Great article! One friend of mine is on a GLP-1 that he obtains through a non-pharmacy route from China. He said the underground market for GLP-1s is huge. It makes me wonder if the 2% of Australians is potentially an undercount. I would guess that the number of Americans is even higher. In my small cohort of my staff, 25% are on a GLP-1 😞
That could well be the case in Australia too. They're available via our heavily-subsidised PBS but the indications are currently quite limited, so no doubt some people are obtaining them through unofficial channels.
Recently a client who lives in a very upmarket part of Sydney told me that the majority of women she knows are using them. I'm sure many of them wouldn't qualify for them medically so they're buying them outside the PBS. Sadly, my client felt under a great deal of pressure to take them in order to lose her baby weight so she can 'keep up with the Joneses' in her rich neighbourhood.
Shame they don't take back some self control and start eating correctly and exercising, instead of using these quick fixes of very dangerous medications that will kill you .
In principle I completely agree with you. As a practical matter, however, we are dealing with an increasingly large (in both senses of the word!) segment of the population who are effectively addicts. Many of us can be exposed to ultraprocessed foods without developing addiction, just like some people can smoke sporadically or have a drink on the weekend or do a line of coke at a party, but not become addicted. For drunks and crack-heads and smackies, however, self-control is no longer possible, and I think the same things goes for people who are so food-addicted that they've become obese.
Whether people become addicted because of genetic or epigenetic factors, or trauma, or some combination of factors, the fact is, some people have a high propensity for addiction. I've thought a lot about what it would take to break the addiction to ultraprocessed food that results in people becoming seriously obese (which then maintains the addiction, as I wrote about some years ago at https://empowertotalhealth.com.au/how-to-make-an-obese-brain/), and I've come to believe that nothing less than a 6-12 month stay in a residential facility like TrueNorth Health Centre would suffice. These people need to dry out from their addiction, and they need to be immersed in a culture of healthy eating, exercise and healthy mindset in order to rehabilitate themselves. This would actually work out cheaper than paying for GLP-1 agonists for the rest of one's life, but I don't have any hope that governments will adopt such a policy.
The problem is ,when these individuals stop taking Semiglutide they put all the weight straight back on , so you create a revolving door effect, which is trillions for Drs and Big Pharma . Treating the addiction and the underlying issues is the most effective way for all addictions.
100% agree. You and I both know that this approach will not receive any government funding because our governments are owned by the corporations who profit from making us sick and addicted.
Yes the Tobacco industry methods were then applied to create the foods of addiction . I believe fast foods should be heavily taxed like Cigarettes and warning signs plastered all over them .
I'm in favour of removing all agricultural subsidies and other invisible price supports for the production, distribution and retailing of ultraprocessed foods. This would probably have a larger impact on point-of-sale price than slapping a 'sin tax' on these foods.
The tobacco control campaign is very useful to examine when seeking solutions to the problem of addiction to ultraprocessed foods and all the health problems that flow from it. I read a fair bit about this campaign many years ago. From what I can remember, the most effective measure for driving down smoking rates was NOT taxes, excises, scary package warnings or banning cigarette advertisements. It was banning smoking from public places. Once it became illegal to smoke in workplaces, pubs and clubs, and on trains, buses and planes, social attitudes toward smoking shifted. It became somewhat shameful to smoke, whereas when smoking was allowed in public places, it was seen as cool, or just normal.
You can see the problem with mapping this onto ultraprocessed food. Smoking bans were justified on the basis that someone else's sidestream smoke infringes on my right to eat in a cafe or ride a bus without having smoke drift into my airspace. That argument can't be made when it comes to ultraprocessed food. I might be disgusted by the sight of some obese person guzzling slop in front of me, but they're not infringing on my rights.
