We are such an interesting species living in unprecedented times. A bewildering array of food choices have been developed specifically to appeal to our taste buds. These foods are produced in unsustainable ways, and even when we try to cut down on things like red meat, the markets come up with substitutes that defeat our responsibilities to reduce consumption. We simply want ways to continue bad habits. Miracle meats are simply not really miracles.
Then, coupled with media that amps up our desires leads to a toxic cocktail of societal desires to live life well and ironically at our own peril. We simply are not aware of how modern foods, especially salty snacks and diet drinks, are so bad for us. We see countless ads implying our friendships will be enhanced if we offer arrays of these foods. We will be liked, and we want that for sure.
Even things like our diet drinks have so many chemicals in them that they twist and torment our natural body safety and control mechanisms … then couple all this with sedentary lifestyles and we get a nation of overweight people whose diets are just not balanced and nutritious.
We enjoy all this so much we look for ways to continue our bad habits with miracle cures for obesity, hair loss, wrinkles, and the quest for social acceptance. When we find anything that works, we then jump on it with both feet hoping it will restore us to our youth and make us popular … something we longed for since our teenage years.
Well, in the case of obesity, Big Pharma may have unleashed the devil itself. They once again seem to have found something that offers us the easy way out. We don’t have to change our behaviors … we simply have pills to take our responsibilities away. According to a recent article in MIT Research:
“Medicare still doesn’t cover drugs for obesity, but a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine warned that, in the hypothetical scenario that all Medicare beneficiaries with obesity were to use Wegovy, the cost would exceed the entire Medicare Part D budget. And if just 10% of obese people on Medicare were to take it at the net annual price of about $13,600, it would cost Medicare nearly $27 billion a year, according to the study. Unless the list price of Wegovy were discounted by more than 40%, the overall cost of the medication would eclipse the benefits to the U.S. healthcare system of lower obesity levels, according to a report by the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review. “If you spend all your money on weight loss, you’re not going to have money to do other things in healthcare,” says Dr. David Rind, chief medical officer of ICER.”
What makes matters worse is these drugs will have to be taken for the rest of a person’s life. If they stop taking them, their weight returns. Evidently, our bodies have natural mechanisms that require natural answers to these behavioral questions. We can’t just take a pill and forget about our personal choices. We must relearn the basics and practice them religiously (pun intended). Unfortunately, the business world sees the bounty in all this:
“The amount of attention drugs such as Ozempic are getting on social-media platforms, driven by testimonies from ordinary people and celebrities, shows how popular this new class of drugs is quickly becoming. Wall Street is working up its appetite.”
So, the real appetite problem is not only with us … the consumers. The lure of big money and the continued flow of that is a drug corporate America has always been addicted to. So, perhaps it is ironic and tragic that companies whose mission is to help consumers cope with their bad eating and living behaviors such as Jenny Craig are now going out of business, as reported today in the Walls Street Journal:
“Jenny Craig is going out of business after 40 years. The once-highflying weight-loss brand, which offered personalized plans and coaching and touted endorsements from stars like Queen Latifah and Mariah Carey, said Thursday it was canceling all online food orders. The closure comes after new drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro—which have been embraced by competitors such as WeightWatchers—have shaken up long-held beliefs that diet, exercise and willpower are the way to weight loss.”
Perhaps we need to stop thinking about miracles and more about personal responsibilities.
Do you see a pattern here? It seems to be everywhere these days.