The WEIGHT DEBATE

With many Australians now taking Ozempic or attempting to get their hands on a prescription, author Johann Hari speaks to Georgie Abay about his search for answers to a growing global health problem

- Johann Hari

Johann Hari is recounting the time he went to a party at the home of an Oscar-winning actor in Los Angeles. It was the winter of 2022 and the world was emerging from a Covid-induced haze. “In the Uber there, I remember feeling self conscious because – like a lot of people – I’d gained weight during lockdown,” recalls Hari, a British author and researcher. “I imagined walking into a roomful of celebrities who’d done the same.” Only, that wasn’t what happened.

“I arrived and it was the weirdest thing,” he continues. “It wasn’t just that they hadn’t gained weight, they looked sharper and clearer. They looked like their Snapchat filters.” When Hari remarked to a friend that there must have been an uptake in Pilates, the friend laughed before pulling out her phone to show him a picture of a blue Ozempic pen. The penny dropped – it wasn’t the Pilates.

The active ingredient of Ozempic is semaglutide, and it’s at the heart of a new wave of weight-loss drugs whereby users inject themselves weekly with a needle. Given that 47 per cent of Americans now want to use these drugs and there are predictions that one in four of the British population will be taking these drugs in just a few years, it’s not surprising that they are at the centre of one of the most complex health debates we’ve ever seen.

In Australia, semaglutide was approved in 2019 for use by adults with type 2 diabetes. The drug, which can also be taken orally, works to not only lower blood sugar but to support the pancreas to make more insulin (which is what diabetics lack). It also mimics the hormone GLP-1, which gives us a feeling of satiety and makes us feel full. Someone taking one of the new drugs is likely to lose up to a quarter of their body weight in six months.