To wonder if 'Big Food' are up in arms about weight loss injections?

No, I don't think "big food" are worried about the demographic that can afford to spend £150 a month on weightloss injections

Obesity IS an illness. It IS a medical problem/condition.

Out of interest, do you feel the same about other potentially long term treatments available on the NHS for conditions which are 'caused' by behavior/actions taken by the patient?

For example:

People with lung cancer who smoke. They could not smoke?

People who sunbathe who get skin cancer. They could not sunbathe?

People who have skiing accidents/sports injuries. They could not do those things?

People who injure themselves by crashing their car, motor bike or bike. They could not travel?

People who find themselves infertile because they wait to have children because they are older. They could have children younger?

People with alcohol/substance addiction. They could just stop?

After all, the information/education is widely available for all these people to 'avoid' needing treatment in the first place if they 'act in a certain way' or 'avoid taking certain decisions'.

Genuine question. Where do you draw the line.

There are loads of things I’m not happy about my (considerable, as I’m a high earner) tax payer money funding, but unfortunately we don’t get to pick and choose. Those who take WLI long term will also be funding them through their taxes, and they will only be available long term on the NHS if the benefit is deemed to outweigh the costs.

No-one thinks those things about overweight people

but…. I am not happy about my tax payer money going to fund your weight loss injections long-term if you have also received education about learning to keep the weight off- unless you have a medical problem

@LaurieFairyCake

Great post, and some other great posts on here.

Most people who I've seen post anti-Mounjaro & equiv messages don't understand at all how they work.

Like you say - they are primarily an insulin regulator, blood sugar regulator, GLP-1 hormone and agonist regulator, which as a result of fixing these things that don't work correctly, suppresses the brain's (faulty) messaging to continually want fuel.

But that doesn't sound as good to the naysayers!

I've been on Mounjaro for 2.5 months.
It has finally made me feel like a naturally thin person maybe feels. It's life changing,

I actually feel a bit cheated that as an educated, intelligent, successful yet long term overweight woman, I've spent a lifetime feeling ashamed of my 'lack of willpower' in this one area - yet this medication has addressed physiological issues I didn't even know I had.

@ThinWomansBrain
Your username, really made me laugh, because Mounjaro has given me just that!

@LaurieFairyCake great to read about how much your health has improved.

custardpyjamas

I'm not remotely addicted to food

Because of my health conditions and the fact I'm very small and menopausal I'm oniy able to eat 800 calories a day without putting on weight

I've no idea if YOU'VE tried to eat only 800 calories a day but without the drug it would be impossible for me. I couldn't eat under 1000 before without being starving hungry, getting the shakes, low blood pressure making me pass out.

The drug I'm on (MJ) is NOT a weight loss medication, it's a hormone regulating drug with weight loss as a side effect.

So I eat exactly the same as before, basically protein, fat and vegetables but the difference is with the drug that I AM NOT STARVING HUNGRY.

And all of my other medications are reducing. As an example I was on 3600mg of Gabapentin every day for inflammation and nerve pain in the back.

I'm now on 400mg a day and titrating off it.

I no longer need my pre diabetes medication, I'd just started taking metformin before starting MJ - all gone

And hopefully I will be able to come down on my HRT

All due to my hormones being in balance and my inflammation going down

I can run now too as I have incredible energy, before it was too painful

It's very naive to believe the big food corps are going to suffer at the hands of WLIs. The biggest share holders of companies like PepsiCo, Coca Cola, Unilever, Danone and the like are also the biggest shareholders of Eli Lilly, the company that invented Mounjaro. This is just one example and is often the case. The ultra processed food producers cause things like diabetes, while having a big hand in producing the drugs to cure it. It's win win for them regardless.
We are all being taken for a ride if we believe that these drugs have any wider benefit to anyone's purse aside from multi national corporations.

Who knows what stakes/ shares they own. They will profit from all of this, one way, or another. They helped to create the dreadful situation that so many people are/ were in, and will not allow their profits to be harmed long term.

I'm only surprised that Big Food doesn't own the weight loss drug companies so they continue to make money no matter what.

