How Ozempic and Similar Drugs Are Quietly Rewriting America’s Eating Habits

Research out this week might help you plan your own version of the Ozempic diet, with the results of a survey revealing the foods that people tend to avoid, or eat less of, once they start taking GLP-1 drugs.

Scientists at the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station led the study, a survey of past, current, and potentially future GLP-1 users. They found that people were most likely to reduce their consumption of certain food groups, such as soft drinks and beef. Notably, though, people’s desires for these foods didn’t completely go away.

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Ozempic and similar drugs mimic the natural GLP-1 hormone, which helps regulate our hunger and metabolism. The most popular GLP-1 agent today is semaglutide, the active ingredient in type 2 diabetes medication Ozempic and the higher-dose obesity drug Wegovy. Semaglutide and newer GLP-1 drugs help people lose substantially more weight than diet and exercise alone, primarily through reducing people’s appetite and cravings.

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According to the study researchers, however, there’s still a lot we don’t know about exactly how GLP-1 drugs change people’s behavior and eating patterns. To learn more, they conducted a survey of roughly 2,000 people across four groups: people who are currently taking a GLP-1 drug for weight loss, people who have taken a GLP-1 drug in the past, people who are planning to take a GLP-1 drug, and people who haven’t and aren’t planning to take these drugs.

All of the respondents were asked to estimate their daily caloric intake over the past seven days, along with questions about how much they desired specific food groups. The current and former GLP-1 users were also asked if and how their consumption of specific foods had changed while taking these drugs.

As expected, people on GLP-1 therapy appeared to eat less overall than others and less than they did prior to starting the medication. The researchers estimated that people taking GLP-1 drugs ate between 720 and 990 fewer calories than before they started treatment. They also observed that GLP-1 users tended to consume fewer processed foods, sugar-sweetened beverages, refined grains, and beef. People also overall reported eating more fruits and leafy greens, as well as drinking more water, while taking these drugs.

“In conclusion, this study provides evidence that GLP-1s support weight management through calorie reduction and influence food consumption patterns by diminishing intake of high-calorie and processed foods,” the researchers wrote in their paper, published last month in the journal Food Quality and Preference.

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Interestingly enough, though, people taking GLP-1 drugs still reported having a high desire for these foods. That suggests, the researchers say, that GLP-1s might change people’s eating patterns by enhancing their taste sensitivity and/or altering their pleasure response to food. But more research is needed to work out the “specific physiological and metabolic pathways” affected by GLP-1 use, they add.

Either way, these findings should help inform people about what to expect when starting GLP-1 therapy, not to mention the junk and snack food industry. Some companies have already started to prepare for this impact, with the launching of less sugary products aimed at people taking GLP-1 drugs.