How are anti-obesity drugs linked to food waste?

Taking anti-obesity drugs has caused some US adults to lose more food than they lost before starting the medication, a new study has found.

In a survey conducted on people who are using GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic, 25% of respondents agreed that they have lost more food since taking the drug, compared to 61% who did not agree. People who experienced nausea were more likely to report increased food waste. Taking medication for a long time and eating more vegetables were associated with less food waste.

Scientists at Ohio State University see this study of consumer behavior as the first attempt to consider the effects of these increasingly popular anti-obesity drugs on food production and waste nationally and globally.

“This was a pilot study to begin to look at the implications of these medications and to get into the process of understanding what broad types of foods are most popular after starting the medication,” said the senior author. Brian Roe, professor in the Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics at Ohio State University.

“The fact that food waste seems to decrease when patients become familiar with the medication suggests that there may be a simple solution – to advise patients new to this medication about the possibility of throwing up food when their food is change, which can reduce food waste and reduce their food consumption.”

The research was recently published in a journal Energy.

About a third of food in the United States is wasted, and about half of that is caused by consumers wasting an average of 1 pound of food per day, according to National Academies estimates.

As of this spring, 6% of US adults reported taking GLP-1 agonists, which treat type 2 diabetes and obesity by using hormones in the small intestine to lower blood sugar, slow stomach emptying and show hunger. brain. In the survey, about 70% of respondents were taking semaglutide (Ozempic, Rybelsus, Wegovy) and about a quarter were taking terzepatide (Mounjaro).

Researchers surveyed 505 US adults currently on anti-obesity medication with online questionnaires that focused on sociodemographic data, personality characteristics, and questions about changes in eating habits, weight of the body and food waste since the beginning of medicine. Data analysis looked at different influences on how much participants agreed with one key statement: “Since I started this medication I have found that I waste a lot of the food I buy.”

Participants represented a variety of ages, family incomes, and educational levels, and most had insurance. On average, the group lost 20% of their body weight if they were on the medication for at least one year.

A quarter of participants who had been on the drug for a year or longer were less likely to report binge eating than those who had been on the drug for 90 days or less – nearly 30% of respondents.

Although nausea was the main cause of food waste, the results suggested another possible influence: changes in tastes and habits that led people to throw away food that was not liked. In general, participants reported increasing produce, protein, fish and healthy fats in their diet and consuming less alcohol, pasta and other carbohydrates, fried foods, sweets and milk.

“Meat is neutral in terms of eating more or less after starting this medication,” Roe said.

The addition of vegetables to the diet — the most wasted food group in the United States — was associated with a lower likelihood of binge eating, another indicator of changing habits that, in this case, included eating. lots of veggie.

Roe is planning another paper that examines changes in household income associated with taking anti-obesity drugs – in terms of pharmacy and food costs. Given the steady increase in GLP-1 agonist prescriptions, there are far-reaching local and global economic and environmental implications, he said.

“People who take these drugs will probably spend less money on food, but whether there is an opportunity to reduce drug costs by reducing food consumption remains to be seen,” he said.

Some research labs have used simulations to show that reducing population-level food consumption can reduce energy costs, conserve land and water resources, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by keep food waste out of the trash. But given how relatively new anti-obesity drugs are, there isn’t enough data to predict the extent of their impact on society.

“I think it’s clear that new anti-obesity drugs have the potential to impact public health around the world, and research suggests that dietary changes can affect the outcome measures. environment,” Roe said. “There are many compelling questions as we think about the sustainability of our food and health care systems.”

First author Jamil Mansouri, an economics student at Purdue University, completed this work as a summer student at Ohio State as part of the Big Ten Academic Alliance Summer Research Opportunities Program.

This research was supported by the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture and Ohio State’s Van Buren Fund, which supports the professorship held by Roe in the College of Food, Agriculture, and Environmental Sciences.