It's also useful to examine the effect of the 'sin tax' on tobacco on consumer behaviour, when considering whether raising the price of ultraprocessed food would deter consumption. Smoking is now overwhelmingly a habit of the poorest people. Here in Australia, the cheapest packet of cigarettes is now around $40 for a pack of 20. Yet who do I see buying cigarettes? Almost always, it's a person who is obviously not well-off. So strong is their addiction, that they will forego the necessities of life to buy their cigarettes. I can easily envisage ultraprocessed food-addicted people doing the same thing.
As a recently retired Nurse also an Australian, seeing Australian waistlines expanding due these ultraprocessed foods which contain Gut destroyer Polysorb 80 ,Modified Starches, high Seed Oils, high Fructose, all contributing to people's metabolic diseases, that also require a large amount of medical care ,hospitalization , and NDIS funding .l don't know what the solution is to curb this health hazard safely ,but pushing diabetic medications onto these people as a quick fix for their obesity is fraught with serious life threatening side effects .Govts need to take some responsibility also.
Government taking responsibility - now that would be something new for the books!!!!! The problem is that we, the people are not their constituency. Big business is. That applies to both sides of politics.
Yes we all know how the game of politics is played , Govts previously had campaigns to stop smoking , they should have the same warnings for ultra processed foods . YES the multinational billionaires control it all .
I have a close friend on them, she told me she’s really flabby, but thin. She also said she’d probably be on them for life.
I took them just for a couple of months and one night I got so sick I really thought I was gonna die. I was throwing up and I hadn’t eaten anything. In a way I’m glad that happened to me. I stopped Immediately. Also, afraid of going blind.
Great article! One friend of mine is on a GLP-1 that he obtains through a non-pharmacy route from China. He said the underground market for GLP-1s is huge. It makes me wonder if the 2% of Australians is potentially an undercount. I would guess that the number of Americans is even higher. In my small cohort of my staff, 25% are on a GLP-1 😞
That could well be the case in Australia too. They're available via our heavily-subsidised PBS but the indications are currently quite limited, so no doubt some people are obtaining them through unofficial channels.
Recently a client who lives in a very upmarket part of Sydney told me that the majority of women she knows are using them. I'm sure many of them wouldn't qualify for them medically so they're buying them outside the PBS. Sadly, my client felt under a great deal of pressure to take them in order to lose her baby weight so she can 'keep up with the Joneses' in her rich neighbourhood.
There will always be severe consequences somewhere down the road for anyone taking drugs. These toxic poisons are not natural to the body.
It's only a matter of time. I've heard that the late-night ads for GLP-1 class actions are already screening on US TV stations.
Destroys your Bone density Muscle mass etc ,your starving yourself to death also increasing your risk for Pancreatic Cancer Liver disease etc.
Yep, but it's frightening how many people apparently believe that the risk is worth it.
Shame they don't take back some self control and start eating correctly and exercising, instead of using these quick fixes of very dangerous medications that will kill you .
In principle I completely agree with you. As a practical matter, however, we are dealing with an increasingly large (in both senses of the word!) segment of the population who are effectively addicts. Many of us can be exposed to ultraprocessed foods without developing addiction, just like some people can smoke sporadically or have a drink on the weekend or do a line of coke at a party, but not become addicted. For drunks and crack-heads and smackies, however, self-control is no longer possible, and I think the same things goes for people who are so food-addicted that they've become obese.
Whether people become addicted because of genetic or epigenetic factors, or trauma, or some combination of factors, the fact is, some people have a high propensity for addiction. I've thought a lot about what it would take to break the addiction to ultraprocessed food that results in people becoming seriously obese (which then maintains the addiction, as I wrote about some years ago at https://empowertotalhealth.com.au/how-to-make-an-obese-brain/), and I've come to believe that nothing less than a 6-12 month stay in a residential facility like TrueNorth Health Centre would suffice. These people need to dry out from their addiction, and they need to be immersed in a culture of healthy eating, exercise and healthy mindset in order to rehabilitate themselves. This would actually work out cheaper than paying for GLP-1 agonists for the rest of one's life, but I don't have any hope that governments will adopt such a policy.
