What a boon to the processed food industry. Eat all of the crappy food that you want, and when it gives you diabetes and obesity, we'll spread the costs of the partial antidotes to your friends and neighbors. And the healthcare industry will get to treat the chronic diseases you'll get anyway. An early miserable death is just your part as a consumer to hold up big food and pharma.
Or, you could eat real food, and live a long healthy life without drugs. If you're some kind of extremist.
So I also agree on this take, but it's diametrically opposed to another view, that the processed food industry will suffer greatly.
The drugs are appetite suppressants, I personally lean on the side that the companies making junk food will suffer, because people will just not want to eat as much if they're on the drugs.
This makes me wonder whether a piece of installable software that 'suppresses appetite' for computer/phone use might someday become widespread. If so, it would probably impact internet companies in a similar manner to how ozempic may be impacting some large food manufacturers. It could even use the same mechanism of spreading in the us as ozempic, being sold by a company and prescribed by doctors.
> This makes me wonder whether a piece of installable software that 'suppresses appetite' for computer/phone use might someday become widespread.
Yeah -- I think if we can get a better grasp on how the reward systems of the brain work/how this could be a huge thing.
Actually if I think about it, the means might already be out there -- we're just not serious enough about the problem as a society yet. Regulation at the top level will probably come first at this point before a novel (likely expensive) treatment from a startup.
That aside, with how human nature is, I wonder if we'll see the pendulum swing back into society valuing (and thus assigning status) to people who are free of that addiction.
I think it'd be bad for internet companies that are heavily tilted towards addictive online activity -- the ones delivering value will probably be mostly fine, because they have at least some "tool" component.
For example Netflix -- as much as it can be an addiction/coping mechanism, it is legitimately a tool for enjoyment in healthy adults (essentially replacing/competing with going out to a movie theater by yourself or with others).
Or, you could eat real food, and live a long healthy life without drugs. If you're some kind of extremist.
From what I have read, many obese people are that way in spite of not eating bad foods. A loaf of multi-grain bread is 1500 calories. It would be easy to overeat that mindlessly, as I can attest from personal experience, but it's not junk food either. Adding oil, butter, etc. can turn low calorie food into fattening high calorie-density food. Granola is often touted as healthy but also calorie dense. Same for cheese, or peanuts. It would be trivially easy to overeat those and gain weight if one was not careful.
I defeated my own diabetes, and about 2/3 of my obesity, by going low carb. Zero bread, peanuts or granola, etc. High fat and protein. Yes, it is extremest. It also works a lot better than the drugs they had me on before this.
Or, you could eat real food, and live a long healthy life without drugs. If you're some kind of extremist.