We are entering a new era of obesity. The science of weight loss has changed forever: drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro help millions of weights that they once thought of losing. At the same time, research reveals the role of ultra-transformed foods in the conduct of obesity, diabetes and heart disease, even beyond the calories.
But for all breakthroughs, governments are stuck. Caught between the pharmaceutical revolution on the one hand and a food industry of a dollars billion on the other, they are faced with a decisive question: are we going to be content to deal with obesity, or are we finally going to approach its causes?
Because here is the uncomfortable truth: weight loss drugs are extraordinary, but they are not a solution by themselves.
A scientific breakthrough – and a political dilemma
GLP-1 drugs are nothing less than miraculous for many. Originally designed for diabetes, they remove appetite and help people lose 15 to 20% of their body weight. Type 2 diabetes patients see their blood sugar normalizing. The rate of heart attacks and lines fall. They may well be beneficial for neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia. Certain estimates suggest that if it was deployed on a large scale, GLP-1 could save up to three million lives each year.
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And now, with cheaper versions that start to enter the market in India, China, Canada and other countries, the scope of these drugs extends faster than anyone planned.
But here is the dilemma: if governments focus on prescriptions instead of prevention, they risk obesity lasts in the next generation.
The ultra-transformed problem
We now know that ultra -transformed foods (UPF) – industrial combinations of refined starchs, seed oil, sugars, additives and aromas – are not only gaining weight. They change our biology. They increase blood sugar, lead inflammation, disturb the satiety signals and, in many cases, are designed to make us eat far beyond the point of fullness.
In the United Kingdom and the United States, more than 60% of the average diet now comes from these foods. They are school lunches. Hospital automatic distributors. Cheap supermarket staples. And the problem is not only access; It’s the environment. These products are everywhere, relentlessly marketed and often cheaper than whole foods.
However, science is not without controversy. Some researchers argue that UPFs are too large a category to be useful, bring together yogurts and whole grain breads with croustilles and candies. Others suggest that a large part of the damage does not come from the “treatment” itself, but from the factors that we already understand – supar, salt, fat, energy density, and even the texture and speed of food. In a historical study at the National Institutes of Health, people ate 500 more calories per day on an ultra -suitable diet that in an unprocessed diet – even when the nutrients were equaled – readable because the food was softer, faster to eat and richer in energy.
The specific mechanisms are still debated. But the main thing is not. The populations who eat more UPF become more sick, younger.
GLP-1 can calm the organic player to eat too much. But they cannot change the reality that children grow up in a food environment designed to make them sick.
Governments at the crossroads
This is now that decision -makers are faced. On the one hand, pharmaceutical companies put pressure for wider access to weight loss drugs that change life. On the other, food giants put pressure on advertising restrictions, warning labels or sugar and salt taxes. And in the middle: governments paralyzed by the fear of being accused of having directed a “nanny state”.
But the real nanny is not the government; It’s great food. It is relentless marketing that shapes the tastes of our children before they can read. These are the alleys of the supermarket designed to trigger purchases of pulse. It is the food environment that keeps us hanging on the products designed not to satisfy hunger but to bring us back to find out more.
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It is the nanny that quietly deprives us of our freedom. Because real freedom does not choose between two forms of processed waste; It is the ability to hike a painless mountain, swim a mile or just feel comfortable in your own body. Millions of people are refused freedom every day – not by low will, but by a system designed to unhealthy life by default. Until we face this, we will continue to confuse the constraint by the choice.
The result? An increasing change, when what is necessary is a daring action.
A gaming book for a real change
The GLP-1 era should be a catalyst, not a crutch. Here is what governments could do today to break the cycle:
1. Food environment correction
Prohibit advertising with junk food for children. Put clear and visible warning labels on ultra-transformed foods, as Chile has done with spectacular success. Tax the worst offenders and use the product to make healthier foods cheaper.
2. Invest in prevention, starting with children
Teach the kitchen in each school. Build gardens so that children understand where their food comes from. Make daily physical activity as routine as mathematics and reading. Japan, which has some of the lowest obesity rates in the world, integrates food education in its national program – and it works.
3. Make drugs are part of a wider strategy
GLP-1 should not be a free pass for the food industry, and they should not be used in isolation. They should come with advice, nutritional education and long -term support to create healthier habits.
Why it matters
None of this concerns the shame of individuals. Obesity is not a failure of the will; It is a predictable response to an environment designed for overconsumption.
The question is whether we want to normalize this environment and count indefinitely on weekly injections, or if we want to build a world where fewer people need drugs in the first place.
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The issues are not only personal. Obesity already costs the US economy about 1.4 billion of dollars per year in productivity and health costs. In the United Kingdom, the figure represents nearly 100 billion pounds sterling. These figures will only grow unless we pass from reactive to prevention.
A decisive choice
I am not anti-drug. Far from it. GLP-1s are one of the most exciting medical breakthroughs in the last half century. They will save millions of lives.
But drugs alone will not create a health culture. They will not teach children to cook. They will not suddenly make our children out of junk food advertisements. They will not stop aggressive lobbying which maintains the cheapest healthy calories.
This moment – this collision of science, food and politics – is a chance to do something bigger: making healthy choice the easy choice, for everyone.
If we miss it, we risk creating a future that looks very much like our present: where obesity is managed, not prevented.
