Op-Ed: Let's Not Forget the Reason Behind GLP-1s' Rise

People are understandably troubled by kids as young as 10 lining up for weekly weight-loss shots, but that's really not what we ought to fixated on, according to health journalist Julia Belluz. It's true that no one knows what years on GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic will do to still-developing bodies, brains, and bones, even if early research suggests the drugs can improve blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol in kids with obesity or Type 2 diabetes, Belluz writes in a New York Times opinion piece. But for her, the attention is too much on the attempts to treat an overlooked failure: a food environment that practically guarantees diet-related disease.

Belluz cites the proliferation of cheap, convenient, ultraprocessed foods "engineered to be overeaten"—in other words, foods that are "obesity- and disease-promoting, devoid of the nutrition kids need to become healthy adults." Doctors she interviewed say GLP-1 drugs can help for individual children facing aggressive, early-onset disease as a result. But "treatment is never prevention," she writes, noting that the ultimate goal should be "preventing children from carrying the burden of avoidable chronic illness in the first place." For indications of where the food environment is heading, and how policy can bring about change, read Belluz's full essay at the Times.