I'm reading "Life After Food? A diabetes drug has become an off-label appetite suppressant, changing the definition of being thin and what it takes to get there" (NY Magazine).
When she was growing up, Allison says, in “my household, we lived to eat. Food was an excursion, food was a reward, food was everything. You’re eating one meal and talking about what you’re going to eat the next meal. I almost feel like this drug allows me to be casual about food in a way that always felt culturally alien to me. I can just have one bite, or two bites, or three.”
A profound and possibly unprecedented change, in other words, might be taking place. Isn’t appetite, after all, what makes us us, for better or worse?
“Subdue your appetites my dears, and you’ve conquered human nature,” as Dickens’s philosophical schoolmaster, Mr. Squeers, told young Nicholas Nickelby. Of course, his mouth was “very full of beef and toast” at the time....
Posts
45 comments:
“Ozempic, the heavily advertised (“Oh, oh, oh, Ozempic,” to the tune, none too subtly, of the ’70s classic-rock hit “Magic”) diabetes miracle drug…”
Never believe it's not so
It's magic, you know
Never believe it's not so
Never been awake
Never seen a day break
Leaning on my pillow in the morning
Lazy day in bed music in my head
Crazy music playing in the morning light
Sounds like a godsend for anorexics everywhere.
Isn’t appetite, after all, what makes us us, for better or worse?
Arguably. Sort of. But not food. Appetites in this formulation means desires generally, not just hunger.
Anyone else bothered by the use of "the gays" not once, but twice in this article? both times for laughs? "Oh, those body obsessed gay boys! Of course they'll be lapping up a semi-legal appetite suppressant!" I cannot stand the assumed free pass for gratuitous prejudice worn as a badge of coolness by those who lean Left. "What, me prejudiced? Puhleaze! I voted for Obama!" I can understand a young, naive writer pulling a stunt like that, but don't magazines have editors anymore?
There is a fine balancing act between being thin and being happy.
Maybe there is more pressure if one is an actress or model.
Sounds kind of miserable...
"Wegovy" -- the version of Ozempic that Novo Nordisk recently obtained FDA approval for -- is an on-label weight reduction medicine. Nothing illegal or immoral about using it for non-diabetic weight control.
see https://www.wegovy.com/
so, does this mean, the last 20 years of "Fat is FINE! There is No weight TOO LARGE" finally over?
if so.. THANK GOD!
Thinking about baby names?
Ozempic if it's a boy.
And if it's a girl -- Otezla.
I can't read because I've reached my monthly limit on NY Mag (I blame you Althouse), but this doesn't sound healthy at all. Going from juice cleanses to medication...and the nightly Xanax...
I think for morbidly obese people, the risks of being so fat outweigh the risks of the medication. Other people? Probably not.
Rollo! Made my morning!
The drug also, apparently, suppresses desire for alcohol. There's some general "satiation" pathway involved.
Here’s what I know about weight loss and generally health and fitness in the larger sense.
No matter what you do, someone is going to judge how you do it.
Althouse said…
“Isn’t appetite, after all, what makes us us, for better or worse?”
Enter the Althouse?
“A man’s strength can be measured by his appetites. Indeed, a man’s strength flows from his appetites.”
https://getyarn.io/yarn-story/1a258b89-83b5-4c16-aec3-c4ef6b840515
LOL, Rollo.
If I have m/f twins, I'll name them Dupixent and Humira.
I also found those throw-away lines from the New York actress and Detroit school counselor very off-putting: I heard somebody say all the gays at CAA are on it and they’re all sh***ing their brains out and The gays were planning ahead for Fire Island this summer Ugh. It makes me think Allison and April are vacant women who I would not want to be around, ever.
Before Ozempic, she’d hole up in her hotel on film shoots, juice-cleansing to fit into her costumes. Now, she says...
"This one weird internet trick solves ______________. Doctors are stunned."
I'm surprised doctors are prescribing this and the other similar drugs to people who are not type 2 diabetics or morbidly obese. While these drugs have the side effect of reducing appetite their main effect is lowering blood sugar. I don't see how lowering blood sugar for those who do not have type 2 diabetes is good them. The best one of these drugs from a hunger suppressant is Mounjaro and it cost a thousand bucks a month if you can even get it and health insurance companies aren't covering it for any reason other than type 2 diabetes and only if the other drugs aren't effective in lowering hemoglobin A1C levels.
Bari Weiss did a podcast recently on this drug. The potential side effects did not sound appealing.
They have found that Ozempic rapidly "ages" your face. So you get normal waistline/abnormal face or abnormal waistline/normal face. Pick your poison. Or, option 1 + facial plastic surgery. Sheesh, you people! Just be who you are.
