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.
DeleteIs this the same fund manager who has had 4 years of underperformance? https://portfolio-adviser.com/terry-smith-defends-fundsmith-equity-record-after-fourth-year-of-underperformance/https://portfolio-adviser.com/terry-smith-defends-fundsmith-equity-record-after-fourth-year-of-underperformance/
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