Sunday saw the publication of results from two clinical trials of oral semaglutide for weight loss. The first study found a mean bodyweight change of -15.1 percent with 50 miligrams (mg) of semaglutide taken once daily over 68 weeks, compared with -2.4 percent in the placebo. The second study reported similarly promising results, concluding that 25 mg and 50 mg dosages of semaglutide were superior to a 14 mg dose in reducing bodyweight “in adults with inadequately controlled type 2 diabetes.” In both studies (funded by Novo Nordisk, the company that manufactures Ozempic), no major safety concerns were identified; the most common adverse events were gastrointestinal disorders such as nausea, constipation, and diarrhea.
It seems like good news. But speaking to reporter Dani Blum in the New York Times, Dr. Scott Hagan, an obesity expert and associate professor at the University of Washington, expressed concerns about semaglutide contributing “to our general diet culture, our cultural obsession with thinness.” With the rise of the body-positivity and fat-acceptance movements, I’m not quite sure to which “cultural obsession” Dr. Hagan refers. Considering that two out of three Americans are overweight or obese, it would seem we are not obsessed enough.
A. Janet Tomiyama, a professor of psychology at UCLA, shares Dr. Hagan’s concerns. She notes that weight-loss medication “is a tool that people can use for a disordered eating reason.” Maybe so. But ice cream, potato chips, and donuts, though obviously not drugs, are also tools for disordered eating, and they are available over-the-counter at any convenience store, gas station, and supermarket.
What’s wrong with a culture of diet and exercise — i.e., an anti-obesity culture — anyway?
There are all sorts of cosmetic procedures patients undergo unencumbered by moral busybodies fretting about the tenuous societal implications thereof. Unlike these procedures (think: facelifts, breast “augmentation,” rhinoplasties, etc.), losing weight actually reduces morbidity and mortality. That’s an unalloyed good.