Big Food vs. Big Pharma: Companies bet on snacking just as weight loss drugs boom

[highplainsdem]

There are't enough smilies to convey how angry this headline and article make me.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/01/kellanova-bets-on-snacking-as-ozempic-wegovy-take-off.html

-snip-

But food companies’ major bets on snacking come as investors fear the looming danger of Big Pharma’s blockbuster obesity and diabetes drugs Wegovy and Ozempic. Many investors have high hopes for the pharmaceuticals’ future, but their success could mean slower sales for the companies that produce Oreos, Doritos and Hershey’s Kisses.

Big Food’s bet on snacking began roughly a decade ago, and it’s only accelerated as the rest of the grocery aisles see sales stagnate, particularly as prices rise. The U.S. market for savory snacks is expected to grow 6% annually from 2022 through 2027, and sweet snacks’ sales are expected to rise 4.6% annually during that time, according to HSBC. Roughly three-quarters of consumers plan to snack every day, according to Accenture data.

Millennials and Generation Z consumers are fueling the trend. Younger generations snack more often than older consumers, said Kelsey Olsen, food and drink analyst for market research firm Mintel. Millennials and Gen-Z consumers tend to eat smaller meals that are closer together, creating more occasions to grab a snack.

At the same time, Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy have taken off, fueled by prescriptions to help patients lose weight. The drugs, known as GLP-1 agonists, suppress appetites by mimicking a gut hormone. Some patients even report developing aversions to foods with higher sugar and fat content — a category that includes many big snack brands.

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What a horrendous waste of money ALL of this is, with the food industry trying to get Americans to eat more and more unhealthy food, for their profit, while the drug companies profit from expensive new drugs to try to deal with the obesity and diabetes that result from consuming those junk foods.

BOTH are bad for people. Those drugs have plenty of side effects and should only be used if absolutely necessary.

It's possible to eat healthy and keep your weight down.

Big Food is worrying about sales stagnating in grocery aisles. They SHOULD stagnate, because most of what's sold in those aisles is crap. So are all the snacks and sweets piled up at checkouts to tempt you to buy them while you're waiting in line.

I posted a reply just this morning in a thread about the military not meeting recruitment goals, and that reply

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100218318768#post4

linked to an article at Military.com on a program to bring overweight recruits' weight down to a healthy level before basic training starts, with basic training resulting in more weight loss. Ir's a program needed now because so many Americans are obese.

I haven't researched that program yet, but I think it's a safe bet that unhealthy snacks aren't part of it.

And expensive drugs for weight loss probably aren't either. They're probably relying on oldfashioned willpower and discipline, with recruits eating a reasonable amount of healthy foods and getting the physical exercise our bodies require to stay healthy.

And they probably keep those recruits away from unhealthy foods most of the time. But every time those recruits leave a base, they have to go no farther than the nearest convenience store or grocery store or drugstore to see lots of foods they shouldn't eat. And the commissary probably offers them, too.

Big Food and Big Pharma are betting on people continuing to make bad choices. Unhealthy choices. What would work best for both of them is people continuing to eat too much junk food, too often, so they need lots of expensive prescription drugs to try to deal with all the health problems that result.

Don't fall for it.

[leftstreet]

1. DURec

most of what's sold in those aisles is crap

You got that right! Entire aisles dedicated to 20 million flavors of potato chips, or ice cream, or pizza - it's like shopping at a county fair midway

[highplainsdem]

3. +1,000,000. Always make a list before you shop for groceries, and stick to it

unless you remember something essential.

I usually stay out of the center aisles of grocery stores unless buying something like coffee or condiments (including seasonings/spices/herbs) or olive oil, or non-food items like detergent and paper products. So I shop around the edges of the store, for fresh produce, meat and fish, and dairy including eggs.

Unfortunately most stores have been making their own bakeries larger and larger, usually making it impossible not to walk past lots of tables and display cases loaded with pastries, muffins, cakes and cookies, just to get, say, from produce to frozen fish. And stores make much more money off the baked goods.

[bdamomma]

5. Smart manuvering

around the grocery stores, stay around the perimeter, going through the aisles is when you get into trouble.

[highplainsdem]

6. Thanks! There are junk-food-baited traps even around the perimeter,

though.

The entry to the grocery store nearest me has displays of candy, chips and other snacks across from the carts between the two doors.

Right inside the inner door, just feet from the first tables of produce, are a couple of tables of pastries and a wall display of chips.

More chips and popcorn displayed on the other side of the produce section, then the bakery, which is as large as the produce section.

Chips, cookies and other unhealthy snacks displayed at the end of almost every center aisle bordering the meat and fish departments.

Chips and cookies on small. displays in the dairy department, because God forbid you buy milk, cheese, eggs and orange juice without finding those snacks just a few feet away.

Cookies and candy and pastries displayed between the frozen veggies and aisles for toothpaste and shampoo.

And then you finally get to checkout, where there's a display of candy and other snacks between each checkout aisle.

And that's avoiding all the long displays of these junk foods in those center aisles. And the large candy display below the customer service counter.

[Richard_GB]

2. I gave up all sugar, sweeteners and ultra processed food in June

I have never felt better. Buy food with one ingredient. K&R

[highplainsdem]

4. Good for you! We'd all be healthier if we did that.

[highplainsdem]

8. Glad it worked for you. I usually follow a modified paleo diet, since I

I have dairy foods and have also been having oatmeal (along with fresh fruit and lots of protein) for breakfast, though lately I rarely have that. I've needed only two prescriptions in the last 25+ years, for painkillers after injury-related surgery 21 years ago and antibiotic eye drops after I was scratched accidentally by a kitten doing zoomies across my bed one night 15 years ago.