Try to add up all the ways in which pharmaceuticals have changed appetites and behaviors of the masses in the last few decades. Birth control pills, hormones, steroids, anti-psychotics, anti-depressants, cannabis, alertness enhancers, hallucinogenics, life extension meds, etc.
The unmedicated are a minority. As Mr. Natural asked, "Is Dis A System?" Who's left to be "natural"?
Let's have an experiment. Everyone goes cold turkey on their pharmaceuticals for 6 months. Let's see what happens.
Millions have heeded Billy Kristol's sage advice:
"Remember: it's not how you feel, it's how you look."
The conflation of dietary and body fat, for one, has left Americans hungry with expanding waistlines, and other progressive health conditions.
Blogger Fred Drinkwater said...
Rollo! Made my morning!
The drug also, apparently, suppresses desire for alcohol. There's some general "satiation" pathway involved.
That is really interesting. It will be interesting to see if it is effective in morbid obesity as that seems to be the cause, lack of satiation. Nobody gets to 700 pounds from psychological reasons alone.
I've been slowly getting over some kind of nightmare URI for the past three+ weeks and my appetite has been very much suppressed. As in, I have to force myself to eat and don't enjoy it at all. I'm also "full" after small portions (the other day all I ate for the whole day was three ounces of strip steak and a can of green beans).
My quality of life has been diminished by not having a normal appetite. It's a real loss and if my enjoyment of food were never to return, that would be an ongoing grief.
It takes self control for the first month or so, but eating one meal a day worked well for me. So the question is, is it the Ozempic or the eating one meal a day? Perhaps the Ozempic is a crutch for the self-control to avoid snacking habits?
Here's an athlete on Joe Rogan who eats one meal a day, but since he works out, is in far better shape. And his meals are pasta, homemade pizza, etc. and he comes out lighter than if he ate low carb or other diets.
https://youtu.be/usCRMH8TPRU
I take Ozempic, for type II diabetes. You'd have to be incredibly vain to tolerate the side effects just to lose weight, especially since the dieters generally take double to dosage prescribed for me.
I might also mention, that diabetics were having to wait 2 or 3 weeks for refills on Ozempic, because of the number of people using it electively for weight loss, rather than diabetic diet control.
“Strange Magic” by ELO, not to be confused with “Magic” by ELO for the movie Xanadu.
I’m having similar appetite suppressing results with Trulicity. With the exception of Xanax, I can’t describe the sensation any better than the quotes bit. Yeah 1.5 meals a day, and sometimes that seems excessive.
Ozempic is an injection. I've looked it up. A lot more side effects then metformin. I've been taking metformin for years and my last A1C level was below the diagnostic level for pre-diabetes.
Some people say theylose weight taking metformin. I've been at the same weight since starting it. There are warnings not to take alcohol with metformin- apparently it strains the liver. Same is probably true with Ozempic since it affects (mostly) the same pathways. But from my experience- it doesn't lessen any desire for it. If taking Ozempic with alcohol also has a bad effect on the liver- it's a ggod thing it reduces desire for alcohol
I won't be asking my doctor about Ozempic as the advertisements advise. More side effects, requires needles and injeections, and my blood sugar is under control.
My sympathies to you diabetes sufferers who have to take the newly ubiquitous drugs.
I am also diabetic but don't take pills for it (only for b.p., cholesterol, and blood thinning).
I've gained a stone in weight since last fall, largely because I am walking and exercising less, not because I eat much more or worse than I did.
I took metformin for years but saw some things online that made me wary and I quit. (It may also have made me feel bad--lots of drugs do.) I don't want anything to do with injections either--my mother shot up insulin for 55 years.
My A1C level is good.
40% of the weight loss associated with the use of GLP receptor agonists is lean muscle mass. If you use these agents make sure your protein intake is at least 1 gm/pound/day
Ann Althouse said...
They're losing weight because they're eating less food.
They had to make food unappetizing to eat less.
That's so sad. Either way you have to eat less food. Why can't you enjoy your food while eating less? No, you have to not enjoy your food. Sad!"
All I ask of God is to either let me eat to my heart's desire and not gain weight or to lose my desire to eat. Am I asking for too much?
I've lost my appetite. Food doesn't taste right. When I do get hungry, a couple of bites will do me. This is so bizarre, you've no idea. Did I mention I'm not on any of those drugs? My doctor just scheduled scans to find out what's wrong with me.
