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

[Iamsunshineinabag]

I've just finished reading Ultra Processed People (great book!) and the realisation that so much processed food is irresistible because they literally design it to be has got me thinking - are the companies that make our favourite salty snacks, fizzy drinks, ready meals, processed foods etc concerned about how many people are using the weight loss injections?

I'm not on the injections myself but a couple of family members are and they are amazed by how the food noise is quietened and they don't crave all this stuff anymore. They are just giving their bodies what they objectively need rather than what they crave. It's a game changer really!

But what are the big food companies thinking? Anyone have any inside info?!

This is very much how I feel. I am 42. I have spent my entire adult life losing and then gaining the same 5 stone. I am a champion dieter, I am REALLY GOOD at dieting. I probably know more about the science of food and exercise than the majority of my slimmer friends as a result. Losing weight is my life's work - how depressong is that? I can lose weight, miserably, slowly, whilst hating life - sometimes a stone, sometimes 3, sometimes 5. It always goes back on with a little extra for insurance purposes. It's exhausting.

I never saw my obesity as a medical problem. I never really thought there could be physical reasons for why my every waking moment was consumed by thoughts of food or why, 2 hours after a big meal, I would be ravenous again - and yes, I do mean ravenous. I think some people who have never struggled with their weight think fat people are referring to a gentle hunger or a slight empty feeling when they mention this. It's not - it's pure desperation and not something that can be ignored.

Since I started on Mounjaro, I still get a healthy hunger at mealtimes but that unbearable famished compulsion has gone. As I say, I never thought it was a medical problem, but medication has fixed it. My GP tells me that the prevalent thinking amongst his colleagues is that, for people with obesity, hormones are out of whack and Mounjaro regulates this, allowing obese people to exercise the willpower that they always had, which is no higher or lower than that of the general population.

I work in SEN and have described Mounjaro to interested parties as my reasonable adjustment. Happy to pay to remain on a maintenance dose for the rest of my life if the NHS doesn't catch up with the science.

I think they will adapt - they will start creating special diets to go withe the shots for one thing. Or marketing food that appeals to people taking the shots.

I'm also not convinced that even if their use increases, it's ultimately going to mean long term changes to diet. I think it's going to be a lot more complex set of interactions.

Obesity itself is NOT necessarily an illness - it’s more often a symptom of something else

genuine response to your point - in all of those situations, yes there are causes that could have been managed. But medical treatment is generally the only solution to all of those problems - you need treatment for injuries or cancer

medical treatment is not necessarily the only solution to dealing with obesity

its not easy for anyone to lose weight through exercise and diet and takes willpower but it’s a solution that will last a persons lifetime without other medical intervention.

Also weight loss injections don’t necessarily lead to people eating more nutritious food or exercising to increase strength, agility and cardiovascular capacity for longevity.

injections deal with the symptom rather than the cause

so yes - buy them, but don’t expect taxpayers to fund them long term

caveat to the above is that there are people who genuinely cannot lose weight eg due to thyroid issues, PCOs- but I’m sorry, that is simply not the case for many

And @Heretodaystillheretomorrow

this from a quick Google.

Obesity itself is NOT an illness - it’s a symptom of something else

Many experts don’t agree with that assertion.

People aren’t expecting taxpayers to fund them long term (and let’s just remember here that a lot of people taking them will be taxpayers themselves). If at some point in the future they are funded via the NHS long term, it will be because it has been decided that the cost of funding them long term outweighs the cost (to the taxpayer!) of obesity related illnesses. Do you know how taxes work? It sounds like you think people can just request something is paid for via taxes, and it just happens!

How funny you ask

I’m a tax partner at a leading consultancy firm.

so yes - I know exactly how tax policy works, I’ve been on working groups for hmrc and hm treasury - have you?

there are many aspects that go into tax policy - and sometimes that is actually dictated by public sentiment even if it doesn’t always make financial sense

Oh, what a coincidence!

It is isn’t it

but genuine. Ask me anything about the corporation tax act 2009/2010 and I can tell you

that’s the beauty of mumsnet

I do have sympathy with what you have said above and am glad it’s helped you

I've thought about this as well. Food consumption will fall, less food shipped around the planet, environmental benefits. If people are also buying smaller clothes, that means lower shipping costs and less materials used in production or more environmental benefits. It'll even use less petrol to transport lighter people around. So these jabs could have environmental benefits as well.
Plus, if people are spending less money on food, they can better afford wli and frankly I think they should pay for it themselves rather than expect the NHS to pay for it.

