For decades, obesity was treated as a matter of self-control and free will: If you were fat, it was your own fault.
You could try a diet, though the diet companies were also in on the fix: For years, Weight Watchers was owned by Heinz … and Jenny Craig was owned by Nestle.
But it was up to you. You made your choices, and you had to live with them. And so the obesity rate in the US soared from around 15% of the population in 1970 to more than 40% today. Clearly something is going on other than free will and personal choices.
In this episode of Drug Story, we explore the origins of the obesity epidemic: the Green Revolution in agriculture, which saved a billion lives, but also made grain cheap cheap cheap. And we look at what happened when the tobacco companies decided to diversify into the food business (surprise: food became a lot more addictive, and a lot less healthy).
And we re-consider the whole idea of personal freedom and free will.
Our drug is Ozempic, and the whole class of GLP-1s that have up-ended our presumptions around obesity. These drugs have transformed millions of lives - they are surely one of the most impactful medical discoveries of the century.
Unfortunately, these drugs have not dispelled the stigma around obesity. They’ve just shifted it a bit. If you think taking a GLP-1 is “cheating,” you’re still stuck in the old blame game.
Even if you’ve read everything about GLP-1s, I think this will get you thinking in new ways about the disease business.
