It’s been a couple of weeks since SupplySide West, which has given me some time to wrap my head around what was there. There was, of course, the obvious: brain health, women’s health and gut health alongside evidence-based branded ingredients, gummies concepts galore and cellular health. But the thing that was just… everywhere? GLP-1.
And under the GLP-1 headline, three main themes:
- A re-emergence of interest in weight management
- GLP-1 products or GLP-1 companion products
- A wider interest in understanding and communicating metabolic health and blood sugar control
It’s one thing to speak about what we’re seeing in terms of GLP-1 for weight management, but I can’t gloss over how I feel about it. So in order to take a measured approach, I started by asking myself: “What was the spark that lit the flame in the GLP-1 wildfire?”
The science and history of Ozempic
GLP-1 became headline news as a pharmaceutical drug approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in 2017 for people with type 2 diabetes, alongside diet and exercise.
Here’s how it works, directly from the EMA’s approval:
“The active substance in Ozempic, semaglutide, is a ‘GLP-1 receptor agonist’. It acts in the same way as GLP-1 (a hormone produced in the gut) by increasing the amount of insulin that the pancreas releases in response to food. This helps with the control of blood glucose levels.”
In 2021, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Wegovy (semaglutide) for:
“Chronic weight management in adults with obesity or overweight with at least one weight-related condition (such as high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, or high cholesterol), for use in addition to a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity.”
Both the FDA and the EMA have since published concerns about the use of GLP-1 receptor agonists for cosmetic weight loss in people without obesity or people that may be overweight but without weight-related health problems. There’s also the issue of unapproved versions of GLP-1 drugs in the market.
What happened next?
That’s the million-dollar question.
Simply put, GLP-1 drugs work. And they really work at helping people lose weight fast. But, what started as an approved drug has become a mainstream trend with far-reaching effects across society and, as a result, the active nutrition landscape.
We think there’s something to be said for the culmination of three important psychological triggers associated with GLP-1 drugs.
- They’re approved medicines. This means we consider them to be relatively safe and efficacious. Because of this, they’re not perceived as shady or a guilty pleasure.
- GLP-1 drugs tap into our desire to get results yesterday without any of the hard work usually associated with losing weight. It’s instant gratification.
- The advertising we’ve been conditioned to tells us that losing weight is equal to body confidence, vitality, youth and ultimately, beauty.
In a nutshell — you can get ridiculously good results, making you skinny and beautiful in society’s eyes, and best of all, it’s ok because it’s approved.
There’s also a bigger societal shift occurring with GLP-1 drugs. We seem to be moving away from embracing curves to once again embracing being slim. To illustrate this shift, a picture from an article in the Observer epitomises the industry throwing a grenade on body positivity. And to drive home the effects of said grenade, the article made the quote: “The waif is back.”
What does this mean for the active nutrition industry?
GLP-1 drugs have certainly lit a flame under the long-standing pillar of weight management — a staple of active nutrition.
We have to be pragmatic. Brands entering the world of GLP-1 are responding to whitespace in the market and a new category of consumers. GLP-1 companion products are an easy way for brands to shift the gaze to a group of active consumers without the need to invent a new product. And fundamentally, if people need help losing weight, we should support that.
But it does feel more like a shiny bullet or pot of gold. There’s an obvious dollar opportunity, but do we know enough about GLP-1 products for weight management and the long-term health repercussions?
To me, the vibe at SupplySide West had the hallmarks of shooting from the hip. And while I subscribe to the importance of consumers losing healthy weight and to helping people on drugs find the right support, I have a niggle with GLP-1.
GLP-1 may have already been in existence but the active nutrition world should pause for a second and ask itself if the real reason to target GLP-1 users with companion products is to help them become healthier while using GLP-1 products, or if it’s because they’re a new group of consumers ripe for the picking.
As an industry, have we done our jobs well enough so that people don’t look to prescription drugs to lose weight? Or is it simply that by their very nature, GLP-1 drugs blew the active nutrition landscape wide open, and brands are simply reacting by reorienting themselves to the new wave of consumers?
📷 The Observer
