The weight-loss drugs paradox

Lindt says GLP-1 users are actually eating *more* chocolate

Lindt Easter bunnies (Credit: Lothar Spurzem)

Finally, after exactly 247 editions and roughly a quarter million Tony Blair references, a Lines To Take world exclusive: Elton John’s last meal on Earth would end with Eccles cakes. I can’t reveal my sources, but it was the late-2000s and the Kesslers were dining at a rustic chic restaurant somewhere in the hills above Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.

Suddenly, Elton walked in with his husband David Furnish, alongside Michael Caine and his wife Shakira. My mother was, inevitably, sat facing away from their table. And as a stubborn New Yorker, she agonisingly refused to switch seats with my Dad, who enjoyed the superior view.

As the stars began discussing their favourite dishes, Elton — ever the suburban English boy — seemed adamant about his choice of dessert.

Saturday Night’s Alright for Fasting

I mention this partly because I am preternaturally incapable of opening a newsletter by talking about the thing I actually want to talk about. But also because this Graham Norton sofa-ready anecdote does a decent job of highlighting the awesome power of finitude — which forces one to ruthlessly prioritise and think about what really matters. So, Eccles cakes it is.

The rise of a new class of drugs, known as GLP-1s, has reshaped more than the weight-loss industry. It has been transformative for the entire nation of Denmark — home to Novo Nordisk, which manufactures Ozempic and Wegovy — to such a degree that it has both delivered an export boom and created the sort of systemic risks that more commonly afflict small, fossil fuel-dependent economies.

[This is in no way relevant to today’s article, but I am frequently tickled by the fact that Denmark is profiting from both ends of the calorie spectrum, first by selling the Lurpak and then the drugs that deal with the consequences of Lurpak. It is, in many ways, the perfect business model.]

Of course, one big loser from the rise of GLP-1s is the food and beverage industry. That is because drugs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro¹ work by effectively tricking the brain into feeling fuller faster and for longer. In other words, into eating less. And this is already reflected in the data, with clear downside consequences for the producers of empty calories.

Ozempic (Source: Freepik)