Israeli startup Better Juice, which has developed a device that reduces sugar in fruit products by 80%, has obtained self-determined GRAS status in the US.

In the world of Ozempic and GLP-1, sugar innovations are booming. The latest startup to disrupt this space comes from Israel, and promises to reduce the sugar content in your fruit juice by up to 80%.

Better Juice, an alumnus of The Kitchen Foodtech Hub, uses microbial enzymes to convert fruit sugars into dietary fibre and non-digestible sugars – and now, it has obtained self-affirmed GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) status in the US, meaning products using its technology can be sold in the country.

The 2018-founded startup opened a commercial-scale facility in the Nes Ziona Science Park last year, which has the ability to process 250 million litres of fruit juice annually. And, having successfully trialled its technology with international berry juice manufacturers, it has now inked deals with several companies to bring reduced-sugar fruit products to the market.

“Completing GRAS self-determination is a significant milestone for Better Juice, as it validates our technology’s safety and efficacy in reducing sugar content by up to 80%,” said co-founder and CEO Gali Yarom. Speaking to Green Queen, she confirmed the first products made with this technology will be out in Q4 this year.

Better Juice converts sugar into non-digestible molecules

Better Juice employs specialised equipment – including fermenters and immobilisation processors – to grow and harvest the beaded microorganisms that produce the sugar-reducing enzymes. The device is inserted as a simple pass-through production step, which makes it accessible and adaptable for a range of manufacturers.

Here’s how it works. The product flows through the immobilised microbes, which contain active enzymes that bioconvert sugar molecules to non-digestible molecules – sucrose turns to dietary fibre, glucose becomes gluconic acid, and fructose is converted into sorbitol. “Gluconic acid gives us a better absorption of metal in the blood, and sorbitol is a natural sweetener,” said Yarom.

“There is a different ratio of fructose, glucose and sucrose for each fruit,” she added. So the amount of sugar reduced depends on the makeup of the fruit. “In oranges, mango, peach, pineapple and banana, there is a high sucrose value and 50% sugar converts to dietary fibres. In apples and berries, the sucrose level is very low, and only 10-20% converts to dietary fibres.”

The final product does not contain the microorganisms, but retains the new compounds, as well as the flavour and body of the juice. It isn’t diluted either, but the sweetness factor is lowered just a touch. Plus, it maintains the natural profile of vitamins, minerals, organic acids and fibre. For manufacturers, the flexibility and plug-and-play nature of the bioreactor will stand out – they can choose how much sugar to reduce, as well as which molecules to convert.

Better Juice can reduce the sugar content from “all kinds of juice flavours”, explained Yarom. “Orange, apple, all the berries, pomegranate, lemon, grapefruit, all the citrus, banana, mango, even coconut water. We can also reduce [sugar] from juice concentrates and purées, which gives us the ability to reduce [it in] all the food that contains fruits, like fillers in cereals, sorbets, jams… yoghurts and gummies.”

Its technology has been granted patents in the US, Europe, Brazil, Mexico, Japan, Australia, South Korea and Israel, and it has two further patents pending. The startup says it is the first solution that can reduce sugar from the whole range of 30-80%, and without adding enzymes.

On-trend with the Ozempic boom

With the self-determined GRAS status, Better Juice will enable food manufacturers to create cleaner-label, better-for-you foods at a time when their stock has never been higher. A 12,000-person global survey by Kerry in late 2022 found that 79% of consumers find reduced-sugar products healthier – but, after honey, sugar or sucrose was the second most preferred sweetener for respondents (46%).

It exhibited the need for solutions like Better Juice’s technology. Others innovating in this space include Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and British startup Zya, both of whom are creating ways to convert sugar into dietary fibre. “Zya converts the sugar to fibres in your body; it’s a different solution,” explained Yarom. “I prefer to say that I really consume products with fewer calories and low sugar.”

Speaking of which, Better Juice’s process also reduces calories in juices by up to 60%. It will speak to the large swathes of Americans who use GLP-1 agonist drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro, as well as those who are looking for food-based alternatives to these products. Companies like Supergut, Olipop and Poppi are all targeting the prebiotic fibre space, so creating a product that turns sugar into prebiotic fibre (among other things) fits perfectly.

“We reduce calories in our technology – it completely matches the trends of diet, healthiness and low calories,” said Yarom. Two-thirds of GLP-1 drug users have either quit or reduced their intake of sugary sodas, while 45% of Americans on these medications are consuming less sugar than before. With Ozempic taking hold over the food industry, investors believe companies making sugary foods should rethink their plans, including via new recipes.

It’s why companies are flocking to Better Juice to use its device. It has completed a proof of concept with 17 in a long list of customers, with many others receiving samples or in different stages of collaboration with the startup. Two of these are Citrosuco (the world’s leading orange juice producer) and ingredient giant Ingredion, which has an entire business department dedicated to sugar reduction. Nate Yates, head of that division, said in January that Better Juice’s tech “adds a completely new dimension” to its portfolio and helps “reduce sugar without compromising on great taste or nutrition”.

Ingredion’s VC arm will also lead the startup’s Series A investment round – it has previously raised $8M in seed funding. As it prepares for market entry, Better Juice will also notify the FDA for GRAS approval in the form of a ‘no further questions’ letter, which it expects to receive by mid-2025. It has international ambitions too, having filed for novel food approval in Europe, and with plans to do so in Canada, Brazil, and Australia and New Zealand.

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The effects of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs on the food industry continue to be felt, with a new survey revealing that users of medications like Ozempic and Wegovy are spending less money on eating out and ordering takeout.

When Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, CEO of Ozempic and Wegovy maker Novo Nordisk told Bloomberg that food company execs had been calling him for advice as they were scared about the impact of GLP-1 drugs on their businesses, it felt like a sea change for the industry.

The lines between food and pharma are blurring rapidly – and only one of them is benefitting from this association. In the US, nine million people were prescribed Ozempic, a number that Morgan Stanley analysts say could rise to 24 million in the next decade. This is because Ozempic, a medication for type 2 diabetics, has boomed in popularity after people couldn’t get enough of its weight-loss sister drug Wegovy.

In general, GLP-1 drugs – which also include the likes of Mounjaro, Zepbound and Victoza – are all the rage now. And their impact on how we see food, health and nutrition is unprecedented, and imposing. Morgan Stanley expects the global market for these drugs to reach $105B by 2030 – this is up from its earlier projection of $77B. Its analysts add that more people will be taking these medications, numbering around 31.5 million Americans – or 9% of the US population – by 2035.

Now, a new report by the investment bank has revealed just how GLP-1 drugs are affecting food businesses, with a majority of consumers spending less at restaurants and on takeout, and some reining in their monthly supermarket spend too.

GLP-1 users spending – and eating – less at restaurants

The 300-person survey covered Americans who are early in their weight loss journey but making substantial dietary and budgetary shifts. When asked about their monthly spending on eating out at restaurants since starting on a GLP-1 drug, 63% of respondents said they were spending less, while only 9% were forking out more. Similarly, 61% are spending less on food delivery or takeout as well, with just 8% spending more.

As for grocery shopping, there’s a more even split, perhaps a marker of the cost-of-living crisis. Whereas 46% of Americans are spending about the same as they were before taking GLP-1 medications, 23% are shelling out more, and 31% are putting in less money at supermarkets.

