix of culture and food at play here. Most people, left to their own devices, without cultural pressure, are lazy, unproductive, and slovenly.

We can see that with food: as soon as the shaming of people for being fat weakened, as it happened primarily in the US and then in the Western world at large, people started to indulge without guardrails.

We can see that with clothing and appearance: people started to dress slovenly, preferring comfort to being presentable and well-put together.

We can see that with "productivity": people started doomscrolling for hours or watching hours upon hours of life lived by other people, instead of living their lives.

solarmist• 6 months ago

Bullshit. We built a world that constantly exploits human limits, then act surprised when people hit them. No one has infinite willpower.

borroka5• 6 months ago

A most surprising remark.

Dressing with intention does not require any particular willpower, just some desire, intention, a bit of time, and a taste that may develop over time.

Avoiding doomscrolling is not that hard. The first few days are usually hard when we want to break a habit that's hanging around like a terrible smell, but after that, it is smooth sailing.

One can play victim not forever but for a long time: we have seen that in particular between 2010 and 2015, with people claiming to be abused by the most absurd things. But those abusers remain absurd, and the alleged victims--of food, social media, celebrities stealing their attention like a bully steals candy from a nerd-- pathetic.

bean469• 6 months ago

We can see that with clothing and appearance: people started to dress slovenly, preferring comfort to being presentable and well-put together.

I know a 21 year old dude who dresses like he's from the 50s, suit, hat and all. He looks extremely presentable and is the biggest compliment machine that I know!

borroka5• 6 months ago

I live in a beach town and dress almost always in trousers and sports coat, occasionally in a suit, sometimes casually in jeans and shirts and desert boots, but always with intention.

Well, what can I do? I am terribly vain and don't see myself going out in flip-flops when not at the beach.

mmooss13• 6 months ago

Most people, left to their own devices, without cultural pressure, are lazy, unproductive, and slovenly.

I disagree strongly. I think most people do the best they can. When they are emotionally overwhelmed, they withdraw.

Doing things you dislike, such as dressing certain ways, is not slovenliness. Your opinion is meaningful only to you (and those who choose to share it), it's not a standard. Also, what data is there of a problem? When people started dressing more casually (which I guess is your objection), the economy boomed, freedom boomed, Silicon Valley - famously casual - boomed, etc.

We could say that your thinking is slovenly, too lazy to try to understand that others have very different thoughts, perspectives, and priorities which are just as valid as yours. Too lazy to try to look at evidence. Much easier to take the egocentric path and judge everyone else, and repeat misinformation that's appealing - and all especially easier when it's culturally enabled.

borroka5• 6 months ago

Of course I judge, and I expect other people to judge me. It is what we do every day: we assess, evaluate, and draw conclusions. What people have problems with is not to be judged per se, but judged negatively: "oh, please stop judging me as a brilliant, awesome, good-looking person!" is something that, in fact, nobody never said.

The way that the comment I am answering comes across is quite reactive in nature and too forceful in tone. Nowhere I said that people should dress in a suit or sundress or that they should have visible abs. I do, but that is just my preference.

I just expressed my opinion that, when left to their own devices, people are often apathetic. Or maybe, as the writer of the comment suggested, they (some, to be clear, but in my opinion, too many) choose to be 400 pounds, not showering, dressing in PJs, or doomscroll, because that's the way they are happy.

Good for them, they surely live a life of fewer preoccupations.

dwd2• 6 months ago

Been following a whole food diet for a few years now, with one simple rule: avoid anything pre-made that has preservative or additives.

Everything is made as much as possible from scratch with fresh, frozen or dried ingredients. The only downside is most fresh ingredients need to be used within a few days (lack of preservatives/additives) - which means often making a stew using anything left-over that needs to be eaten. But throwing a whole heap of ingredients in a pot for 2 hours is a very quick/easy meal.

There are some carve-outs as we don't have unlimited time/space so items like cheese, yoghurt, anything fermented we don't make our own - but we stick to organic and preferably low-salt.

We never eat out or buy takeaway; if we feel like pizza we make and bake our own bases, and the toppings are all fresh. Bread is particularly something we never buy and have reduced our consumption: baking your own is less convenient but we eat a lot of rolled oats instead.

We don't limit snacks like chocolate (organic, no added vegetable oils) or nuts and go through an insane amount of honey.

sjw9875• 6 months ago

This is the most sensible attitude I've seen people express that has led to meaningful weight loss, maintenance and as far as we can see across large timespans, lifestyle change.

It's incredibly hard to gain weight by eating whole or minimally processed foods. The destruction and recombination of foods (and their food matrix) into ultra processed foods is one of the driving causes behind people eating more because the artificial textures and softness is one of the main drivers of over-eating, especially of high calorie foods.

I'd wager that people could replicate the same satiety induced weight loss (to a slower, but safer extent) through minimising ultra processed foods than GLP drugs.

It reduces your supermarket shop to about 10% of the store. Almost anything packed and transported is out of the question, as are entire rows of capitalism-driven junk food.

dwd2• 6 months ago

It is very hard to gain weight when paired with some daily cardio and/or weights, even when you are eating to build up more muscle mass.

Eating healthy snacks through the day: handfuls of oily nuts (peanuts, cashews, macadamias), full fat smoothies and a lot of protein doesn't shift the scales.

We still end up buying some packed and transported food: Frozen blueberries from Chile, Spanish olive oil, dried herbs like tumeric, paprika etc but most meat/fruit/vegetables is sourced locally.

Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

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