Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy • Hacker News Board

Re: Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

#811

Post by Faaak » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 1:38 PM UTC

speleding wrote: post #807

DrBazza wrote: post #752

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The American shopping experience is weird as well. There's a spectrum of supermarkets. Versus the UK, any US supermarket I've ever visited (I lived there for a couple of years) seemed to have far less fresh food, especially vegetables and fruit, but stuff in boxes was piled high. Then again, the UK vs. Spain or France is weird, by the same metric, they have even more fresh food than us in supermarkets, and much less…

The difference can be explained in large part by urban design: many US shoppers need a car to drive to the supermarket and only go there once a week or less. In Europe you live much closer to a supermarket, so you go more often and get more fresh food and less frozen or canned. Some Americans are surprised to learn that many supermarkets inside cities do not even provide parking, everyone walks or bikes there. People…

Makes no sense IMHO: produce can last more than a week in the fridge

Re: Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

#812

Post by deadbabe » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 1:46 PM UTC

hexbin010 wrote: post #676

deadbabe wrote: post #639

Becoming addicted to food can seriously wreck your life. Nothing makes every aspect of your life harder than being fat. And it just sneaks up on people because no one talks about it, like alcohol, it’s just a thing people assume you will do. When I’m hungry, I eat, and that’s it, I don’t think about food until hours later when I get hungry again. It blows my mind that there’s people that just never stop thinking abou…

I try to think about food less but... - Every large/medium train station is rammed full of food. Everyone on the train is constantly shoving food and alcohol in their mouths - Every high street is full of fast food - Every service station is full of fast food - Every coffee shop has pastries etc all on display staring at you - Even at the gym the other day I had to listen to two women talking about their favourite st…

Yes, it’s similar to alcohol, where if you decide you won’t drink, any time you go out or to a social event it seems you can’t escape people drinking or offering you a drink.

You just have to imagine yourself as being different from other people and you don’t do those things that others do.

Re: Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

#813

Post by sfn42 » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 1:47 PM UTC

accidentallfact wrote: post #804

hexbin010 wrote: post #770

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From your link: > “The meds are highly effective for a majority of patients but there is still a percentage who don’t lose a clinically significant percentage of body weight. Everyone’s physiology is a little different,” – Veronica Johnson MD, an obesity medicine specialist in Chicago > He explained that for someone who is overweight, shedding even a small amount of weight can improve heart and kidney function And, t…

It also cites a study which says that the average loss is 5%. That isn't what most people imagine as "highly effective". Weight also doesn't tell the whole story. The people don't get any better, they get (more) starved in addition to staying obese. It's a disease with another cause, hunger is only a symptom. Too much money has been wasted on proving and "educating" people that it's just overeating, while there is an…

This is a load of bullshit man. Even the article you linked describes lying to his friends' parents to get a second dinner, being unable to have just one cookie etc.

The only way to get fat is to eat too much and anyone who really eats too much will get fat. There's a huge amount of people who simply lie or are ignorant about their food intake. Fat people falsely claiming they hardly eat anything but can't lose weight etc. Of course you lose weight if you don't eat. Your body can't create energy from nothing. Without energy you die.

Re: Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

#814

Post by sgwizdak » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 1:48 PM UTC

NoLinkToMe wrote: post #689

sgwizdak wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started a GLP-1 in October. I've been eating healthy and exercising for a decade, but I was still in the obese category and blood sugar tests indicated I was at the edge of pre-diabetes. If I pushed hard on calorie reduction or exercise, I could gain 10-20% improvement, but it seemed like that would always reverse itself when I'd hit an injury or got sick. I'm hitting my mid-40s and decided it was time for a drasti…

Wdym you were eating healthy for a decade and still obese? How does that work. A diet where you eat to obesity isn't healthy. And how did surpressing your hunger via GLP-1 drugs (a pure change to a more healthy diet for you) lead to big changes, if you apparently already had such a healthy diet. Seems to me your diet was unhealthy for a decade and now isn't.

Think of it this way - once you're in a state of obesity, resolving that situation is quite difficult. Eating healthy may not be enough, particularly if there are other metabolic issues going on.

The imbalance of fat to muscle leads to insulin resistance. Insulin resistance gets in the way of weight loss. After a long time of trying other means, I decided to directly tackle the insulin resistance problem. And it's been the only thing that's worked.

Re: Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

#815

Post by ceejayoz » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 1:53 PM UTC

t-3 wrote: post #634

wtcactus wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of those places, was a very fancy restaurant in Washington DC, with photos of presidents dining there hung on its walls. So, let’s not act like it’s not something normal there. These sugary sauces are everywhere in the USA. From low level to high level eating places.