“There is growing evidence that the drugs have a meaningful impact on consumer behaviour and spending on groceries and restaurants,” the analysts said in the survey. “All of these dynamics suggest GLP-1 drugs’ impact across consumer sectors is set to increase as drug uptake grows and the drugs reshape behaviour among a demographic group that represents a disproportionate share of calorie consumption.”

The poll additionally found that people stuck with the same restaurants, but changed the type of meals they ordered. Moreover, 86% of respondents said they finish less food in one sitting while dining out (44% do so always or most of the time). They’re also ordering smaller portions of food – 41% said they do so most or all of the time, and 43% occasionally. This should come as no surprise, given one of GLP-1 drugs’ main attributes is to control appetite; people on these medications generally want and eat less food,

That said, Morgan Stanley’s analysts did note that the rise of GLP-1 drugs is “not an existential risk” to restaurants, but represents a “manageable long-term pressure”. “Restaurants offer convenience and/or experience in addition to food, and that won’t change with GLP-1 usage,” they explained.

Who stands to benefit, and who loses out?

While the survey’s respondents reported reduced food consumption overall, some categories are feeling the effects more than others. Around half of Americans are reducing their consumption of regular sodas, alcohol and salty snacks by 50% or more since starting on weight-loss drugs – in fact, 22% have reported cutting alcohol altogether.

Reflecting on these trends, Morgan Stanley predicts that ice creams will be the most affected food category over the coming years, with a 5.3% dip in consumption by 2035. Cakes, cookies, candies, chocolates, frozen pizzas, chips and regular sodas could fall by more than 4% in this time too, while alcohol, frozen meals, popcorn, pretzels, and crackers face a decrease of roughly 3%. This is why the analysts say Hershey’s, with its extensive snacking portfolio, is the most at-risk CPG company.

This chimes with other research too – a similar survey earlier this year revealed that 32% of consumers are eating fewer snacks, and 36% are drinking less alcohol. Another poll suggested that two-thirds of people have either quit sugary sodas entirely or reduced their consumption. And although alcohol spending has decreased across the US, the decline has been sharper in households with GLP-1 drug users.

But beverage companies say they’re fine. Coca-Cola states that 65% of its revenue already comes from low- or no-calorie drinks, and Pepsi doesn’t think GLP-1 drugs have slowed demand for its drinks. Alcohol giant AB InBev’s CEO Michel Doukeris, meanwhile, has also claimed Ozempic has not impacted the business, though Morgan Stanley said booze companies like Molson Coors, Boston Beer, Constellation Brands and Diageo should be the most worried in the beverage world.

Cigarette companies should be watching this space closely too, with smoking down from 40% to 24% per week, and use of e-cigarettes falling from 30% to 16% for GLP-1 medication users, although Morgan Stanley cautioned against drawing conclusions related to addictive behaviours, and said it was monitoring medical research in this area.

In terms of the foodservice sector, healthier fast-casual restaurants and coffee chains are better positioned to cater to the increase in GLP-1 usage. These include Starbucks, Chipotle, Cava and Sweetgreen. Separate research has shown that Cava and Sweetgreen have seen an increase in footfall from people who start GLP-1 medications, though visits to Chipotle have dropped.

On the contrary, domestic service eateries and more indulgent chains like Jack in the Box, Wendy’s, Wingstop, Portillos, and Shake Shack could face more pressure. The aforementioned research has actually called out the latter for its “lack of history of successfully pivoting to healthier offerings”.

And in terms of retail, pre-packaged fruit juices, soups, sports drinks, coffee, frozen diet meals, tea, granola and energy bars are among the products that will be the least affected by the rise of GLP-1 drugs.

The post Over 60% of Ozempic Users are Spending Less on Restaurants & Food Delivery, Shows New Survey appeared first on Green Queen.

Scientists in Spain have discovered two plant extracts that have potential as GLP-1 agonist weight loss pills akin to semaglutide injections like Ozempic and Wegovy, following an AI-led study.

In May, the European Congress on Obesity will hear the results of an AI-led study carried out by scientists, who have identified two plant compounds that could be potentially used as GLP-1 agonist weight-loss pills.

The two compounds are derived from very common plants whose extracts have been associated with metabolic benefits. Their identity is being kept under wraps until patents are granted, and they’re currently undergoing a lab testing phase.

GLP-1 agonists like semaglutide have been proven to be effective in helping people lose weight. They replicate the action of a hormone called GLP-1, binding to and activating the hormone’s receptor in cells, which in turn reduces appetite, slows the release of food from the stomach, and prolongs the feeling of being full.

Semaglutide drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro have taken over the consumer health and food industries in the last couple of years. While such drugs began life as treatments for type 2 diabetes, once the US FDA approved Wegovy for weight loss, sales ballooned and supplies strained, leading to many providers upping their Ozempic stock. In 2022 alone, nine million Americans were prescribed Ozempic, and that could rise to 24 million in the next decade, according to analysis by Morgan Stanley.

However, these drugs are associated with a wide array of side effects, and some say alternatives are needed. Elena Murcia from the BIO-HPC & Eating Disorders Research Unit at the Catholic University of Murcia in Spain is one of them. “Although the effectiveness of current GLP-1 agonists has been demonstrated, there are some side-effects associated with their use – gastrointestinal issues such as nausea, vomiting, and mental health changes like anxiety and irritability,” she notes. “Recent data has also confirmed that when patients stop treatment they regain lost weight.”

Using AI to identify Ozempic-like plant extracts

Murcia and her colleagues used high-performance AI techniques to identify non-peptide natural compounds that can activate the GLP-1 receptor. The team sifted through more than 10,000 compounds via virtual screening to find out which ones bind to the receptor.

More AI-based research explored how closely these bonds resemble the ones that occur between the GLP-1 hormone and its receptor, choosing the 100 most similar ones for further visual analysis. This was done to determine whether they interacted with key residues – amino acids – on the receptor. Then, they created a Venn diagram to identify the compounds with the highest potential as GLP-1 receptor agonists.

A total of 65 compounds were shortlisted, with two binding strongly to key residues. Titled Compound A and Compound B, the scientists are hoping that both can eventually be delivered in pill forms.

“Computer-based studies such as ours have key advantages, such as reductions in costs and time, rapid analysis of large data sets, flexibility in experimental design and the ability to identify and mitigate any ethical and safety risks before conducting experiments in the laboratory,” said Murcia.

“These simulations also allow us to take advantage of AI resources to analyse complex problems and so provide a valuable initial perspective in the search for new drugs.”

Shaking up the Ozempic-influenced food industry

Murcia explained that most GLP-1 agonists are peptides – which are short chains of amino acids that can be degraded by stomach enzymes, and at present, more likely to be injected rather than taken orally.

“Drugs that aren’t peptides may have fewer side effects and be easier to administer, meaning they could be given as pills rather than injections. Other recent research has highlighted two promising non-peptide compounds, TTOAD2 and orforglipron,” she said. “These are synthetic and we were interested in finding natural alternatives.”

This will speak to a key consumer need. A 388-person survey by VC firm Coefficient Capital and tech outlet The New Consumer earlier this year revealed that while 72% of Americans would use GLP-1 drugs for weight loss if there were no side effects, this falls to 52% if there are side effects. Similarly, without these outcomes, 40% plan to start and stop based on needs, compared to 22% with no side effects.

But drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy are already leaving a huge mark on the food industry. People are buying fewer items in supermarkets, they’re eating less fewer carbs and less fat, drinking less coffee and sugar, and ditching fast food. Meanwhile, startups championing prebiotic fibre and gut health stand to gain from this shift, and giants like Nestlé, Danone and Unilever all pivoting their offerings to cater to the Ozempic era.