Yes you have to eat smaller portions of a normal diet, the bariatric surgeons tell you that. Why are you sneering at her eating a small piece of pizza. Are you mistakenly believing that someone who had bariatric surgery cant eat pizza ever again?

I'm perfectly well informed thank you. I assume you are either on the injections or want the injections given the aggressive nature of your posts

What a weird assertion. I'm not on any weight loss medications and don't want to be, but it makes absolutely sense to me, if there is a medication that is preventative for multiple obesity related conditions, investing in it is going to save money. The NHS should be focussing resources on prevention, that's the best way to save money in the future.

Some people really do think that people who are overweight need "educating" about healthy eating and exercise. Well, most of us not only know about it, but probably know more than a lot of people who have never had to try and lose weight.
Even more startling is that fat people can be intelligent and educated and some of us even hold senior positions in the NHS 🤯

Yes Ive said this for years and years and years to anyone that would listen or even if they wouldnt listen

The food industry/supermarkets business model is for us to over buy. They probably dont really care about what happens to the food but being humans, if its in the house we're going to eat it. Restaurants for example serve up enormous portions of the cheap bits, chips, bread, pasta to make it look as if they are good value for money because people will say 'they serve massive portions' and this keeps custom up

The food industry does not want us to eat to our needs, it doesnt want us to up our intake of fresh fruit and veg and non processed foods, there is no profit in that

Be under no illusion that they will be rubbing their grubby hands in meetings about how to overcome this, whats their tactic going to be.

They're not valid questions when they're clearly posed in bad faith. Their opening gambit was "you're swapping your addiction to food with an addiction to injections" which is completely false and there is no evidence to suggest that Mounjaro (or similar drugs) are addicting. It's a judgement being made by that PP based on their own prejudices surrounding obesity.

Of course it's right that we look at all the factors around NHS funding of drugs and treatments using evidence, but that's not what this PP and others are wanting to do. They are just making moral judgements and dressing them up as facts and foregone conclusions to fit their anti-fat agenda.

And to be clear - lack of willpower or effort is not a medical reason

and no this isn’t fat phobia - I am talking about a significant amount of taxpayers money here

Wow never thought about that!

So companies have designed processed food to be irrestible to a high proportion of people.

And so we have had to design injections to make said processed food not register in their brains/ bodies.

That is wild if that’s what’s happened/ happening.

Completely different - unless someone has a true medical reason for not being able to lose weight, if they want to lose weight they should take personal responsibility for it in the long term - ie the state can support initial weight loss in the short term perhaps (ie initial round of injections and learning), but not for that persons lifetime

Well no, that's not what you were saying.

You (ridiculously) claimed that fat phobia meant people were "scared of fat people". As you well know, that's not what it means. Much the same as xenophobes aren't scared of foreign people, homophobes aren't scared of gay people etc.

I'll leave this pointless exchange there.

I'll admit that weight loss injections confuse me.

If they're such miracles that have been around for 40 years, why are we only hearing about them now? Why did celebrities all suddenly discover them last year?

Why aren't diabetics all really thin?

How can any drug supposedly not have side effects? Literally not one other drug works that way, even natural compounds.

Why should you taxpayers money go on people injured in road accidents, they should have been more careful ? Or people who injure themselves playing rugby, football or running ? Maybe a few people with lung cancer can be left to die on the pavements.. or some Flu people shouod be kicked out of hospital, if they didn’t have a vaccine.

Maybe it will change the Big Food game plan. I HATE cooking but no longer crave or enjoy takeaways and am determined to keep the weight off. If things like Hello Fresh became more available/varied/cheaper/easier and I could pop to the end of my street for a healthy meal to take home, I'd be in.

As sure as eggs are eggs if big food sees its profits declining they will start pushing back and lobbying against 'big weight loss'!

@Shrinkingrose why should my tax paid fund a persons weight loss injections forever, when that person should just learn to eat better and exercise. Temporarily on injections to learn those habits - fine. But forever - no just pay for those injections yourself or learn better habits

Their behaviour is no less likely to change than yours...