While it isn’t generally available via the NHS, it has been prescribed for certain specific conditions, and more and more people away from the public eye seem to be getting hold of it through private prescriptions. The effect is reported to be a general suppression of appetite that reduces cravings for both food and drink. There are many reports of unpleasant side-effects, including diarrhoea and nausea, but for some weight loss is such a desirable objective that it overrides all of these.
As the Daily Telegraph reports, this has the potential to spill over into having a broader impact on any businesses that depend on the enjoyment of food and drink.
A star fund manager is betting against the boom in Guinness amid fears that the rise of weight loss drugs could curtail demand for alcoholic drinks. Terry Smith, the founder of Fundsmith, told investors that his £22.8bn fund no longer owned shares in the stout brand’s owner Diageo, in part owing to concerns over the impact of weight loss drugs on drinks companies.Presumably this will also in the long term have an effect on the restaurant sector, as people no longer feel such a desire to go out for a meal, and if they do will end up picking over tiny portions in a desultory fashion. The general effect seems to be to erode people’s desire to engage in any enjoyable, self-indulgent behaviour and to strip them of their joie de vivre. It sounds like a grim, joyless future.His decision to sell follows a surge in demand for the drink, which has soared in popularity among young drinkers to the extent that supply to pubs was rationed over Christmas. He wrote in his annual letter to shareholders: “We suspect the entire drinks sector is in the early stages of being impacted negatively by weight-loss drugs. Indeed, it seems likely that the drugs will eventually be used to treat alcoholism such is their effect on consumption.”
It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that, as with many such “wonder drugs” there may be an element of the devil’s bargain about it. Will it prove to have a sting in the tail, with serious long-term side-effects revealing themselves in the fullness of time?
I've been on it for three months for my Diabetes and it's been horrific. Constant shits, nausea and not lost any weight. My HBA1C reading has improved. I've never been a glutton, but I'm finding I don't crave alcohol now. I was given lots at Christmas and most of it is still unopened.
ReplyDeleteExcept for those who are obese to the extent that's it's seriously impacting their health, I can't see the use of these drugs becoming that widespread in society, and certainly not prescribed freely by the NHS (there also seems to be some evidence that many people just put the weight back on when they stop taking them). Of the numerous challenges and threats facing the pub and brewing industry, I'd rank this very low, and despite the reported side effects can see it helping some people out of ill health, unemployment and social isolation, rather than being some sort of government conspiracy to put us all off our pints and grub.
ReplyDeleteI only blogged about it because I found it interesting, but if a leading fund manager thinks it may pose a significant risk to the alcohol industry it deserves to be taken seriously. I'd say it's just another facet of people's increasing health obsessiveness.
DeleteA minor correction, Mounjaro is not Semaglutide. There are a number on the market, so it is easy to confuse. Semaglutide is a dopamine suppressor. Its users get reduced pleasure from many of the things they used to enjoy and therefore appear to cease to do them. Eating big greasy burgers being one. Mounjaro is an appetite suppressant. Users feel full, experience less hunger and fill up with small amounts of food. So, they are less inclined to trough.
ReplyDeleteMounjaro has better weight loss success than Semaglutide and doesn’t reduce your pleasure from other dopamine hits like sex. So won’t affect your relationship. Should any of you be thinking of buying a dose and have a lady to keep happy.
There appears to be a lot of resistance to what is one of the best advancements of the age. An easy weight loss solution to those that struggle. It’s always easier to put on weight than lose it, now there’s safe affordable assistance. We ought to be cheering and happy for those that need it.
Instead, puritans seem to hate it because they want to tax chocolate and hate that there’s a better solution. Now you’re claiming it ruins quality of life. Dropping a stone or two, for those that need to, is their best quality of life enhancement they can get. Scare mongers want to claim side effects that barely exist. It’s a safe tested pharmaceutical grade medicine. People worried seem to forget that 30 years ago they were happy to pop pills in Ibiza nightclubs that had been knocked up in someone’s kitchen with a child’s chemistry set. The medicine is safe.
As to the effect on pubs. Whadya want? Customer drinking themselves to death in their 50s or healthy people enjoying pubs well into their 80s?
The moral hazard argument is perhaps not so strong in this case, as it doesn’t allow people to continue enjoying food without worrying about putting on weight. It suppresses their appetite and their desire for food.
DeleteThere aren’t large numbers of fiftysomething obese pubgoers dropping dead anyway. And, if as widely reported, it does take away the relish of consuming food and drink, then hospitality has good reason to be worried. If it is reduced to a purely functional product people won’t spend so much on it.
That presupposes that these obese people are obese because of excessive use of hospitality rather than eating and snacking to much at home.
DeleteIt doesn't surprise me, Cooking Lager, to discover that an unashamed capitalist like you, is such a fan boy for "Big Pharma." The long term side effects of this "safe tested" pharmaceutical concoction, still aren't known, and are likely to stay that way for some time. You might have been happy to pop pills in an Ibiza nightclub, when you were in your youth, but plenty more of us were a lot more sensible. This might sound like the perfect product for the drugs companies, but be very careful what you wish for.
ReplyDeletehttps://getpocket.com/explore/item/what-happens-when-you-ve-been-on-ozempic-for-20-years?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-gb
Ha Ha. I see you've attracted the "Big Pharma" nutters, Mudge. It's okay to prefer small scale craft or micro pharma, Good look with your homoeopathy herbal tea and leeches, see where that gets you. The rest of us, meanwhile, will live longer and more fulfilling lives due to Big Pharma.