“We focused on plant extracts and other natural compounds because they may have fewer side effects,” said Murcia. Plants are also naturally rich in dietary fibre, which regulates the incretin hormone in our bodies that can boost GLP-1. Provided that her team’s research can break through in clinical trials, it could prove to be yet another shake-up in the interconnected food and health space. “If our AI-based calculations confirmed in vitro and then in clinical trials, we will have other therapeutic options to manage obesity.”

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UK startup Zya has emerged from stealth with a dietary solution that can convert sugar into fibre for your gut, with hopes to get regulatory approval and commercialise in 2026.

American adults eat 17 teaspoons of added sugar every day – two to three times the recommended daily value. Over 11% of the population suffers from type 2 diabetes, while one in three people are clinically obese. And this has only been exacerbated by the fact that spending on sugar has grown recently, rising by 4% from pre-pandemic levels in December 2022.

Meanwhile, when it comes to fibre, only 5% of Americans eat the recommended amount per day. In fact, on average, people in the country eat just half of this value, despite fibre-rich diets being associated with a lower risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, strokes, high cholesterol and heart disease (the leading cause of death in the country).

What people really have been spending on – apart from sugar – are semaglutide drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, which already cost more in the US than other places. In 2022, nine million Americans were prescribed Novo Nordiksk’s Ozempic, a number that could rise to 24 million in the next decade, according to a report by Morgan Stanley.

The rise of these GLP-1 agonist drugs has also coincided with an increased consciousness about gut health. Fibre-forward food companies like Supergut, Olipop, Pendulum, Uplift Food and Poppi are already taking on the likes of Ozempic. Others, however, are working on boosting the body’s natural phenomenon to boost GLP-1 (which helps control appetite and metabolism). Our guts secrete incretin, a hormone that can be regulated with nutrients like dietary fibre and fermented foods.

One of these is London-based Zya, formerly called Inulox, which has just come out of stealth. The startup has developed an enzyme that can convert sugar into fibre inside the digestive system. “We want to use the power of enzymes to transform how our bodies use food,” co-founder and CEO Joshua Sauer told Wired.

How Zya’s enzyme transforms sugar into dietary fibre

Here’s how it works. The enzyme is an enhanced version of inulosucrase, an enzyme that converts sucrose into inulin fibre (found in plants like chicory root) and D-glucose. The enzyme acts on sugar before the body can break it down and absorb it. It’s produced using gene-edited microorganisms found in the human microbiome, which are capable of converting sugar to fibre in the gut – but here, this isn’t expressed in amounts that are useful.

Zya has modified the enzyme to scale up and improve its stability and performance. It does so by rearranging sugar molecules into inulin, which is a soluble fibre that promotes the growth of healthy gut bacteria. The startup claims that adding “micro quantities” of this innovation to foods can convert up to 30% of the sugar into dietary fibre, while retaining the taste profile.

Sauer and his team have tested the product on pigs (they weren’t harmed), who have digestive tracts similar to humans, and found “significant and meaningful levels of sugar-to-fibre conversion” in comparison to foods not containing the enzyme. They plan to test on humans too.

The conversion could be impactful enough to allow the food industry to make a new claim about foods containing the enzyme, which are expected to carry a price premium, albeit not too steep. Zya, which has raised £4.1M ($5.2M) across two funding rounds, is hoping to commercialise its product, called Convero, in the US by 2026.

But, to get there, it will need to pass some regulatory hurdles. Since enzymes aren’t listed on nutritional labels, companies would need to work with regulators to figure out how to list them as ingredients on food packaging, as well as back up any health claims they want to make.

Zya will also apply for regulatory clearance in Europe and the UK, but its US launch will initially be geared towards use in dry food products, with Sauer noting that manufacturers are already interested in using Convero in their portfolios. 

Transforming the gut health industry – but with a warning label

Sauer told the Guardian that Zya doesn’t want to make any health claims at all – instead, it wants to back up its functional claim that it can turn sugar into dietary fibre.  “You can enjoy sugar knowing it will be digested in a better way,” he said.

Zya is among a few other brands tackling the world’s sugar problem. Kraft Heinz has been working with Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering on a method to use enzymes found naturally in plants to convert sugar into fibre. The Supplant Company, meanwhile, makes Sugars from Fibre using agricultural sidestreams – the product has a lower glycemic response than glucose and is naturally prebiotic, hence good for gut health.

These innovations are contributing to the growing gut health market, which is expected to cross $120B in value by 2032. Moreover, they’re viable alternatives to Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro for people who don’t want (or need) to take semaglutide drugs, and an innovative way for food manufacturers to boost the nutritional aspects of their products as consumer needs evolve.

However, there is a flip side to it. “These sugar-elimination products, if they work, are likely to encourage people to continue eating largely unhelpful foods,” Tim Spector, the King’s College London professor whose work focuses on the gut microbiome, told the Guardian. He added that Zya’s technology – which the company explains as “not just offering less ‘bad’, but also more ‘good'” – doesn’t address the other hurdles (like high fat content) present in the industry.

“Focusing on eating whole foods and reducing our intake of ultra-processed products should be everyone’s priority,” he added.

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Semaglutide drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy are making headlines daily as more and more people get prescriptions; here’s how these drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy could change the food industry.

With a third of Americans clinically obese, it’s no surprise that once semaglutide drugs entered the mainstream conversation – they are mostly prescribed for type 2 diabetics – they took off. The likes of Wegovy, Ozempic and Mounjaro use GLP-1 (plus, in the latter’s case, GIP) hormone analogues to promote weight loss and blood glucose control – essentially, they make you lose weight, as a consequence of feeling fuller and eating less.

In 2022, nine million Americans were prescribed Novo Nordiksk’s Ozempic, a number that could rise to 24 million in the next decade, according to a report by Morgan Stanley. When you factor in diabetic and obese patients from around the world, there could eventually be over a hundred million people on these drugs within a decade. And the effects are more than physical. Goldman Sachs analysts predict that semaglutide drugs could boost the US GDP by 1% thanks to the productivity gains of a healthier labour force. This is why, in our 2024 food trends forecast, we predicted that Ozempic could change the food industry as we know it. Here’s how.

1) Big Pharma’s influence on Big Food may grow

Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, CEO of Ozempic maker Novo, made global headlines earlier this month when he revealed that heads of food companies had been in touch with him for advice. “A couple of CEOs from, say, food companies have been calling me,” he told Bloomberg. “They are scared about it.” Food companies are scrambling as they prepare for a consumer base that ends up looking for healthier food – and less of it.

Big Food is already feeling an effect. Walmart has already seen a fall in unit sales, as Ozempic-buying shoppers put fewer units and calories into their baskets, while manufacturers like Pepsi, Mondelez International and Kraft Heinz have all seen their stocks fall in the past year. Even Nestlé, in fact, is developing “companion products” packed with vitamins, minerals and supplements.

It’s likely Fruergaard Jørgensen and his counterparts at other drug companies now manufacturing their own versions of semaglutide, such as US-based Eli Lilly, will be fielding calls for a while.

2) Beverage companies could face challenges

Speaking of drinks, Ozempic could spell trouble for the beverage industry. One survey has shown that almost a quarter of people are drinking less coffee as a result of using semaglutide drugs, while two-thirds have either quit sugary sodas entirely or reduced consumption. And while alcohol spending has decreased in the US, this drop has been more dramatic among households where someone was using GLP-1 drugs for weight loss.