The problem is ,when these individuals stop taking Semiglutide they put all the weight straight back on , so you create a revolving door effect, which is trillions for Drs and Big Pharma . Treating the addiction and the underlying issues is the most effective way for all addictions.
100% agree. You and I both know that this approach will not receive any government funding because our governments are owned by the corporations who profit from making us sick and addicted.
Yes and addicts usually have to hit rock bottom before they address their addictions .
Yes the Tobacco industry methods were then applied to create the foods of addiction . I believe fast foods should be heavily taxed like Cigarettes and warning signs plastered all over them .
I'm in favour of removing all agricultural subsidies and other invisible price supports for the production, distribution and retailing of ultraprocessed foods. This would probably have a larger impact on point-of-sale price than slapping a 'sin tax' on these foods.
The tobacco control campaign is very useful to examine when seeking solutions to the problem of addiction to ultraprocessed foods and all the health problems that flow from it. I read a fair bit about this campaign many years ago. From what I can remember, the most effective measure for driving down smoking rates was NOT taxes, excises, scary package warnings or banning cigarette advertisements. It was banning smoking from public places. Once it became illegal to smoke in workplaces, pubs and clubs, and on trains, buses and planes, social attitudes toward smoking shifted. It became somewhat shameful to smoke, whereas when smoking was allowed in public places, it was seen as cool, or just normal.
You can see the problem with mapping this onto ultraprocessed food. Smoking bans were justified on the basis that someone else's sidestream smoke infringes on my right to eat in a cafe or ride a bus without having smoke drift into my airspace. That argument can't be made when it comes to ultraprocessed food. I might be disgusted by the sight of some obese person guzzling slop in front of me, but they're not infringing on my rights.
It's also useful to examine the effect of the 'sin tax' on tobacco on consumer behaviour, when considering whether raising the price of ultraprocessed food would deter consumption. Smoking is now overwhelmingly a habit of the poorest people. Here in Australia, the cheapest packet of cigarettes is now around $40 for a pack of 20. Yet who do I see buying cigarettes? Almost always, it's a person who is obviously not well-off. So strong is their addiction, that they will forego the necessities of life to buy their cigarettes. I can easily envisage ultraprocessed food-addicted people doing the same thing.
As a recently retired Nurse also an Australian, seeing Australian waistlines expanding due these ultraprocessed foods which contain Gut destroyer Polysorb 80 ,Modified Starches, high Seed Oils, high Fructose, all contributing to people's metabolic diseases, that also require a large amount of medical care ,hospitalization , and NDIS funding .l don't know what the solution is to curb this health hazard safely ,but pushing diabetic medications onto these people as a quick fix for their obesity is fraught with serious life threatening side effects .Govts need to take some responsibility also.
Government taking responsibility - now that would be something new for the books!!!!! The problem is that we, the people are not their constituency. Big business is. That applies to both sides of politics.
Yes we all know how the game of politics is played , Govts previously had campaigns to stop smoking , they should have the same warnings for ultra processed foods . YES the multinational billionaires control it all .
I have a close friend on them, she told me she’s really flabby, but thin. She also said she’d probably be on them for life.
I took them just for a couple of months and one night I got so sick I really thought I was gonna die. I was throwing up and I hadn’t eaten anything. In a way I’m glad that happened to me. I stopped Immediately. Also, afraid of going blind.
That sounds absolutely horrible!!!! I'm glad you stopped them.
And yes, the prospect of blindness should horrify everyone. Isn't it extraordinary, the risks people will take to lose weight?
It certainly is!
wondering if it is in the water supply
You would think so, based on how lazy most people are :).
WHAT is GLP-1??
It stands for glucagon-like peptide-1. It's a hormone that's heavily involved in appetite regulation and in gut motility. I discussed this in https://robynchuter.substack.com/p/glp-1-agonists-weight-loss-wonder.