Credits: Social Media
Harvard experts warn against ‘dumpster fire’ of weight loss knock-offs fuelled by anti-obesity stigma
Americans are buying knock-off meds and a dumpster fire of questionable supplements, highly processed foods, and imitation compounds in alarming quantities in the wake of such anti-obesity medications as Ozempic and Wegovy, according to one Harvard pediatrician.
Its just been devastating, he says. One of the ways Ozempic promotes weight loss is by accelerating your metabolism. Mounjaro has been shown to outdo it, while another drug called Amycretin has also performed well in human trials. But there are natural alternatives like oats, which arent synthesized in a lab and may be better for your long-term health. You are what you eat. Eat too much, and you will be& too much. Or something.
Harvard pediatrician calls Ozempic mania a diet culture-driven frenzy
The diet culture-driven frenzy around Ozempic basically poured gasoline on the dumpster fire of predatory industries profiting off of weight stigma and bias, The Harvard Gazette quotes behavioral science professor and pediatrician S Bryn Austin as saying.
He casts blame on drug manufacturers who charge too much for their products. Such needlessly high prices drive patients to other companies, which make drugs lacking FDA approval. As a result, the Gazette writes, Patients are not always certain what theyre getting.
Calls to poison-control centers have increased 15-fold since 2019, Austin says. He also takes aim at anyone touting laxatives as a budget Ozempic and anyone promoting berberine as natures Ozempic.
Using laxatives for weight loss is dangerous, he says, and it can be deadly. People wouldnt get sucked into trying non-FDA-approved medications or social media fads,” notes the Gazette, “if werent for a national landscape of stigma and bias against people with obesity.”
The first step is to eliminate the stigma against obese people
The Gazette quotes obesity expert Fatima Cody Stanford as calling obesity a disease that you wear, rather than, say, a symptom of laziness. If someone carries more adipose, she says, we assume that theyre lazy.
All over the United States, employers can terminate employment contracts because of an employees weight, the outlet adds. Weight is not a protected characteristic under federal law. Meanwhile, employers cannot cite protected characteristics like race, gender, age, religion, or disability, when firing staff, legal encyclopedia Nolo confirms.
If someones leaner, we assume that they eat virtuously. Maybe they ate a salad today, Stanford says.
Maybe they got up and got on that Peloton bike. Maybe they did a workout today; maybe they went for a swim. We dont really know, but those judgments set up the most accepted form of bias in todays society.
Google searches for drug-assisted weight loss have risen astronomically
Over the past three or four years, Google searches for methods of losing weight that involve various prescription or over-the-counter medications have skyrocketed.
This is true for keyphrases involving the brand names Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro, and the simple search terms weight loss drug and weight loss injection.
Eating a nutritious diet on a budget is difficult in highly unequal countries like the United States. But the US has another problem that other unequal countries dont seem to face: food deserts.
A food desert is a region that lacks access to supermarkets and healthy foods, such as fruits and vegetables. In food deserts, people dont have a choice but to consume highly processed, manufactured products. This has negative consequences for public health.
As of 2017, nearly 40 million Americans lived in low-income and low food access areas. The numbers fluctuate, but most estimates from the last few years place between 5% and 20% of the US population in areas that lack access to basic nutrition.