But unlike their food peers, executives of beverage companies remain mostly unconcerned. Nestlé, 7% of whose sales come from coffee, says it has plenty of categories (like pet care) where GLP-1 will have no impact. For Coca-Cola, 65% of its revenue already comes from low- or no-calorie drinks, while Pepsi doesn’t think GLP-1 drugs have slowed demand for its drinks. And alcohol giant AB InBev’s CEO Michel Doukeris has also claimed Ozempic has not impacted the business, despite anecdotal accounts that people taking these drugs tend to have far fewer alcohol cravings.

3) Health-forward food chains could see a revenue boost

The rise in semaglutide use could mean better sales for fast-casual chains and meal services that are centred around health. For example, vegan meal delivery service Daily Harvest has launched a new meal collection specifically for Ozempic and Wegovy users, in partnership with diet company Noom.

Meanwhile, Chipotle has already prophesied that Ozempic users would want its fresh, wholesome foods over junk foods like fries – research has shown people prefer vegetables and fruit when using Ozempic – although a recent survey revealed a dip in footfall from people who start GLP-1 medications. Salad chain Sweetgreen and Mediterranean restaurant group CAVA, however, say they have seen an increase in visits.

4) Fast-food companies will need to rethink their strategy

The above survey showed that burger chains are the hardest hit, with Shake Shack specifically called out for its “lack of history of successfully pivoting to healthier offerings”. But it’s not just foodservice – junk food retailers will need to revamp their approach too, with research showing that nearly a third of American GLP-1 drug users are eating fewer carbs and snacks, 38% are reducing their fat intake, and 45% are consuming less sugar than before.

People taking semaglutide drugs have been found to consume 20% fewer calories on average and be less interested in fatty, oily and fried foods, and a Bloomberg Live Pulse survey showed that fast-food companies will need to tweak their businesses or fall foul of investors. Nearly three-quarters of respondents said companies making sugary, fatty or ultra-processed foods should rethink their plans via smaller portions, newer recipes, or asset elimination, while only a quarter believed these conglomerates could see out the threat posed by these drugs with time.

5) Gut health, fibre-rich and plant-based food companies stand to win out

GLP-1 agonist drugs replicate a natural phenomenon in our bodies- our gut secretes incretin, a hormone that can be regulated with nutrients like dietary fibre and fermented foods, and boosts GLP-1 to control appetite and metabolism. This presents a significant opportunity for fibre-forward food companies like Supergut, Olipop, Pendulum, Uplift Food and Poppi, which are taking on Ozempic and Wegovy through foods and beverages packed with resistant starches and prebiotic fibre.

Plant-based foods, meanwhile, are adept at providing the nutrients needed to support a wider diversity of helpful gut microbes. Larger CPG companies are taking note of this. Take Unilever, which suggests that one of the best ways of maintaining microbiome diversity is to “eat a wide range of fruit and vegetables”, which is why it plans to double the number of products that include meaningful amounts of healthy ingredients such as vegetables and fruits. The goal is to make these products represent 54% of its total portfolio – by 2022, this figure had already reached 48%.

Likewise, Danone – the French dairy giant that owns plant-based dairy brands Alpro, Silk and So Delicious – is being tipped to succeed too, with analysts forecasting that it could double its sales through protein yoghurts and yoghurt drinks if Ozempic users end up going for healthier options. Just earlier this month, for example, it launched a protein-packed Silk Greek yoghurt in Canada, containing 12g of plant protein per 175g pack.

The post 5 Ways Weight-Loss Drugs Like Ozempic & Wegovy Will Change the Food Industry appeared first on Green Queen.

Marc Washington, CEO of superfood brand Supergut, speaks to Green Queen about riding the Ozempic wave, the importance of prebiotic fibre, boosting GLP-1, and formulating plant-based products.

For Marc Washington, it was a head-meets-heart story. His sister Monica lived with diabetes and hypertension and was clinically obese. Due to complications with her health and a high-risk pregnancy, she tragically passed away far too young.

“That tripped me to my core,” recalls Washington. “That was something that clearly should not have happened… I knew there had to be better ways, but nothing else allowed Monica to change her trajectory. ‘I think this is my purpose”, he thought at the time, “to help create something out of this tragic situation and help other people [towards] a healthier path where they’re more in control.’  In many ways, the kind of things that I wish Monica had access to while she was here.”

This painful part of his family history inspired Washington to start Supergut five years ago, a gut health brand leveraging prebiotic fibres for better digestive and metabolic health, and backed by nutritionists, scientists and medical professionals. Previously called MUNIQ – a portmanteau of ‘Monica’ and ‘unique’ – it was built upon the science of unique prebiotics, particularly resistant starches. These carbohydrates don’t get digested in the small intestine, but instead ferment in the large intestine to feed ‘good’ gut bacteria.

As MUNIQ, the business focused on supplements that transformed the gut, but also improved overall health, specifically targeting people “who need it the most”: those living with metabolic syndrome (a condition that affects a quarter of Americans). “I consider that phase an unbelievable proof of concept that this works,” says Washington. “We could take a food-as-medicine approach, and we can fundamentally transform people’s health in a significant way.”

But his goal was to impact broader public health. The more impactful way to do that was to be preventative and help people never get to the point where they’re living with metabolic syndrome. Prevention is better than cure, after all. In June 2022, the company rebranded to Supergut to focus on the mission.

In the second phase of the business, the idea was to transform focus from blood glucose or weight to the gut. “Whatever you’re dealing with in your life, we know that your gut microbiome has a significant role,” suggests Washington. The company carried out a peer-reviewed clinical study to validate “just how pervasively we could affect people’s health”.

Coming from a business background himself (with a supplements brand called Beachbody/BODi), he surrounded himself with scientific professionals to inform Supergut’s approach. “We really took more of a biotech approach, but just in the wrapper of a consumer brand,” says the Supergut CEO.

And it’s in the last few months that the Supergut has entered its third era, one where it’s creating gut-healthy superfoods as a “natural approach for appetite control”, which subsequently means better weight management, healthier blood sugar, and many other benefits. “We are doing that by helping naturally regulate your body’s production of these hormones in your gut called GLP-1,” explains Washington.

Is Supergut a natural Ozempic alternative?

GLP-1 has been a buzzword in health discourse over the last year with the rise of drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, which are prescribed to people with type 2 diabetes and obesity, but have become popular as weight-loss drugs: about 1.7% of American adults were prescribed one of these semaglutide (the drug’s generic name) medications in 2023.

Consumer awareness about GLP-1 is driving a step-change for Supergut, which is “made for these times”, according to Washington.

“We talk all day, every day about Ozempic: its impact on health, the secondary impacts on functional foods, its impact on our customers, how we complement it in some ways that we can be a natural alternative for somebody who doesn’t want to use them… We’re very much here for this Ozempic era.”

“We’re designing nutrient-dense, functional, high-protein, high-fibre, low-sugar foods that can amplify or complement the appetite control effects, but also balance out your digestive tract. That is Supergut.”

While the Supergut team was very familiar with the effects of GLP-1 hormones and their effects when it they first launched the company, Ozempic came onto their radar around two years ago. The company was conducting a 200-person “gold-standard” study using its shakes when one investigator who was impressed with the results mentioned breakthrough medications like Ozempic. Supergut spoke to leading experts in the field, who lauded these drugs’ transformative effects as well as “unbelievable promise” in weight-loss trials. As Washington puts it, “physicians were losing their mind”.

