How companies like Nestlé and Unilever are cashing in on the Ozempic diet trend

Sonja Bakker has long been out of fashion if you want to lose weight (and that probably also has something to do with the drama surrounding her). No, the new way to lose kilos quickly and easily is to use Ozempic. You’ll hardly believe it—but, ahem—major food companies are now cleverly capitalizing on that trend. Among other things, they’re doing so by launching products and supplements that ‘fit perfectly’ into an Ozempic diet.

Let’s go back to the beginning for a moment. What exactly is Ozempic again? Ozempic is a medication originally used by people with diabetes (type 2 diabetes). The drug helps keep your insulin levels stable. But it has an interesting side effect. It boosts the body’s natural gut hormone GLP-1, a hormone that suppresses your appetite. And so you lose weight quickly and easily. Ozempic has therefore become so popular in the dieting world that there was even an impending shortage for people who genuinely needed it for health reasons. People with diabetes, that is. However, that doesn’t stop ‘off-label’ Ozempic users from continuing to take it.

Panic in the food industry

Ozempic suppresses your appetite, causing you to lose weight. More specifically, it reduces your calorie intake by 20 to 30 percent. You also have far less desire for unhealthy food. Instead, you’d rather reach for apples, kale and cucumbers.

A development that has companies like Nestlé, Unilever and Danone panicking. These companies are, after all, known for producing ultra-processed food—something that doesn’t exactly seem to fit into a diet at first glance. ‘Fortunately,’ the panic was short-lived. Nestlé and co. have already come up with enough solutions to cleverly capitalize on the Ozempic trend after all.

Not challenges, but growth opportunities

The companies saw ‘growth opportunities’ rather than challenges after all. According to Follow The Money, an independent investigative journalism platform, major food companies are responding to a diet that promotes ‘‘alternating ultra-processed food, medicines to counter the effects of that ultra-processed food, specially tailored ready-made products, and supplements.’’

Nestlé, for example, continues to focus on selling ultra-processed food. These are products that don’t initially seem particularly unhealthy, such as breakfast cereals, but also clearly less healthy products. Think Wagner pizzas and KitKat. At the same time, Nestlé also makes ready meals and products that would fit perfectly into an Ozempic diet. One example is the product line called Vital Pursuit. This range includes, for example, a four-cheese pizza and generously filled sandwiches that contain exactly the right amount of calories and nutrients—if you believe the packaging. But Nestlé and co. are also choosing to market existing products differently. Think of all those high-protein products you now come across in the supermarket at every turn.

Their own supplements and weight-loss drugs

But it goes a step further. We haven’t even talked about the supplements that food companies are enthusiastically launching. These are ‘natural’ supplements that are supposedly meant to have the same effect as Ozempic, or supplements that are meant to suppress Ozempic’s side effects. In the latter case, think of supplements that offer support with fatigue or supposedly reduce hair loss. Yes, Ozempic also has unpleasant side effects.

To make things even more excessive, Nestlé and Unilever are also said to be—or have been—busy developing their own weight-loss drugs. According to Follow The Money, Unilever Ventures (Unilever’s investment arm) invested an undisclosed amount in the American fitness platform Lifeforce. Lifeforce makes supplements and produces various active substances used in weight-loss medications. How far can this go…

Enough to make you cry

So things are going wrong in so many ways. For starters, there’s the misuse of Ozempic as a weight-loss drug, resulting in shortages for people with diabetes. But there’s also the fact that major, influential companies that fill large parts of our supermarkets are responding to this in unhealthy ways for financial gain. Sometimes our food industry is enough to make you cry. And I’m afraid it will remain that way for a long time to come.

Read also:

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• Huh? Do you lose weight by eating cooled potatoes?

Source: Follow The Money