Putting sauce on steak is blasphemy for a lot of people. It's not something normal unless it's the customer adding it to their own meat.

This is true for A1 or ketchup.

If you order a steak au poivre, it’s gonna have sauce.

Re: Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

#816

Post by u8080 » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 1:54 PM UTC

devilbunny wrote: post #83

Raed667 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is for sure expensive (~300€ / month) but from my understanding nothing like the prices you see in the US (+2'000 $)

I've known several users of GLP1's. None ever paid more than $600/mo for them once the "patient assistance" programs started, and even in the very earliest days the prices I heard were never more than about $1100 if paid in cash. So, while they are very expensive, your understanding is not reflective of the situation on the ground.

Wtf, is that just for original trademark GLP? Generics cost like <$30/mo in Russia.

Re: Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

#817

Post by ceejayoz » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 1:56 PM UTC

t-3 wrote: post #627

wtcactus wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I experienced the same, and no it isn’t. In Europe you don’t expect your bread to have added sugar, for instance. That tasted disgustingly. You also don’t normally expect sweeteners in your meat. Those sauces are also disgusting. Good beef meat (and in the USA there’s very good meat), needs only salt and maybe a bit of pepper. Not those weird sugary sauces they put in the USA. Seriously, for someone from Europe, some…

> In Europe you don’t expect your bread to have added sugar, for instance. Were you eating sweet bread meant for coffee or desserts and thinking it was for making a sandwich? Most breads use just enough sugar to rise the yeast. > You also don’t normally expect sweeteners in your meat. Were you eating barbecue, where the sauce is whole point? There is plenty of unsauced meat in the US. Any steakhouse will give you as…

America hides sugar in everything. Plain old white sandwich bread often has loads of added sugar.

https://www.businessinsider.com/breads-high-in-sugar-2018-11

Sugar isn’t necessary for bread making. Yeast can break down the starch. That’s what it evolved to do. Flour, water, yeast, salt, done.

Re: Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

#818

Post by bigfishrunning » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 1:58 PM UTC

acuozzo wrote: post #637

bigfishrunning wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, i'm not arguing against that. What I'm arguing against is the statement "there's nothing to do but eat and consume junk media"; That's simply not true, there is plenty to do, and a lot of it is not cost prohibitive.

I wish I could see you try to tell this to my father when he was working manual labor. I'd pay money. Manual labor which was so grueling that he had sue his company in order to retire early because he could literally no longer walk and required surgery to remove the extreme bowing in his legs. You could come in, look at the latest Creosote burns on his skin, and tell him that something-- anything! --would be better t…

Another commenter twisting my words -- I'm not saying your father shouldn't be allowed to watch football. I'm saying he has other options, and he's not railroaded into only watching football.

Also, he should probably quit smoking (unclear if it's too late for that, if so I'm sorry)

Re: Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

#819

Post by u8080 » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 2:03 PM UTC

foobarian wrote: post #296

cookiengineer wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do citizens of the US tolerate this? I'm baffled how messed up the food industry in the US has gotten over the last decades. When I was in the US I remember ordering pancakes in the morning. Those pancakes for like 10 bucks lasted for the whole week because I couldn't stuff so much in my stomach. I also don't understand why everything, literally everything, is fried in oil. Good luck trying to get an actual healt…

That's funny, I feel I had the opposite experience going into EU. Maybe it's regional? Anyway we were eating out a bunch around Slovenia and menus had a lot of "mixed meat" "fried cheese" type foods and servers would look at you funny if you wanted just vegetables. I got the vibe that they felt like they were letting you down if they didn't offer you their best meat so maybe it's a cultural leftover from hungrier tim…

This is Balkan stuff mainly, large portions with a lot of fatty meat. Puzzling to me how obesity rates are pretty moderate in those countries.

Re: Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy

#820

Post by u8080 » Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 2:08 PM UTC

rmonvfer wrote: post #513

alexfoo wrote: post #488

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "I am spending more on this drug... I'm in the UK and got my ADHD diagnosis on the NHS (well, via Right To Choose) so the maximum I'll ever pay for my medication is about US$150/year. [1] If I had a private diagnosis I'd be paying about half that a month for the same medication. Anyone with a BMI over 35 is likely to qualify for GLP-1 type drugs on the NHS too. Not sure how long they'll keep prescribing them to you…

That’s crazy cheap, I pay close to 400€ (!!!) monthly for Tirzepatide (GLP-1) and close to 50€ for Lisdexamfetamine (ADHD) in Spain. Truth be told, the ADHD meds are covered by the Social Security health insurance or I’d be paying double that, but I don’t think GLP-1s will ever be covered here.

Genuinely asking, why not getting plane ticket somewhere generics cost 10+ times less?