Washington and his team continued to focus on their product range before GLP-1 agonist drugs really exploded last year and forced Supergut to pay attention. The human gut has its own version of GLP-1, incretin hormones, which can be regulated with nutrients like dietary fibre and prebiotics like the ones Supergut is using, such as resistant starches and beta-glucans. “A big part of how [Supergut products are] actually doing their job at keeping you full, maintaining healthier weight and improving insulin response to manage blood sugar is GLP-1,” explains Washington.

The brand conducted a tongue-in-cheek stunt last year, branding its superfood bars as Wozempic. You know, Ozempic, minus all the woes. Those include the cost of the drugs, the needles and the side effects. “We’re saying: Hey, guess what? Our products help curb cravings, but we do it naturally,” says Washington.

It was a precursor to Supergut’s dialled-up brand positioning based on mimicking Ozempic. “This is a tsunami that’s about to take over not just pharma, it’s going to impact many people in broad, significant ways,” he notes. “So what are the secondary and tertiary effects of this? What’s the effect on food? People are going to eat less of certain types of food, but, they’re going to need more of other types of food, right? That’s us.”

A GLP-1 complement, not an Ozempic replacement

With all the focus on prebiotic fibre, it’s become an increasingly crowded CPG space – think Olipop, Pendulum, Uplift Food and Poppi, to name a few. Does this breed consumer confusion? Washington believes so, adding that this is not likely to change for the foreseeable future.

So how do Supergut’s products stand out? The idea is to focus specifically on the most efficacious types of prebiotic fibres that the body can tolerate at high concentrations. “You do need to get a fair amount of fibre in your diet in order to have some of these benefits,” he says. This is how the company landed on its unique, proprietary, patented resistant starch fibre blend (featuring green banana powder, beta-glucans from oats, soluble vegetable fibre from maize, and potato starch).

Supergut’s products help to diversify the prebiotic fibre content you’re ingesting and marry complementary elements like resistant starches and beta-glucan. This blend forms the base of its shakes, bars and add-to-anything powders.

The other aspect that differentiates Supergut, according to Washington, is the fact that the company has conducted primary clinical research, which revealed how its shakes can improve HbA1c (a measure of average blood glucose levels), appetite control, weight management (showing a steady decline instead of a massive dropoff), and blood pressure. “We also saw improvements in other dimensions connected to gut-brain access: better sleep quality, better energy, less brain fog,” he states.

“One thing we’re very clear about is this is not a replacement for Ozempic. This is not a magic pill. This is food. So this is going to work naturally in your body, and by no means are you going to just drink a shake and lose 20% of your body weight. They haven’t even made drugs that have been that effective, so clearly, you’re not going to get the same kind of results from a food product,” says Washington. “Plus from a regulatory standpoint, we have to be very careful. We don’t prevent, treat or cure any diseases. That is not us: we are loud and proud [about the fact] that we are a food.”

If you’re a semaglutide user, you might be wondering how complementation works with Supergut products. Washington suggests that Ozempic is, in effect, a Band-Aid, with studies showing that it does not “solve your metabolism”. When you come off the drug, the weight comes back on, a phenomenon dubbed the Ozempic rebound.

“We’re a very natural complement to help maintain and sustain those results over time, and tap into some of the same mechanisms, not at the same magnitude, but for healthier maintenance,” explains Washington. “And even while you’re on it, you need to get more nutrients from the fewer calories that you’re going to consume… it needs to be nutrient-dense – that is sort of our product.”

Then there are the side effects, which range from vomiting and nausea to constipation and diarrhoea. These can take months to subside, and for those who suffer longer-term, many end up withdrawing their use. The Supergut founder says its products can improve those digestive symptoms, something he ascribes to anecdotal evidence from the brand’s customers who also use Ozempic. The company hasn’t done any clinical testing on this aspect, but its research was done on consumers with metabolic syndrome, and it did showcase improvements in things like constipation, diarrhoea and nausea.

What about the Ozempic-curious? “A natural approach to appetite control and not walking around feeling hungry, maybe wanting to lose a couple [of] pounds – that’s relevant for almost every person with a heartbeat, right?” asks Washington. “We present that for them… It’s even relevant for a crowd that’s not going to use Ozempic per se.”

Opportunism, mixing prebiotics, and child use

With more and more companies riding the Ozempic wave, could there be a case of opportunism in the GLP-1-food space? Washington doesn’t lose sleep over it – why would he? It’s inevitable, after all, he says. “Whether or not their products have anything to do with Ozempic or cravings or GLP-1, there are definitely people – and for sure, there will be more that come into the market – that do try to position themselves as GLP-1-complement,” he explains. “That’s the nature of business.”

Instead, Supergut aspires to be the “first brand you think of when you’re thinking of natural ways to control appetite, boost GLP-1, and also get some great gut health benefits” in the meantime. “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity – we have been preparing for this moment for five years,” says Washington. “We’ve been iterating, grinding, investing and preparing, and now I think it’s our opportunity.”

Asked if you can consume Supergut products alongside functional fibre offerings such as Olipop prebiotic sodas, Washington says it’s complicated. “That’s where it gets a little complex,” he responds. “The main thing people need to know is that all fibre is good, and we essentially need to get a lot more of it in our diets than we do.” When it comes to daily amounts, most recommendations average out at 30g. In the US, only 5% of adults meet that requirement from their daily diet, the average person gets 16g per day).

But while all fibre is good for you, there are different tolerability aspects of different fibres – even at relatively small dosages: some can cause bloating, gas, and other side effects – which is why you have to be careful combining fibres from different products. Getting the right blend is key, something Supergut has prioritised with its high-tolerance, certified low-FODMAP prebiotic fibre mix.

So to answer the question, the average person could potentially consume both Olipop and Supergut’s products, but if they did too much, it could start to present some issues. “What does have pretty solid evidence – and we’ve seen some of the research – is a diet high in fermented foods, if you really want to get more live microbes into your diet,” suggests Washington.

He adds that children can consume Supergut products too – only the serving size needs to be adjusted. “We typically recommend cutting the serving size in half,” he says. “Our bars have been quite popular [among kids]… because they’re like a sweet treat.”

With his kids, he adds the unflavoured prebiotic powder into smoothies, juices, drinks, sauces and oatmeal to get more prebiotic fibre into their diets. You can even bake with it. “There’s different ways to try to get this into the diets because… it’s not always easy to get them to eat their whole-food, high-fibre diets,” he says. “This helps supplement that by getting it in without them even knowing.”

Why Supergut isn’t 100% vegan

Supergut isn’t a fully plant-based brand – of its current range, the prebiotic fibre blend and some shake flavours are vegan. But for a country where 36% of people have lactose malabsorption, and between 80-90% of African Americans, Native Americans and Asian Americans are lactose-intolerant, how important is it to have a wider range of non-dairy products?

“We’re straddling the worlds of plant-based versus just general nutrition,” says Washington. He adds that a future fully vegan product line is possible. “I’m really trying to have the broadest impact possible at the end of the day, and so I tend to not focus too specifically on restrictions around diet or making things that aren’t available.

“From the very outset, I didn’t want to just create plant-based products, I wanted to create products that I think will have the broadest impact and exposure. And that means some plant-based, but some that are not plant-based. That sort of reflects my personal belief and our approach as a company.”

He cites food writer Michael Pollan’s much-repeated axiom: ‘Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants’, calling the phrase “really, really powerful”, and reflective of his and the business’s outlook on a whole-food, plant-forward diet, “if not 100% vegan”. Having said that, the next couple of products in Supergut’s pipeline are plant-based versions of existing products.

