ArchiveFM

The Daily

The Sunday Read: ‘Ozempic Could Crush the Junk Food Industry. But It Is Fighting Back.’

For decades, Big Food has been marketing products to people who can’t seem to stop eating, and now, suddenly, they can. The active ingredient in new drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Zepbound mimics a natural hormone that slows digestion and signals fullness to the brain. Around seven million Americans take these drugs, but estimates from Morgan Stanley suggest that number could increase to 24 million within the next decade. More than 100 million American adults are obese, and the drugs may eventually be rolled out to people who don’t have diabetes or obesity, as they seem to tame addictions beyond food — appearing to make cocaine, alcohol and cigarettes more resistible. Research is at an early stage, but the drugs may also cut the risk of stroke, heart and kidney disease, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Major food companies are scrambling to research the impact of the drugs on their brands — and figure out how to adjust. But for Mattson, which has invented products for the nation’s biggest food conglomerates for nearly 50 years, the Ozempic threat could be a boon.
Duration
31m
Broadcast on
29 Dec 2024
Audio Format
other

For decades, Big Food has been marketing products to people who can’t seem to stop eating, and now, suddenly, they can. The active ingredient in new drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Zepbound mimics a natural hormone that slows digestion and signals fullness to the brain.

Around seven million Americans take these drugs, but estimates from Morgan Stanley suggest that number could increase to 24 million within the next decade. More than 100 million American adults are obese, and the drugs may eventually be rolled out to people who don’t have diabetes or obesity, as they seem to tame addictions beyond food — appearing to make cocaine, alcohol and cigarettes more resistible. Research is at an early stage, but the drugs may also cut the risk of stroke, heart and kidney disease, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Major food companies are scrambling to research the impact of the drugs on their brands — and figure out how to adjust. But for Mattson, which has invented products for the nation’s biggest food conglomerates for nearly 50 years, the Ozempic threat could be a boon.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This podcast is supported by TikTok. Sometimes the most interesting discoveries are the ones you weren't looking for. That happens every day on TikTok. A science experiment can spark a whole new interest. A recipe you stumble upon can become a meal you make for the people you love. And a restaurant you've never heard of might become your new favorite spot. That's the thing about TikTok. Follow your curiosity and see where it leads. Your next discovery is waiting on TikTok. Hi, my name's Thomas Weber, and I'm a contributor to The New York Times magazine. Ozempic, Wargovey, Mounjaro, Zepbound. They're some of the brand names for weight loss drugs called GLP1 agonists. In a nutshell, GLP1s reduce people's appetites. We know they mimic the hormone that signals fullness to the brain. But a couple of scientists I spoke to speculated that GLP1 drugs may also regulate the amount of dopamine that the brain releases. And so, when it does that, the drugs make foods that have been engineered to trigger the dopamine hit, less appealing. But researchers have also discovered something interesting about GLP1s. They change the kinds of foods that people are interested in eating. So instead of packaged processed foods, many users tend to gravitate towards fresh fruits and vegetables. So for this week's Sunday read, which you'll hear in a moment, I wrote about how drugs like Ozempic have the potential to disrupt. Even up end, the packaged food industry. Early one morning last August, my reporting brought me to a glassy, airy office building in the Bay Area to the headquarters of a company called Matzen. Matzen basically invents packaged foods and pitches them to the biggest food and drink companies in the world. I passed display cases of prototypes from years past. Deep fried chocolate Twinkies, La Troi packaged Asian dinners, DiGiorno Pizza, Hungry Man's Steakhouse Meals, Marie Calendars frozen entrees. There were scientists in white coats all around.

Transcription truncated.

For decades, Big Food has been marketing products to people who can’t seem to stop eating, and now, suddenly, they can. The active ingredient in new drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Zepbound mimics a natural hormone that slows digestion and signals fullness to the brain. Around seven million Americans take these drugs, but estimates from Morgan Stanley suggest that number could increase to 24 million within the next decade. More than 100 million American adults are obese, and the drugs may eventually be rolled out to people who don’t have diabetes or obesity, as they seem to tame addictions beyond food — appearing to make cocaine, alcohol and cigarettes more resistible. Research is at an early stage, but the drugs may also cut the risk of stroke, heart and kidney disease, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Major food companies are scrambling to research the impact of the drugs on their brands — and figure out how to adjust. But for Mattson, which has invented products for the nation’s biggest food conglomerates for nearly 50 years, the Ozempic threat could be a boon.