Epidemic Obesity is getting attention from both sides of the problem.
I stumbled accross this Fox News has an article titled, “America’s fattest states revealed — and how Ozempic is changing the map.” A Pennsylvania health analytics company, Purple Lab, analyzed prescription records for synthetic GLP-1 products by state. GLP1 is a natural hormone that helps regulate blood sugar, signals insulin production, and tells your body you are full. Stop eating.
It was created for diabetics, but the hunger suppression also produced some weight-loss benefits. Good for diabetics. Also suitable for models, actresses, performers, public figures, and anyone who can afford it and wants to lose some weight. Kelly Clarkson lost so much weight that she is thinner than she was in her American Idol days.
Meghan Trainor, who got famous for songs about not being a stick figure Barbie Doll, is looking quite a bit more like one these days, thanks to GLP-1 drugs: she and millions of others. I know a few folks locally who got it, and after their health insurance dropped coverage, they put the weight back on. Which brings me to the Fox Headline and the results they published.
According to the Purple Lab researchers,
The report identified the following states where more than 15% of the state’s population received GLP-1 prescriptions for weight loss or diabetes control.
- West Virginia – 24%
- Kentucky – 22%
- Louisiana – 20%
- Oklahoma – 20%
- Alabama – 19%
- Mississippi – 19%
- North Dakota – 18%
- Alaska – 17%
- Arkansas – 17%
- Pennsylvania – 17%
- Iowa – 16.5%
- Michigan – 16%
- Ohio – 14.5%
- Georgia – 15%
- Kansas – 15%
- Tennessee – 15%
- Texas – 15%
The reporting does note that this data does not include “people who paid cash, used telehealth providers, used compounded versions, or were uninsured,” so the numbers, they say, are probably higher. Given the advent of HIMS and HERS and their copycats, I’d say, well, yeah!
I’d also suggest these can’t tell us about obesity by state, because they don’t or can’t exclude vanity weight loss. You need to factor in Insurance that covers it (it is not cheap, but Trump is working to make it more affordable in the US).
Location, food culture, and economics all play a role, so it’s generally a marker worthy of more thought.
My personal sample (or examples) is small (I’ve never used it myself, BTW), but with few exceptions, I have heard of people using GLP-1 to drop a few nagging, unwanted pounds they can’t seem to lose. For those who don’t want to exercise or don’t want to exercise more, it solves a problem—at least temporarily—if you don’t also change your eating/lifestyle habits.
When the shot stops, the weight returns, and looking at the Purple Lab-reported results, I see that seven of the top 17 states for obesity in the US did not make this top 17 list.
Also, not definitive. Obesity is an epidemic in America, true, and we can blame the USDA and FDA, along with a host of agencies like the CDC, which have been providing bad advice for decades on what might appear to be purely political grounds.
The Food Pyramid has been upside down for so long because of climate change.
Meat, Dairy, and natural fats are far better for you (essential!) than the predominantly carb-loaded foods we’ve been told we need more of. Always in moderation, and I am not giving you dietary or medical advice, but the evidence is strong for putting meat and dairy back on the bottom of that thing.
Please do your own research, but America was much thinner and healthier in the fifties, sixties, and even the seventies than it is today.
Big Food has been let loose so we can fill our bellies with cheap garbage, and I should remind you that we had McDonald’s when there was no obesity epidemic. It isn’t the healthiest stuff, but the food we buy from the grocery store and the manufacturing of fast or ready meals is what made so many of us huge.
Everything in moderation, including moderation, as they say. And the response to COVID cracked the code. It revealed how broken the expert industrial complex is.
The entire MAHA movement sprang from these simple facts. The food makers and drug makers bought out the regulators, and regular Americans accepted their expert guidance to their enormous regret.
I know! And here comes Big Pharma with an injection, soon to be a cheaper pill, that will help you lose some of that fat.
I’ve no objection to GLP-1, reducing costs, or improving access. I take at least one drug daily, without which my life could be miserable to the point of being impossible. There are thousands of reasonable and necessary products that improve life and quality of life. And many people could lose weight and avoid a trip down the diabetes aisle (2), lowering care costs and burdens, but absent a change in eating culture and nutrition, it is a temporary fix.
Insulin resistance is a complex problem with not-so-complex solutions, but until RFKJ and the Trump Administration, no one has cared much about healthy Americans or the root causes. And why would they? Big Farma and Big Pharma both profit from the downward spiral.
It has often been argued that past “food pyramids” were unethically influenced by industrial interests that touted high-carb (grain) diets as “healthy.” Americans were told butter was bad; margarine was “better” than Mother Nature; eggs and meats were unhealthy; and women and children were better served by the “convenience” of baby formulas and pre-packaged baby foods. In its recent nutritional iterations, is the USDA focused on the health of humans or corporate profits?
Health-conscious eyebrows are being raised at who is getting a seat at the USDA guidelines drafting table. The list includes many who have benefitted from consulting fees or other remuneration from companies including Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and the dubious World Health Organization, which advocates for a plant-based diet without cautions against the chemical residues commonly present in many modern plant crops. These include cancer-causing pesticides, endocrine disruptors that mimic estrogen, and processed fats that increase obesity. Could it be that such organizations (and the people they employ) suffer from conflicts of interest?
Suppose healthy people eat food with lower margins, after which they need fewer drugs to keep them alive. Those institutions lose margin. But we’re there. For the first time in fifty years the government wants to approach the science and regulation of food and medicine, not so they can all profit and retire on the board of some massive conglomerate (as a thanks for helping those stay fat and happy), but to advance a greater national good.
Healthy, happy people are more productive and less of a burden on our shared society. A system that frees up billions, if not trillions, back into the free market, instead of burning it to fuel the engine of the Public Health Industrial complex.
And GLP-1 isn’t going to get us there, but it can be part of the journey, no matter what percentage of your state is obese. But we have to choose this path, and we have to choose to vote for people in government who will continue to pursue it, along with deregulating and reducing the size of the machine that created the problem in the first place.
By the way, and again, this is not diet or health advice. I hear Lemon Peel Extract might help trigger your body’s GLP-1 naturally. That would make it suitable for regulating blood sugar, reducing the risk of insulin resistance, and cutting the glucose spikes that lead to cravings, snacking, and obesity. Do your own research.