Primed for success

With a five-year lead on gut health food products that naturally boost GLP-1 hormones, Supergut is very much meeting the Ozempic moment and the company is on track for robust commercial success. Washington says sales are up nearly threefold since Q3’23 “based on surging consumer awareness and interest around our gut-healthy, natural approach to curb cravings”.

The company recently launched in physical retail stores including Sprouts and Erewhon, and has additional upcoming launches at Bristol Farms, GNC and Fresh Thyme, going from zero retail shelves in 2023 to over 1,000 locations by the end of Q1’24, a rocketship momentum in CPG.

Can Supergut claim the ‘alternative Ozempic’ market? With more than 10,000 satisfied customers even before the semaglutide drug took over the world and orders for the brand’s bars exploding just in the last month alone, you wouldn’t bet against it.

The post Supergut’s Marc Washington is Meeting The Moment: ‘We’re Very Much Here for the Ozempic Era’ appeared first on Green Queen.

By Christopher Damman, Associate Professor of Gastroenterology, School of Medicine, University of Washington

Wegovy, Ozempic and Mounjaro are weight loss and diabetes drugs that have made quite a splash in health news. They target regulatory pathways involved in both obesity and diabetes and are widely considered breakthroughs for weight loss and blood sugar control.

But do these drugs point toward a root cause of metabolic disease? What inspired their development in the first place?

It turns out your body produces natural versions of these drugs – also known as incretin hormones – in your gut. It may not be surprising that nutrients in food help regulate these hormones. But it may intrigue you to know that the trillions of microbes in your gut are key for orchestrating this process.

I am a gastroenterologist at the University of Washington who studies how food and your gut microbiome affect health and disease. Here’s an inside-out perspective on the role natural gut hormones and healthy food play in metabolism and weight loss.

A broken gut

Specialized bacteria in your lower gut take the components of food you can’t digest like fiber and polyphenols – the elements of plants that are removed in many processed foods – and transforms them into molecules that stimulate hormones to control your appetite and metabolism. These include GLP-1, a natural version of Wegovy and Ozempic.

GLP-1 and other hormones like PYY help regulate blood sugar through the pancreas. They also tell your brain that you’ve had enough to eat and your stomach and intestines to slow the movement of food along the digestive tract to allow for digestion. This system even has a name: the colonic brake.

Prior to modern processed foods, metabolic regulatory pathways were under the direction of a diverse healthy gut microbiome that used these hormones to naturally regulate your metabolism and appetite. However, food processing, aimed at improving shelf stability and enhancing taste, removes the bioactive molecules like fiber and polyphenols that help regulate this system.

Removal of these key food components and the resulting decrease in gut microbiome diversity may be an important factor contributing to the rise in obesity and diabetes.

A short track to metabolic health

Wegovy and Ozempic reinvigorate the colonic brake downstream of food and microbes with molecules similar to GLP-1. Researchers have demonstrated their effectiveness at weight loss and blood sugar control.

Mounjaro has gone a step further and combined GLP-1 with a second hormone analogue derived from the upper gut called GIP, and studies are showing this combination therapy to be even more effective at promoting weight loss than GLP-1-only therapies like Wegovy and Ozempic.

These drugs complement other measures like gastric bypass surgery that are used in the most extreme cases of metabolic disease. These surgeries may in part work much like Wegovy and Ozempic by bypassing digestion in segments of the gastrointestinal tract and bathing your gut microbes in less digested food. This awakens the microbes to stimulate your gut cells to produce GLP-1 and PYY, effectively regulating appetite and metabolism.

Many patients have seen significant improvements to not only their weight and blood glucose but also reductions in important cardiovascular outcomes like strokes and heart attacks. Medical guidelines support the use of new incretin-based medications like Wegovy, Ozempic and Mounjaro to manage the interrelated metabolic conditions of diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease.

Considering the effects incretin-based medications have on the brain and cravings, medical researchers are also evaluating their potential to treat nonmetabolic conditions like alcohol abuse, drug addiction and depression.

A near-magic bullet – for the right folks

Despite the success and prospect of these drugs to help populations that may benefit most from them, current prescribing practices have raised some questions. Should people who are only a little overweight use these drugs? What are the risks of prescribing these drugs to children and adolescents for lifelong weight management?

While incretin-based therapies seem close to magic bullets, they are not without gastrointestinal side effects like nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and constipation. These symptoms are related to how the drugs work to slow the gastrointestinal tract. Other more severe, but rare, side effects include pancreatitis and irreversible gastroparesis, or inflammation of the pancreas and stomach paralysis.

These drugs can also lead to a loss of healthy lean muscle mass in addition to fat, particularly in the absence of exercise. Significant weight gain after stopping the drugs raises further questions about long-term effects and whether it’s possible to transition back to using only lifestyle measures to manage weight.

All roads lead to lifestyle

Despite our greatest aspirations for quick fixes, it’s very possible that a healthy lifestyle remains the most important way to manage metabolic disease and overall health. This includes regular exercise, stress management, sleep, getting outdoors and a balanced diet.

For the majority of the population who don’t yet have obesity or diabetes, restarting the gut’s built-in appetite and metabolism control by reintroducing whole foods and awaking the gut microbiome may be the best approach to promote healthy metabolism.

Adding minimally processed foods back to your diet, and specifically those replete in fiber and polyphenols like flavonoids and carotenoids, can play an important and complementary role to help address the epidemic of obesity and metabolic disease at one of its deepest roots.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The post How Food and the Gut Microbiome Can Stimulate Your Body’s ‘Natural Ozempic’ appeared first on Green Queen.

Can our bodies help us create a natural Ozempic effect through vegan food consumption? Unilever is banking on plant-based diets to enhance the gut microbiome and boost consumers’ health.

With Ozempic and Wegovy dominating conversations about health over the last year – equally for their weight loss abilities and associated side effects – some TikTokers took to the naturally-occurring compound berberine, hailing it as “nature’s Ozempic”.

But it turns out there might be a natural version of these GLP-1 agonist semaglutide drugs: our gut. Specifically, incretin hormones, which can be regulated with nutrients like dietary fibre and foods that are fermented. Many plant-based foods are rich in fibre and polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs), which are key to feeding the gut microbes that produce incretin hormones – and it’s these products that one of the world’s largest food companies is banking on to improve consumer health.

By next year, Unilever is hoping to reach €1.5B ($1.61B) in annual sales from plant-based products in categories that would have traditionally used animal-derived ingredients. Further, the company says it plans to double the number of products that include meaningful amounts of healthy ingredients such as vegetables and fruits. The goal is to make these products represent 54% of its total portfolio – by 2022, this figure had already reached 48%.

Explaining the move, Unilever’s global health director Julie Willems highlighted the health benefits of a plant-based diet. “Firstly, it’s typically lower in calories and saturated fat and higher in fibre and unsaturated fats. Secondly, it can reduce the risk of disease,” she said.

“Different studies have shown that plant-based diets can prevent diseases by improving glycaemic control, and reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and being overweight. There are also strong scientific indications that plant-based diets are generally associated with a reduced risk of developing cardiovascular diseases, overall cancer incidence and/or mortality.”

