No more Thanksgiving ‘food orgy’? New obesity drugs change the way users think about holiday meals| Trending Viral hub

For most of her life, Claudia Stearns feared Thanksgiving. As a person who battled obesity since childhood, Stearns hated the annual turmoil of obsessing over what he ate and the guilt of overindulging on a vacation built around food.

Now, after losing nearly 100 pounds using medications like Wegovy, a powerful new anti-obesity drug, Stearns says the “food noise” in his head has become very, very quiet.

“Last year, it was wonderful to be able to just enjoy my food, focus on being with friends and family, focus on the joy of the day,” says Stearns, 65, of Somerville, Massachusetts. “That was a completely new experience.”

As millions of Americans struggling with obesity gain access to a new generation of weight-loss medications, Stearns’ experience becomes more common and more noticeable during times of year when cooking, eating and a feeling of abundance They can define and enhance gatherings of loved ones and friends. Medical experts and consumers say the drugs are changing not only what users eat, but also how they think about food.

For some, it means greater mental control over their eating. Others say it undermines the enjoyment of social situations, including traditionally food-centered holidays such as Thanksgiving, Passover and Easter. Christmas.

“It’s something that really changes a lot of things in their lives,” says Dr. Daniel Bessesen, chief of endocrinology at Denver Health, who treats patients with obesity. “They go from food being a central focus to it just not being a central focus.”

New anti-obesity drugs, originally designed to treat diabetes, include semaglutide, used in Ozempic and Wegovy, and tirzepatide, used in Mounjaro and recently approved as Zepbound. Now intended for weight loss as well, medications administered as weekly injections work very differently from any diet. They mimic powerful hormones that are activated after eating to regulate appetite and the feeling of satiety that communicates between the intestine and the brain. Studies show that users can lose 15% to 25% of their body weight.

“That’s how it works: You reduce the rewarding aspects of food,” explains Dr. Michael Schwartz, an expert on metabolism, diabetes and obesity at the University of Washington in Seattle.

For Stearns, who began treatment in 2020, using weight-loss medication means she can have a few bites of her favorite Thanksgiving pies and then stop.

“I wouldn’t feel full,” she says, “but I would feel satisfied.”

However, such a change may have broader implications, both religious and cultural, because it alters the experience of festive and religious holidays that are often built around interactions with food (and a lot of it).

“I’m Italian. For us, it’s like going to church, going to a table,” says Joe Sapone, 64, a retiree from Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, who lost about 100 pounds on diet and Mounjaro. He no longer He needs what he called “the gastronomic orgy” of the holidays, but he acknowledges that it was an adjustment.

“Part of success in this is disconnecting from what you eat for a long time,” he says. “Will I still have fun if I don’t eat as much?”

Many users welcome what they say is more control over what they eat, even during the emotionally charged holiday season.

“Maybe I’m more picky about what dishes I put on my plate,” says Tara Rothenhoefer, 48, of Trinity, Florida. She lost more than 200 pounds after joining a clinical trial testing Mounjaro for weight loss in 2020. “I don’t care about bread that much. “I still eat what I enjoy.”

But others who take the drugs lose their appetite completely or suffer side effects (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea) that undermine the pleasure of any meal.

“Over the years, I’ve had a handful of patients who were really miserable because they didn’t enjoy food the same way,” says Dr. Katherine Saunders, an obesity expert at Weill Cornell Medicine and co-founder of Intellihealth, a clinical and software company that focuses on the treatment of obesity.

But, he added, most people who have turned to weight-loss medications have spent years struggling with the physical and mental burdens of chronic obesity and are relieved to discover a reduced desire to eat, and grateful to lose weight.

When people stop taking the medications, their appetite returns and they regain weight, often faster than they lost it, studies show. An initial analysis found that two-thirds of patients who started taking weight-loss drugs were no longer using them a year later.

Part of that may be due to the high cost and current supply shortages. But it is also necessary to consider the broader question of what it means to alter a basic human drive like appetite, says Dr. Jens Juul Holst of the University of Copenhagen. He is one of the researchers who first identified the gut hormone GLP-1, or glucagon-like peptide 1, which ultimately led to the new class of obesity drugs.

Speaking at an international diabetes conference this fall, Holst offered a philosophical critique of the real-world impact of new drugs.

“Why have you lost weight? That’s because you’ve lost your appetite. This is because you have missed the pleasure of eating and the reward of enjoying delicious food,” Holst told his colleagues. “And how long can you endure that? That’s the real, real question.”

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