Thanks, I appreciate that. It's nice not to feel insane anymore!

Surely it's not only the obese who use fast food restaurants? I had a friend who was once very obese (she's had surgery, and while nothing like as large as she was the weight is creeping back on unfortunately), and she didn't eat fast food any more than I, who am slightly overweight did. I see plenty of normal size people eating fast food, so surely the industry isn't just going to plummet? The majority of people are not on WLI (even though reading MN could make you think otherwise).

This!!!! 100% - some people have no idea how soul destroying it is to be hungry all the time, to look at every single meal as either something you can’t eat so you’re missing out or something you do eat then feel guilty about. You can break an addiction to alcohol or drugs because you don’t need to drink to survive - you can avoid situations where drink/drugs are available/normal - you can’t avoid food forever.

Di you enjoy your smug ivory tower there? Nobody knows what will happen when people come off the injections yet.
Maybe we will keep it off and then you can be all bitter and twisted that we cheated.
The fact you binged and gained weight over Christmas means that your relationship with food is not perfect either.

"Plus, if people are spending less money on food, they can better afford wli and frankly I think they should pay for it themselves rather than expect the NHS to pay for it."
You could say that anyone who has given up smoking and drinking. Or now can't travel abroad because of medical isissues.or about someone who's wrapped their ridiculously expensive car around a tree etc.

I can’t imagine food companies are in the least concerned because these medications change people’s neurochemistry to suppress appetite and the minute they stop taking them they will return to their previous ‘normal’, which means dealing with cravings, hunger and navigating food choices daily. The exceptions being those people who have drastically worked on their relationship with, and use of, food whilst medicated.

I’ve no idea why pharmaceutical companies are being heralded as the great saviours in the war against obesity, but you can be sure they know the data shows regain of weight for most users once treatment concludes, but that’s not as sexy in the marketing materials or as headline grabbing.

Changing our physiology does not change our behaviourial, emotional or psychological relationship with food. Obesity is a chronic condition that requires multiple interventions to reverse. These drugs undoubtedly work, but unfortunately we do know they don’t lead to sustainable weight loss for the majority of patients unless they are in conjunction with other changes to routine, mindset, behaviour.

Not on injections, but having already avoided low fat, saccharine drinks etc. for years, I read Ultra Processed People and it changed my mindset and choices re. food overnight and no longer feel the need to constantly eat. Lost a stone in 3 months just avoiding UPFs and I'd say the real issue is what food producers are doing to us!

@PresidentBarklett

I am so glad you are feeling this way now - me too,

It's just incredible, isn't it. I was put on my first lot of appetite suppressants when I was 9 (genuinely. 70s child).

Having spent my whole life ashamed of being obese, now I'm in my 50s and feel I am experiencing what it must be like to be 'normal'.

I honestly never thought my obesity was down to a physiological issue - nor have any medics or fitness experts, of which I've had many over the years. It was all just 'eat less, move more' and if that doesn't work, eat even less and move even more. And when it doesn't last, you're greedy and lazy. I'm on the board of a large company, for gods sake, yet apparently weak and unmotivated 🙈

2.5 months on Mounjaro and I know that there was something faulty that is being fixed.

It's just the biggest relief of my life.

@OP, you raise an interesting question and you will find some elements of response in this analysis paper https://www.morganstanley.com/ideas/obesity-drugs-market-expanded-opportunity

In short, yes WLIs are already disrupting the food and hospitality sectors, and this is set to continue and very possibly get worse.

Wow. Thanks for that. Yep ivory tower is all very good, great view from here. I was just pointing out that in the majority of cases people lose weight and then revert to their usual behaviour.

Yep I have food issues. Was anorexic due to a phobia of eating in front of people as a teen. Have no delayed gratification so will eat everything in one sitting

It was a mean bitter little post. So I’d reflect on how you treat others due to weight.

If that was aimed at me I remember what it felt like nor to have control and don't care how anyone lost weight or whether they haven't. I use compassion and kindness for all.

In which case why does your post seem so smug and angry. The injectables help with the delayed gratification. As someone with a history of eating disorders you should maybe think about the words you use and how they can trigger others.
Smugness is never attractive. And if you've kept off the weight for 2 years then you obviously are able to delay gratification.

i mean this gently but reread your post. There was no kindness or compassion there, in fact the opposite.

I cannot believe that a 'Neuroscientist' would ask such simple-minded, misguided questions that can easily be answered or not even asked if a modicum of research (as basic as a 2 minute Google search) or a little logic was applied. Please don't put the 'Neuroscientist' title to shame! Find another.