Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy • Hacker News Board

Re: Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

#381

Post by lm28469 » Mon, Jan 12, 2026, 4:34 PM UTC

FatherOfCurses wrote: post #307

lm28469 wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

idk about them but to me people who don't value their own life and well being to that point are repulsive to me. Such a lack of discipline and self esteem, if you can't even control what you put in your mouth what can you even control? Why even bother if all you're capable of doing is mindless consumption? What can I trust you with if you can't even be trusted with yourself? Also from a purely financial pov they're a…

I hope one day you'll realize how easy it is to be judgmental on the internet and think of people you don't know as somehow less than human. If you think people who "can't control what you put in your mouth" are incapable of self control, you should see the amount of self control it took me not to post the things I wanted to post about you. Try to have more empathy and compassion in your life.

> Try to have more empathy and compassion in your life.

My position is way more empathetic than the other side who think people are dumb beasts or cattle who can't do anything about their conditions and need external magic pills to save them from themselves

Re: Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

#382

Post by rootusrootus » Mon, Jan 12, 2026, 4:35 PM UTC

jacobthesnakob wrote: post #269

giuliomagnifico wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After discontinuation of Ozempic, people start to gain the weight again (and buy again more food), that’s why the spending changes again.

Which is no surprise to anybody with common sense, the data for discontinuing GLP-1s show exactly the intuitive outcome. Zero diet change, zero habit change for the vast majority of users. Weight loss is accomplished via biochemical tricks to eat less volume of calorie dense junk food, rather than diet substitution. When the artificial appetite suppression ends, volume of the same food increases again leading to weig…

> they don’t have the discipline and motivation to maintain the weight loss

That argument has been tried for years and yet it fails nearly 100% of the time. Should we be trying something different than claiming it's a moral issue? Or is that too scientific?

Re: Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

#383

Post by thatfrenchguy » Mon, Jan 12, 2026, 4:35 PM UTC

carlmr wrote: post #6

>The share of U.S. households reporting at least one user rose from about 11% in late 2023 to more than 16% by mid-2024. I was wondering how you could get such a high impact overall. But it seems one in 6 households are on GLP-1 drugs in the US. In my friend circle in Germany I don't even know one single person on this stuff. It's insane to me that so many people need these to get off the processed foods killing them…

I mean, 75% of americans are overweight or obese right? It's wild that the richest / least obese counties in the US still have 15% of people who are obese ( https://datacommons.techsoup.org/ranking/Percent_Person_Obes... )

Re: Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

#384

Post by staticassertion » Mon, Jan 12, 2026, 4:35 PM UTC

smileysteve wrote: post #116

xenospn wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m sure in 5 years all processed microwave meals and fast food will be “fortified with GLP-1”.

Historically, this is called "fiber", and has already been regulated to be required in European breads

> and has already been regulated to be required in European breads

Source needed.

Re: Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

#385

Post by anon84873628 » Mon, Jan 12, 2026, 4:36 PM UTC

moi2388 wrote: post #347

rootusrootus wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This hits on something that seems to get lost in most of these "obese people are lazy fat slobs" circle jerks. A typical American gains 1 or 2 pounds per year as they age. This is not a candy problem, or a binge eating problem, this is way more subtle than that.

More subtle as in still not a healthy diet with exercise?

Let's take a pound of fat as 3500 calories. To gain one pound in a year is an average of 9.59 excess calories per day. Or about 0.5% of the typical total daily intake.

Yeah, managing a system within 0.5% is subtle.

Especially when biologically and psychologically the pressure is towards over consuming rather than under. If you consistently eat a deficit you will very obviously feel hungry. If you consistently eat a small excess the effects that would lead you to regulate are much more... subtle.

Re: Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

#386

Post by rootusrootus » Mon, Jan 12, 2026, 4:37 PM UTC

Dumblydorr wrote: post #197

bargainbin wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was an interesting study recently that showed coming off actually caused weight re-gain an order of magnitude worse than yo-yo dieting. The media spun it as GLP-1’s being evil and pointless, quelle surprise, but really it hints towards obesity being more than just “fixing your relationship with food” and acknowledging that there is more we don’t understand about why some people are fatter than others despite si…

Citation? Sounds dubious

There are a couple recent stories that people put on weight something like 4x as fast if they go cold turkey after a GLP1 than if they quit a normal starvation diet. This intuitively makes sense, because an average GLP1 weight loss is way higher than most people can attain with willpower alone. So when they stop, the body screams "feeeeeeed me!" at incredible volume.

Re: Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

#387

Post by fhdkweig » Mon, Jan 12, 2026, 4:37 PM UTC

s1artibartfast wrote: post #330

Aurornis wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whole Foods isn’t the only store providing vegetables or pre-cut vegetables. Even my local Walmart has pre-cut vegetables. It’s not an affordability issue either. It’s cheaper to buy the same number of calories from vegetables, fruits, and legumes than meat right now. Meat prices are unusually high and it doesn’t seem to be slowing consumption.

Vegetables are pretty terrible for caloric sustenance. Low density and high price.

It depends on what you call a vegetable. In the US, corn, potatoes, and ketchup are considered vegetables.

You need to make a distinction between leafy greens and starch.

Re: Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

#388

Post by anon84873628 » Mon, Jan 12, 2026, 4:37 PM UTC

vasco wrote: post #337

CGMthrowaway wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I was wondering how you could get such a high impact overall. But it seems one in 6 households are on GLP-1 drugs in the US. I had the same question and did some back of the envelope math. The data I have seen says the average American eats 400-700 excess daily calories, and 3600 daily calories total. That means 10-20% excess per person. If everyone started eating the right amount overnight, grocery spend would drop…

> That means 10-20% excess per person. If everyone started eating the right amount overnight, grocery spend would drop 10-20% I doubt that $ spend on the top end of caloric intake scales linearly with # of calories because of high caloric density foods. If I spend $500 a month on groceries, lets say I need $400 to keep me alive and hygienic and the last $100 are going to be the candy and sodas that make me fat. So to…

Also need to account for restaurant spending.

Re: Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

#389

Post by BeetleB » Mon, Jan 12, 2026, 4:37 PM UTC

carlmr wrote: post #6

>The share of U.S. households reporting at least one user rose from about 11% in late 2023 to more than 16% by mid-2024. I was wondering how you could get such a high impact overall. But it seems one in 6 households are on GLP-1 drugs in the US. In my friend circle in Germany I don't even know one single person on this stuff. It's insane to me that so many people need these to get off the processed foods killing them…

I live in the US and I don't know of anyone taking this drug. But if they were, why would I know?

Re: Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

#390

Post by jacobthesnakob » Mon, Jan 12, 2026, 4:38 PM UTC

jrockway wrote: post #360

jacobthesnakob wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you seriously think that you’re not in a minority of people taking GLP-1 drugs for IBS and not weight loss?

Why is taking it for weight loss such a bad thing? It improves quality of life, health, reduces risk when surgery is needed, etc., etc. Why create a new account just to litigate how statistically relevant the grandparent comment's anecdote is?

>It improves quality of life, health, reduces risk when surgery is needed,

And as pointed out elsewhere in this thread, needs to be taken forever as the vast majority of patients regain most or all of the weight they lose after taking GLP-1s.

>Why create a new account just to litigate how statistically relevant the grandparent comment's anecdote is?

Red herring. My account was not created today, I’ve participated in numerous other threads prior to this one, and it’s irrelevant to the content of my comment.