[NowISeetheLight]

9. Diabetes

My husband had a doctor appt last week to go over labs. His A1C is way up (9.1) from six months ago (7.6) despite being on insulin. It's mostly him not eating right and not getting any exercise. I've been on Ozempc myself and it's a miracle drug for me. He can't get it because we can't afford the 25% copay which would be around $300 a month. Yet it's only $250 a month with no insurance in Canada.

I took him grocery shopping and we bought keto type meals, no more pasta or rice (which he ate daily), low carb stuff, even some salads. Absolutely no junk food allowed.

[Elessar Zappa]

13. That's nice but there's many diabetics

who absolutely need drugs regardless of how they eat. I don’t give a damn what YouTubers say.

[highplainsdem]

16. I agree.

[highplainsdem]

17. As I said in another post here, I'm happy that your diet changes, to keto and then

carnivore, have been working for you so far.

But they don't work for everyone, and though I've read a lot about both, I've never gone on either because they seem too extreme to me, at least for staying on very long.

We evolved as omnivores. As hunter-gatherers. The paleo diet is the closest to that.

Unlike carnivorous animals, humans on the carnivore diet don't consume the digestive tracts of freshly killed prey, getting the nutrients from any raw plants the prey animals just ate.

Muscle meat like steak isn't particularly nutritious compared to consuming a whole, raw small prey animal.

You can offset that to some extent by eating a lot of eggs, which are nutritious, and organ meats - especially liver - which are more nutritious than steak.

But we did evolve as omnivores.

So I would advise people to read a lot about keto and carnivore diets before following them.

Ditto intermittent fasting. Which I know you didn't mention, but I'm mentioning because it's very trendy now.

Going 12 hours between dinner and breakfast isn't unreasonable, and helps keep weight down when you stop eating several hours before bedtime. But getting all your daily calories in a window of 8 hours or less, especially if that window is late in the day, isn't likely to help with weight loss or health unless weight is your main health problem and you're eating much less simply because you're eating only one or two meals a day.

[highplainsdem]

12. Kudos on taking charge of your diet! And it sounds like you're rescuing

your husband from his bad health habits.

Diabetes is nothing to ignore. Medicine can't do enough if a person ignores the need for a healthy diet and exercise. A cousin of mine in his early 70s just lost half of one leg to diabetes, and the same thing happened to a neighbor of mine in his early 50s twenty years ago.

We don't do enough in this country to teach people, including children, about nutrition, and so they're left at the mercy of a food industry that mostly cares nothing about people's health, and a medical establishment quick to offer prescription meds rather than suggesting lifestyle changes - though that's partly because suggestions of lifestyle changes are often ignored.

If it's hard to get your husband to exercise, at least get him what's called an under desk bike, which will not only burn some calories but strengthen and help the circulation in his legs. They come in a variety of styles and a wide range of prices:

https://www.verywellfit.com/best-under-desk-bike-5195001

You can find dozens of options on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Peddler-Bike/

I have one - bought for my mother years ago, when I was her caregiver - and I use it occasionally, though I also have large pieces of exercise equipment, and weights.

[Elessar Zappa]

14. Ozempic has helped my cousin immensely.

She was 330 lbs and had a huge appetite that she couldn’t curb. The drug took away her appetite and cravings and now she’s down to 190. Those weight loss drugs can absolutely be a tool in the patient’s fight against overeating. It’s also a lifesaver for many with diabetes. There’s always a risk with any medicine of unwanted side effects but you have to decide which is the lesser of two evils.

[highplainsdem]

15. As I said in the OP, it's okay to use the drugs if absolutely necessary. Someone like your

cousin, with morbid obesity and an uncontrollable appetite, needed that help, and I'm glad it helped. Ideally she won't need Ozempic much longer.

[usonian]

19. I looked at the offerings at nearby Whole Foods and Trader Joe's

Whole Foods has pastries and half of the breads at the front door (the other door has fruits)

Trader Joe's has lots of prepared foods and that tempting aisle of breads, pastries and chips - lots of chips and snacks. Next to the large wine section 🍷🍷🍷

Both have good stuff, as well.

I personally am trying to cut back on breads, snacks and salty foods. But it's always a struggle. When I go outdoors to neaten up the trails around the "Ponderosa Ranch" here, it only increases my appetite. Working on it. Exercise is good.

[highplainsdem]

20. Stores do give more space, and the most valuable space, to junk food, if

they carry junk food at all. Even if they're supposedly in business to promote health.

"Healthy" candies at checkout in health food stores, for instance.

And this goes for stores where food is only a small part of what's sold, too. If you don't see candy and snacks as soon as you walk into Target or Walmart, for instance, your local stores are very different from mine.

It's no wonder we have epidemics of Type 2 diabetes and obesity.

Especially with all the advertising devoted to getting people to consume junk food.

Kudos to all the people who've managed to maintain health, or are struggling to regain health, despite this onslaught.

[Sky Jewels]

21. I'm always surprised by how many overweight young people I see.

I was a kid/adolescent/20-something person in the 1970s-mid-90s, and I don't recall knowing or seeing that many peers who were obese. I mean, sure there were always a few, but that was definitely the exception. Now it seem almost to be the norm. Makes me so sad. Many of these awesome Gen Zers are not going to make it to 50, let alone 80 or 90.