How anti-obesity drugs are linked to food waste

In a survey of people currently on GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic, 25% of respondents agreed they had wasted more food since taking the drugs, compared to 61% who disagreed. People who were nauseated by the drugs were more likely to report increased food waste. Being on the medications for a longer period of time and eating more vegetables were associated with less food waste.

Scientists at The Ohio State University see this study of consumer behavior as an initial effort to consider the effects of these increasingly popular anti-obesity drugs on food production and waste nationally and globally.

"This was a pilot study to start looking at implications of these medications and get in the ballpark of understanding which broad categories of food are more or less preferred after starting the medication," said senior author Brian Roe, professor in the Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics at The Ohio State University.

"The fact that food waste appears to decrease as patients acclimate to the medication suggests there may be a fairly simple remedy -- advising patients new to these medications about the possibility of discarding food as their diets change, which could reduce food waste and lower their spending."

The research was published recently in the journal Nutrients.

About one-third of food in the United States is wasted, and about half of that is attributable to consumers who waste an average of 1 pound of food per person per day, according to National Academies estimates.

As of spring of this year, 6% of U.S. adults reported taking GLP-1 agonists, which treat type 2 diabetes and obesity by acting on a hormone in the small intestine to lower blood sugar, slow emptying of the stomach and signal fullness to the brain. In the study, almost 70% of respondents were taking semaglutide (Ozempic, Rybelsus, Wegovy) and nearly a quarter were taking terzepatide (Mounjaro).

The researchers surveyed 505 U.S. adults currently on anti-obesity medications through an online questionnaire focused on sociodemographic factors, personal characteristics, and questions concerning changes in eating habits, weight and food waste since starting on the medications. The data analysis looked for various influences on how much participants agreed with one key statement: "Since beginning this medication I have found I waste more of the food that I purchase."

Participants represented a range of ages, household incomes and education levels, and most had insurance. On average, the group had lost 20% of their body weight if they had been on the medications for at least one year.

The one-fourth of participants who had been on the drugs for a year or longer were less likely to report wasting food than people who had taken the medication for 90 days or fewer -- about 30% of the respondents.

Though nausea was the main driver of food waste, the results hinted at another possible influence: changes in preferences and habits that led people to toss foods that had fallen out of favor. Overall, participants reported adding produce, protein, fish and healthy fats to their diets and consuming less alcohol, pasta and other carbohydrates, fried foods, sweets and dairy.

"Meat is neutral in terms of eating more or less after starting this medication," Roe said.

The addition of vegetables to the diet -- the most commonly wasted food group in the United States -- was linked to a lower likelihood of wasting food, another sign of changing habits that, in this case, involved eating more veggie-dense meals.

Roe is planning another paper examining changes to household finances linked to taking anti-obesity medicines -- in terms of both pharmacy and food costs. Given the steady rise in GLP-1 agonist prescribing, there are broad local and global economic and environmental impacts at play, he said.

"People taking these medications in all likelihood will be spending less on food, but whether there is a chance to offset the cost of the drug through reduction in food spending remains to be seen," he said.

Other research labs have used simulations to show that reducing population-level food consumption can lower energy costs, preserve land and water resources, and reduce greenhouse gas creation by keeping discarded food out of landfills. But considering how relatively new anti-obesity medications are, there isn't enough data to make predictions about the extent of their societal effects just yet.

"I think it's clear that novel anti-obesity medications have a chance to impact global public health, and research suggests changes in intake of food can affect indicators of environmental impacts," Roe said. "There are lots of compelling questions as we think about sustainability of the food system and health care."

First author Jamil Mansouri, a Purdue University agricultural economics student, completed this work as a summer intern at Ohio State as part of the Big Ten Academic Alliance Summer Research Opportunities Program.

This research was supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture and Ohio State's Van Buren Fund, which supports the professorship held by Roe in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.