How plant-based foods can trigger our bodies’ natural Ozempic

Research published in the peer-reviewed MDPI journal Nutrients last year revealed that plant-based diets could be the key to a healthy gut microbiome. As Christopher Damman, a professor of gastroenterologist at the University of Washington, notes: “Specialised bacteria in your lower gut take the components of food you can’t digest, like fibre and polyphenols… and turns them into molecules that stimulate hormones to control your appetite and metabolism. These include GLP-1, a natural version of Wegovy and Ozempic.”

Damman explains that modern food processing can remove bioactive molecules such as fibre and polyphenols, which help regulate metabolism and appetite. Drugs like Wegovy, Ozempic and Mounjaro use GLP-1 (plus, in the latter’s case, GIP) hormone analogues to promote weight loss and blood glucose control – but these incretin-based therapies are also linked to gastrointestinal side-effects like nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and constipation, with more severe (but rarer) impacts including serious digestive issues like stomach paralysis, pancreatitis, and bowel obstructions.

This is where plant-based foods come in, which are adept at providing the nutrients needed to support a wider diversity of helpful gut microbes, according to Simone Pyle, Unilever’s science and tech manager for the gut microbiome.

“Over half of the microbes in our gut can be altered by what we eat, so the trick is to ‘feed’ the beneficial ones that are critical to maintaining good health,” she said. “These ‘good’ microbes become influential, improving the microbiome’s composition in a matter of weeks or even days.”

Citizen science programme the American Gut Project has found that people who eat over 30 different plant-based foods a week have a more diverse – and thus healthier – microbiome than those who eat 10 or fewer. Robert Dixon, who co-leads the science and tech team at Unilever, suggests that one of the best ways of maintaining microbiome diversity is to “eat a wide range of fruit and vegetables”. This means more fibre with beans and legumes, more prebiotics with fruits like berries, and more gut microbes with fermented vegetables.

Unilever’s own research reviews of adult and child/adolescent eating patterns reveal that general vegan diets are higher in fibre, PUFAs, folate, vitamins C and E, and magnesium than meat-based diets. But across all dietary categories, people were still not eating a wide enough variety of foods to get all the nutrients they needed.

Unilever’s plant-based push for gut health

The CPG giant’s research projects are thus finding ways to improve its plant-based portfolio, with the target of selling double the number of products that “include meaningful amounts of healthy ingredients such as vegetables and fruits”, explained Pyle. Some of its brands making vegan products include Knorr, Hellmann’s, The Vegetarian Butcher, Ben & Jerry’s, and Magnum.

In the ethical investor network FAIRR’s database of companies investing in plant-based product development, Unilever topped the list for two consecutive years (including the latest one in 2022), indicating its position as the leader among companies using protein diversification to drive growth and build climate-friendly portfolios.

With a market cap of over $120B, the company’s products are used by 3.4 billion people every day. It plans to use its reach to amp up its vegan offerings and support its Positive Nutrition strategy. “Our new Knorr dehydrated vegetable range in Argentina, for example, is made from 100% spinach, onions, bell peppers and carrots. The products take only three minutes to hydrate, can be used in all sorts of cooking and have a long shelf life, making them a great way to avoid waste,” said Pyle.

“Our Knorr vegetable soups are another example, delivering more than half of the daily amount of the fruit and vegetables recommended by the World Health Organization,” she added.

The company is also encouraging increased adoption of plant-based foods, especially produce consumption. Last year, a 32,000-person international poll revealed that 75% of respondents don’t think they’re eating the daily recommended amount of fruits and vegetables, with 23% saying they eat the suggested portions less than once a week.

Similarly, over 45% of Dutch consumers don’t eat vegetables every day. “To address this, we reformulated our Knorr meal kits and changed our back-of-pack recipes for alternatives that required adding more vegetables and less meat without compromising on taste,” said Pyle. “Based on consumer data after the launch, we estimate that we have increased Dutch vegetable consumption by around three million kg per year.”

Pyle cited a global DSM study from last year, which suggested that 73% of consumers recognise the link between good gut health and overall wellness. “As the conversation around gut health grows, I see Unilever continuing to incorporate scientific insights into food innovations that can help make plant-based eating an appetising option for our consumers,” she said.

Can Unilever cash in on our “natural Ozempics” with plant-based diets?

The post Unilever Targets €1.5B in GLP-1 Boosting Plant-Based Food Sales by 2025 to Help Consumers Boost Gut Health appeared first on Green Queen.

Ozempic is everywhere right now, from newspaper headlines to household shelves. But what do Americans really think about weight loss drugs? Here are 10 things you should know.

In our food trends predictions for this year, we highlighted how Ozempic could change the food industry as we know it. The drug has taken over the cultural zeitgeist in the last year, with everyone from actors, producers, TV presenters and TikTok users singing its praises.

The brand name has become a genericised trademark – much like jelly is Jell-O and earbuds are Q-Tips. But it really is a semaglutide injection used to regulate insulin and book glucose levels in people with type 2 diabetes, a condition that plagues over 38 million Americans (or 11.6% of the total population).

What has really captured people’s attention is the drug’s ability to imitate glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), a hormone produced naturally by our intestines that signals to our body that we’re full. Essentially, it makes patients less hungry, less likely to overeat and less interested in snacking – people taking semaglutide consume 20% fewer calories on average. You can see the appeal.

The FDA hasn’t approved Ozempic for weight loss, but it has done so for Wegovy, another semaglutide medication. When this happened, demand ballooned so much that some providers turned to Ozempic when they couldn’t get their hands on Wegovy. In 2022, nine million people were prescribed Ozempic.

With roughly two-thirds of Americans overweight, and one out of three obese, this class of drugs has understandably generated a lot of interest – whether it’s people hailing their impact on weight loss, or voicing concerns about their side effects. Here are 10 things you should know about how Americans are thinking about weight loss, and how the anti-obesity market could shape up, based on a 388-person survey by VC firm Coefficient Capital and tech outlet The New Consumer, and a study by Morgan Stanley.

1. Weight remains Americans’ top problem

Across all income groups – from those earning less than $25,000 annually to over $150,000 – more than half of Americans would rather feel 25% healthier than earn 25% more money. And 40% of respondents are either very or extremely interested in losing weight – this is a sentiment more popular among Gen Z (49%) and millennials (48%) than boomers (27%), and women (45%) than men (35%).

Meanwhile, among consumers who are aware of weight loss drugs, 30% say they are very or extremely likely to use them, while a further 25% are ‘somewhat interested’. This is again higher among millennials (44%) and Gen Z (40%) versus boomers (10%).

2. A majority of GLP-1 users feel like different people (more protein, less sugar)

The survey found that 86% of GLP-1 users “feel like a different person”, with 47% describing the change as positive, and 9% as negative. Meanwhile, 12% said they haven’t found any difference.

Meanwhile, the 30% of consumers who felt different called it a neutral change. For people who experienced a shift in a good way, the sentiment was most popular among GLP-1 users who had been taking the drug for six to 11 months (59%). And of those who said no, the feeling was strongest among diabetic users (15%), versus 5% for weight-loss users.

3. Obesity medication is making Americans eat better

GLP-1 has apparently changed the way Americans are eating and buying food, with 43% consuming more protein, nearly a third eating fewer carbs and snacks, 36% drinking less alcohol, 38% reducing their fat intake, and 45% consuming less sugar than before. Weight-loss users are also spending 3.9% less on groceries and 2.1% less on snacks, with beans, grains, deli items, prepared foods and baked goods the most affected. But interestingly, 3.9% are buying more ice cream.

