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Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

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Re: Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

#521

Post by rootusrootus »

westpfelia wrote: post #161
Ensorceled wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are misreading the comment you are replying to: > Your comparison of your friends in Germany vs "insanity" in the US doesn't feel relevant It's incredibly relevant, why are GLP-1s less needed in Germany vs. US (and other countries like Canada)? This is the insanity they are talking about, not the users of the medication.

American here who lived in Germany for 3 years and now Scandinavia. Its what makes up the food. Most of the food served in America cant be served in the EU. Its straight up poison designed to make you addicted to it. Couple that with a very car centric lifestyle and yea. Its not great.

> Most of the food served in America cant be served in the EU.

I'd love to hear any sort of actual facts backing that claim. It sounds truthy.

Re: Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

#522

Post by rsynnott »

phkahler wrote: post #191
heraldgeezer wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans (and increasingly us Europeans) are pigs. The society is built to sit in a chair 8h, get in your car and drive 1h home and sit in a chair. Then repeat. Also "eating 3 meals a day" I eat 3 full meals, I blow up like a balloon. I don't get it. It's like they have to constantly eat. When I was a teen or in my 20s yes. Now in my 30s its game over. It is also the way society, public transport, cities are designe…

>> I walk 4km to work when its nice out here in Europe. Could I do that in the USA? I had a business trip to Germany (from the US) and found it enlightening. We all went out to eat after work one night and a couple of the local Germans had to walk 20 minutes from the restaurant to the train station to go home and didn't think anything of it. It wasn't a big deal to walk, but you'd never do that here in the US - or at…

> a couple of the local Germans had to walk 20 minutes from the restaurant to the train station to go home and didn't think anything of it

I mean, why on earth would they think anything of it?

Re: Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

#523

Post by rootusrootus »

carlmr wrote: post #34
seedless-sensat wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not American, but I think you are unfairly dismissing the massive benefits GLP-1s have for people who struggle to maintain a healthy diet. It really feels like a miracle drug. > It's insane to me that so many people need these to get off the processed foods killing them in the US. Your comparison of your friends in Germany vs "insanity" in the US doesn't feel relevant

I didn't dismiss any benefits. But so many people needing an anti-addiction drug to get off addictive foods IMO should raise alarm bells. The food producers need to be sanctioned. It's unsustainable for a whole nation to be on these expensive drugs. If you think an outside perspective is irrelevant I'm also not sure why you don't just move on and not comment.

> It's unsustainable for a whole nation

Unless I've been horribly misled, it is the whole world that has very steadily increasing obesity rates. Framing this as a US problem is deluding yourself.

Re: Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

#524

Post by brianpbeau »

rootusrootus wrote: post #510
lm28469 wrote: post #431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is a pretty massive assumption that your "craving level" is the same as everyone else. We didn't go from sub 10% obesity to 40%+ obesity in 50 years because of people cravings.

No, it was probably the incredible advances in everyday automation combined with massive increases in food availability. Survival is not nearly as physically demanding today as it was in the middle of last century.

It's also a matter of making foods more addictive to increase sales. And creating marketing to do the same thing. And then creating food deserts, etc.

Re: Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

#525

Post by array_key_first »

Aurornis wrote: post #186
u_sama wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are valid counterarguments to the overweight values, a lot of women who might be overweight are healthy because different % of fat are acceptable depending on the structure of the body. I agree, that has to do with "malbouffe" and other lifestyle choices. As for offering them that is a nice thing, but I am curious about the mechanics (mutuelles) and such of the medicine.

> a lot of women who might be overweight are healthy because different % of fat are acceptable depending on the structure of the body This is a tired argument. Most people who have BMI in the obese range do not have one of oft-cited exceptions that make BMI an imperfect measure. Everyone knows BMI is imperfect at this point, but the number of people who have BMI in the obesity range yet have healthy body composition…

It's important to note that overweight and obesity are not the same thing. Most people are overweight, and from what I've seen of modern studies, the health risk of being overweight is almost negligible.

But being obese is a higher BMI than overweight, and the bar is actually quite low. Lower than most people think. A lot of people think they're overweight, but they're not, they're obese.

Re: Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

#526

Post by jrockway »

rootusrootus wrote: post #517
jacobthesnakob wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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…

> needs to be taken forever Oh well. I'll be taking my omeprazole medication for the rest of my life, too. Sometimes the body has a chronic issue that needs lifetime management, frequently with medication. Only with GLP1 does this suddenly seem like a moral issue for some.

Yeah, I'll be taking minoxidil for my hair forever. And zyrtec for my allergies forever. So it goes. "What if you get lost in a cave system for 30 years? What then?" I guess I'll lose my hair and be sneezing a lot, and gain weight. So it goes. Until then, it doesn't really bother me.

Re: Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

#527

Post by rootusrootus »

pjc50 wrote: post #67
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…

Obesity is not evenly distributed by age or demographic. If you're a relatively young person in the workforce, you probably don't know such people. But it is true that obesity is much less prevalent in most of Europe. Even the places with less "healthy" diets, suprisingly.

> But it is true that obesity is much less prevalent in most of Europe

Let's put this into perspective. On average, the US has about twice the obesity rate as Europe (though in both cases there is a fairly wide variation regionally). And Europe has 4 or 5 times the obesity rate of Japan. So relatively speaking, Europe is not in a position to argue that their regulations or lifestyles are the answer.

Re: Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

#528

Post by array_key_first »

mistahenry wrote: post #43
u_sama wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For artificial problems, artificial solutions. I think the state of food in the US is really bad, and one cannot compare such products to the superior EU food quality standards and eating habits (and city designs) which render the incentives really perverse

I lived in Germany and Indonesia. It’s easier for me now back in the US than ever to eat healthy. I can buy pre-chopped Cole slaw, diced peppers / onions, etc. Whole Foods is best in class (Alnatura doesn’t come close) While to me, the layman, it seems health regulation in general in Europe is more conservative about what can be put on the body / be consumed, I think it’s mostly Americans don’t want to eat healthy. A…

When it seems like a lot of people don't want to do something that is obviously good for them but, instead, opt for things they know kill them slowly, that probably means addiction is somewhere in the mix.

Re: Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

#529

Post by array_key_first »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #327
FatherOfCurses wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tons of Americans want to eat healthy but don't have the energy/time/access. It's easy to cook healthy for yourself if you're single, have a good work/life balance, and have a grocery store nearby. There are a lot of Americans who eat fast food on the go because it's their only option (or they haven't been educated on how to get healthy food quickly). Others have lives where job and family responsibilities sap so muc…

This is narrative ignores consumer preference. A salad can be delivered as easily as a pizza.

Consumer preference is a scapegoat. You can also make nicotine-free cigarettes, and people have tried, but they just don't sell. Of course consumers prefer the stuff that feels better. They have to.

Re: Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

#530

Post by rootusrootus »

wongarsu wrote: post #63
blitzar wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your friend circle in Germany probably doesn't have many members who were a proud big boned 5"7' 300lbs (~140kg).

For good reason. That'd be a BMI of 47. There isn't a lot of statistical data for such high BMIs, but [1] lists prevalence of BMI>40. In Germany 1.2% of men and 2.8% of women had a BMI over 40 in 2011, in the US it was 5.6% and 9.7% respectively in 2016. That's nearly four times as many as in Germany. 1: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7078951/

> In Germany 1.2% of men and 2.8% of women had a BMI over 40 in 2011

How does that compare to, say, Japan? Why is Germany so much fatter?

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