ReplyDeleteAs an aside, I saw your recent photo in the OT, Mudge. You look slimmer and a lot better that when I last saw you. Good for you, however you did it, pal. Whether drugs or cabbage soup diet, I suspect you feel a lot better for it as well as looking better. I also suspect it has enhanced your pub going and enabled more getting out and about to pubs. I hope you've added a few years to your spending money in pubs too.
Its very easy to lose weight, just chop off an arm or a leg. That won't improve your life, though. What will is consistent resistance training and some moderate cardiovascular activity. Anything else, including weight loss drugs, are a temporary boost and won't be sustained, unless you really want to be on them for life? Boost your muscle mass and you'll find lots of daily chores more tolerable and the weight will stay off despite a healthy amount of 'good living'.
DeleteNah, all down to a healthy lifestyle. Cutting down on the booze and plenty of salads ;-)
DeleteWhilst you are superficially correct, muscle mass is more metabolically active than fat, it’s of little help to a 20st man whose knees ache when he gets up because he’s carting around an unnecessary sack of spuds when he walks.
DeleteWeight loss is energy in/out and for those at the wrong end of morbid obesity, its months of feeling hunger as they reduce calorie intake. The end of struggling for months on end for these people should be seen as a welcome god send.
But we seem to have a generation of mainly old people that want people to struggle in life. Like its character building or something. Human progress, if it has a definition, is making people lives easier. That’s what most of it is. A life spent not toiling but of comfort and ease for all.
Keeping weight off is another matter. Once the weight is off, going to the gym isn’t painful. Dropping a few pounds to regulate weight is possible with self-control as it can be done in weeks not months. Dropping 2 pounds is easier than 2 stone.
And on Big Pharma. Imagine an economic system capable of marshalling billions in human capital to develop drugs that save and improve lives. It’s a success and it’s called capitalism. Yeh for capitalism. It’s better than being a serf under feudalism and it’s better than being dirt poor under socialism. Yeh for capitalism, it’s great.
You on this, Cookie? You seem to know a lot about it.
DeleteI do agree (and was going to write it at the time, but ran out of time), that I can see it being of temporary usefulness to someone who's become so obese that physical exercise is difficult to start, be that for practical or psychological reasons. But the only way to keep weight off long term and maintain a healthy balance of indulgence, fun, and responsible consumption is through a mix of resistance training and cardio. Its not punishment, a strong and capable body is immensely rewarding, and more sustainable than constant cardio - that often just results in binge eating afterwards.
DeleteNot currently Anon, but I have been overweight and struggled with it. Hitting 40 seemed to slow my metabolism and liking the beer did me no favours. I lost weight the hard way by being hungry for months. I’d have leapt at these drugs had they been available a few years ago. No shame in it, for me. Why make things difficult? Life isn’t a punishment for eating too much cake.
DeleteThe rule of keeping it off, I found, is to never wear elasticated trousers. When you think your trousers have shrunk, weigh yourself and lose a couple of pounds. It’s easier than letting it slide and having to lose stones. The 5-2 diet or intermittent fasting works and is easy enough for a couple of weeks and you drop a couple of pounds a week. All diets are miserable longer term though, which is what makes these drugs a miracle.
Cutting down on the booze, 'mudge? That isn't going to help the pubs.
DeleteDid you miss the smiley? ;-)
DeleteNo. I ignored it
DeleteOzempic partly to blame for wine bar closure, says owner
ReplyDeleteI agree, capitalism is great. It's wonderful. Without capitalism where would we be? Capitalism and division of labour have given us massive riches. Big it up for Adam Smith. Just think without it you lot would be drinking poor local brews made by local brewers. Modern networks and capitalism give you lovely ales transported through modern and efficient distribution networks to be available to bigger markets. Regards that bloke that urges caution on big Pharma, does he not think what could be happening at the premises of that amateur brewerist who make them raved about cult brews. I've seen things you'll never see. Beware
ReplyDeleteWhat's with these AI generated photos?
ReplyDeleteJust a handy way of producing suitable copyright-free images. That one's supposed to be a haggard-looking man who has lost a lot of weight in a short time.
DeleteJan 15th and about half way thourgh Dry January.
ReplyDeleteIf truth be told I haven't really sobered up properly since Christmas.
Christmas 2023 to be precise.
One of the great joys about being retired is that most days you're really only topping up.
Today, for instance, I arose at 3pm and will probably spend the rest of Wednesday like Robert De Niro in the final scene from Once Upon A Time in America. If you recall he settled in for a spell of getting bollocksed in an opium den.Fade to black.
I will take a stroll after a late breakfast as the local has 'Fraid Not by the Exeter Brewery on which I quite like.
They say you should have a hobby in retirement. This is cock.
Loafing about doing nothing in particular is my way of preparing for the brush of cloth from the Grim Reaper's cloak.
I saw a recent picture of Ariana Grande looking positively skeletal. Apparently she has been using Ozempic to keep her weight under control. She looked as though she was in need of a good steak :-)
ReplyDeleteA feature you occasionally reveal in your writing Mudge, is that the Pareto principle applies to beer and pubs. That 80% of the output is for 20% of the customers.
ReplyDeleteIf all the customers were living balanced healthy lives, they'd be no obese people. Everyone would weigh within BMI, like it was 1950. But if you take away the customers drinking to excess and piling on the pounds, that's 80% of the industry gone.
Pubs need fat alcoholics to survive and ensure pubs exist for thin moderate drinkers.
I have stated before that one of the reasons for the decline in the overall trade in pubs is the reduction in heavy (almost entirely male) drinking taking place in pubs. If everyone adhered to health guidelines, then there would be very few pubs as we know them.
DeleteBut I'm not sure there's an automatic correlation between obesity and alcohol intake. Yes, we all know some boozy fat blokes, but many of the alcoholics I have known have actually been pretty skinny, as presumably they put drinking ahead of eating.