And when it comes to buying decisions, 56% and 54% are conscious of checking nutritional and calorie labels, respectively, while 48% look at ingredient lists more. Meanwhile, a third of Americans are ordering in less and 29% are dining out less (though an equal number are eating out more), with 39% cooking at home more.

4. GLP-1 users are more active and feel better

Americans who have been using GLP-1 medication for weight loss have found that they’re more active in life (42%), with exercise (41%), and sexually (29%). But a fifth also said they feel less sexually active than before. There were even larger benefits when it came to physical health (56%), mental wellbeing (46%) and social life (40%).

And among those who reported they lost weight, an average of 59% expected to lose either a little or a lot more weight than they did.

5. Americans plan to stick with weight loss drugs

There are interesting results around the frequency of use. For people using GLP-1 drugs for weight loss, 45% plan to use them long-term, but more (51%) are likely to go on and off based on their needs. For diabetics, long-term use is in the minds of 65%, while 27% plan to switch on and off.

These numbers drop down when accounting for side effects: 72% of Americans would use GLP-1 drugs if there were no side effects, which falls to 52% if there are side effects. Similarly, without these implications, 40% plan to start and stop based on needs, compared to 22% with no side effects.

In terms of duration, most Americans want to use these medications for six to 12 months – this is the case for 57% of weight loss and 45% of diabetic users. And 23% of the latter plan to use it for over 12 months, versus just 9% of the former. Money is also a huge factor: 46% would use these for more than 24 months if there was no co-pay and full insurance coverage, but only 7% would do so on a $100 copay.

6. About half of Americans are concerned about long-term effects

Nearly half of Americans (46%) who are aware of GLP-1 drugs are very or extremely concerned about their long-term health effects, which increases to 51% for those taking the medications. Another 37% are ‘somewhat concerned’.

When it comes to societal impact, across generations, more respondents believe there will be a positive effect of GLP-1 drugs, though this varies from age to age. Half of millennials think it’ll be positive, while only 23% feel there’ll be a detrimental impact. The biggest split is among boomers, 39% of whom believe GLP-1 medications will affect society positively, and 28% think it’ll make things worse – a third don’t expect any change.

Overall, on a scale of zero to 10, 7.55 of Americans would recommend these drugs to others.

7. In 10 years, 24 million Americans could be prescribed Ozempic

By Morgan Stanley’s estimate, 24 million Americans could be prescribed anti-obesity medications by 2035 – equivalent to 7% of the US population. The impact of these drugs on reducing appetites and calorie intake can shape attitudes around food, beverages and restaurants. “We anticipate meaningful impact in areas such as packaged food and beverages, restaurants, grocery stores and weight loss programmes,” write the analysts.

8. Obesity prevention could be a $50B market in the US

Morgan Stanley likens the Ozempic rush to hypertension, which was once viewed as the result of lifestyle choices rather than a chronic condition. Its biopharma analysts believe obesity treatment is “on the cusp of moving into primary care management”, and noting the rise of semaglutide drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy for weight loss in the last two years, they estimate obesity revenues to exceed $50B in the US and $75B globally by 2030.

9. Starting on anti-obesity drugs could cut about 1,000 calories daily

With anti-obesity medications, patients can lose between 10-20% of their body weight through reduced appetite, but the next generation of these drugs could see even bigger outcomes, cutting between 20-30% of the daily calorie intake, alongside a decrease of 23% in daily emails and 50% in snacking.

This amounts to consuming about 1,000 fewer calories per day, with a slightly larger drop for men than women. The analysts also forecast a 1.3% reduction in total calorie intake by 2035: “As a result, the food, beverage and restaurant industries may see softer demand and will need to adapt to changing customer preferences.”

10. Sugary drinks, snacks and preserved meats face the chop

There’s an even more pronounced decline among certain food categories, with Americans set to reduce consumption of sugary or carbonated beverages by 2.8%, baked goods by 2.7% and salty snacks by 24% come 2035. Of the foods analysed, dairy (-0.5%) and red meat (-0.9%) have the smallest predicted decreases.

“Across our food, beverage, restaurant and food retail research coverage, we see companies with exposure to ‘better-for-you’ foods as best positioned,” Morgan Stanley’s analysts say. “We acknowledge that the impact in the near term is likely to be limited, given that drug adoption will grow gradually, but we could see a longer-term impact as drug prevalence increases. Moreover, we expect companies to adapt to changes in consumer behaviour through innovation and portfolio reshaping efforts.”

The post The Ozempic Rush: 10 Things to Know About Semaglutide, Food Intake, Obesity & Weight Loss appeared first on Green Queen.

New research highlights the beneficial role of plant-based diets that are high in protein and fat in slowing weight gain. Could it be a natural counter to now-popular weight management drugs?

Last year saw the astronomical rise of drugs like Ozempic, a medication originally prescribed to treat diabetes, but which was found to have significant weight-loss properties. The main active ingredient that appears to prevent weight gain or even induce major weight loss, semaglutide, works by mimicking the GLP-1 hormone, thereby reducing insulin resistance, prolonging the feeling of fullness and curbing appetite. 

But as the year went on and the popularity of Wegovy and other weight loss-specific semaglutide-drugs became all the rage on social media, so did the reported number of side effects of the drug. These included nausea, stomach pain, vomiting and diarrhoea. 

Now, a new study is showing that there might be a natural alternative. Plant-based diets that focus on protein and fats, and are low in carbohydrates, might just be the prescription-free answer to keeping the pounds off in the long term. 

What’s a low-carb vegan diet?

Scientists at Harvard University found that low-carb vegan diets, which are mainly made up of plant-based proteins and fats and minimal refined starches and sugars, could play a “critical role in modulating long-term weight change.” 

The study, published in the journal JAMA, included more than 120,000 participants and involved self-reported diet updates and weight changes every four years, spanning from the year 1986 to 2018. 

While these vegan diets were low in carbohydrates, they weren’t devoid of them either. Sources of healthy carbs included those “from whole grains and other plant-based foods”.

Related: Vegan diets improve heart health, twin study shows

Not all low-carb diets are created equal

Most interestingly, the team found that not all low-carb diets were effective in managing weight gain in the long term. While almost all low-carb diets were associated with some level of weight loss in the short term, only the primarily plant-based group was “significantly associated with slower long-term weight gain”. 

“The key takeaway here is that not all low-carbohydrate diets are created equal when it comes to managing weight in the long-term,” explained the paper’s senior author Qi Sun, associate professor in the Department of Nutrition. 

“Our findings could shake up the way we think about popular low-carbohydrate diets and suggest that public health initiatives should continue to promote dietary patterns that emphasise healthful foods like whole grains, fruits, vegetables.” 

Related: Why you should join Veganuary? It’s better for your health, science says

Could low-carb vegan diets be ‘nature’s Ozempic’? 

These findings come at a time when boosting GLP-1 is a major area of interest as a solution to managing weight gain. The hormone has come into focus due to the rise of Ozempic and other GLP-boosting semaglutide pharmaceutical drugs as a weight management tool. 

It could be that GLP-1 boosting diets may be an effective natural solution by itself, with the Harvard study showing the promise that low-carb vegan diets could have. 

One of the reasons why the plant-based cohort in the study could have seen a slower weight gain trend could be because many vegan whole foods are rich in gut-healthy fibre, which provides satiety and has been shown to increase GLP-1 secretion. High-protein and high-fibre vegan foods deliver a double dose of this effect, such as legumes and beans. Avocado, a fruit loaded with heart-healthy fats and fibre, also activates the hormone. 

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