Gospace,
I am taking glipizide for Type 2 diabetes. My understanding is that it uses a different pathway than metformin. Anyway, it does appear to work; A1C is 5.6 or so, down from 7.4.
RigelDog, I have been in a similar situation lately, just recently improving somewhat. Complete loss of appetite is horrible, and certainly ruins the experience of dining out. It's like nothing on the menu sounds good, so you get a cup of soup or a small appetizer, eat a few bites and then sit and watch the other people enjoying their meals. God forbid they sneak anything too spicy into the food, which causes me to vomit immediately. Not fun at all, Plus more than your face ages, also your neck, arms and legs.
Gospace said...
I've been taking metformin for years and my last A1C level was below the diagnostic level for pre-diabetes.
Some people say theylose weight taking metformin.
metformin is what i'm on too.. For ME:
a) reduced A1C to 5.2 (so far (from 6.6 last July)
b) help me lose 60 lbs (so far, since July), by:
..i) keeping me from feeling hungry, even though i'm eating less (which is STILL delicious)
.ii) giving me Bulimia (no! it does NOT make me vomit. You're thinking about the wrong end)
I consider the side effect (bii) to be minor.. NOW, it made the first couple of months INTERESTING*
INTERESTING* if, by interesting you mean; having to know how to get to a bathroom SOON)
There's such an appetite for Ozempic in LA that diabetics (for whom it is intended) have trouble finding it.
Meth works even better as an appetite suppressant. Plus, you can get a lot accomplished if you focus.
Alternatively, you could start a lot of projects and end up toothless, or crazy, or dead.
As with Althouse comment section, moderation is essential.
The barf after every meal diet is just as effective, and requires neither prescription or medication.
They had to make food unappetizing to eat less.
That doesn’t ring true to me. It is not that food is unappetizing. What it does is cause food to stay longer in your stomach giving you a greater sensation of being full. The real negatives are that it can cause the same nausea of over eating or acid reflux if you do eat too much. But the food is still appealing to you in the same ways. It is just you desire smaller portions or fewer meals. Before these meds, some people reverted to gastric banding which physically makes the passage of food out of the stomach harder. Others got gastric bypass, in which parts of the intestines are removed causing food to past through your system faster preventing absorption. The meds seems far better.
FullMoon said...
The barf after every meal diet is just as effective, and requires neither prescription or medication.
--
Dentists love that approach.
I've been on tirzepitide (Mounjaro) since November for weight loss. Haven't had any of the side effects (nausea, constipation). Definitely helps with the appetite. It does what semaglutide (Ozempic/Wegovy) does plus some other stuff. They both slow down food going through your system, so your stomach empties slower, which obviously makes you feel more full. I assume the same effect causes the constipation and nausea in some people. In addition to that, it helps your liver release less glucagon, stimulates insulin release and supposedly helps it to be more effective. I believe the tirzepitide also helps your body break down and metabolize stored fat.
With that plus a big change in diet (monitored by a doctor) I've lost about 45 pounds, with about 4 of those being lean muscle (and about 60 more pounds to go). My blood pressure is also down about 15/10 points on average.
Have never been diabetic, but since all the males of the last couple generations have, it's probably a matter of time. A1C has been OK though fasting glucose has been getting a bit high the last few years.
@marybeth
I'm about halfway through the Bari Weiss podcast. Thanks for mentioning it. I highly recommend it.
I find the medicalization of obesity alarming. One of the doctors on the roundtable said something like: a person can exercise two hours a day and still be overweight. That's true! But it highly doubtful they'll be obese. I was running 20 miles a week and stayed overweight. I'm also older so I should have probably stopped eating as much as I did when I was 30. Diet matters way more than anyone wants to admit. I say this as a fat person who comes from a fat family.
I've been on Rybelsus (semaglutide in pill form) and Leland has it exactly right. It's not that food is unappetizing, it's just that I only feel like eating a small amount and have no desire to 'finish the plate'. I no longer think about what my next meal will be 10,000 times a day. If I'm hungry I can ignore it and eat later when convenient. I've lost 50 lbs in 2 years, hoping to lose 50 more, with the help from this drug. I don't care if I have to take it forever, the 'freedom from food' (unless I really want it) is worth every penny.
Being overweight is everywhere and always about overeating. No amount of exercise is enough to overcome what can quite easily be eaten. When I am running 90 miles per week, I can eat more than normal. But it still isn't all that much at my age. If I am both running and walking a lot (like on the order of 30 miles a day total), then I have to eat even more and drink some beer to stay at my weight, but it still wouldn't be difficult to gain weight.
If the drug puts a dent in the obesity epidemic I'm all for it.
Post a Comment