Cornell study links GLP-1 use to smaller grocery and fast-food bills

Households across the United States spent less on food after someone in the home started a GLP-1 medication such as Ozempic or Wegovy, according to research published Dec. 18 in the Journal of Marketing Research. Grocery bills fell 5.3% on average in the first six months, and limited-service restaurant tabs fell about 8% ^[1].

The paper pairs two kinds of data. One is a purchase panel run by the market research firm Numerator, which tracks grocery and restaurant transactions for a nationally representative group of roughly 150,000 households. The other is a series of surveys asking household members whether they used a GLP-1 drug, when they began and for what reason. The authors compared households that started treatment with similar ones that did not, in an attempt to separate medication-related shifts from trends already underway ^[1].

The savings varied by income and by aisle. Households earning more cut grocery spending by more than 8%, well above the 5.3% average. Savory snacks dropped about 10%, and spending on sweets, baked goods and cookies fell by a similar amount. Basics such as bread, meat and eggs also came down. Few categories grew: yogurt rose the most, followed by fresh fruit, nutrition bars and meat snacks ^[1].

"Only a small number of categories show increases, and those increases are modest relative to the overall decline," said Sylvia Hristakeva, an assistant professor at Cornell's Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management and a co-author ^[1]. Her co-author is Jura Liaukonyte, a professor in the same school ^[1].

The pattern held for at least a year among households that stayed on treatment, although the size of the drop narrowed over time. Once people stopped, spending returned to where it had been before they started, and their grocery baskets ended up a bit less healthy than beforehand, partly because of more spending on candy and chocolate ^[1].

Adoption climbed over the study window. The portion of U.S. households reporting at least one GLP-1 user went from roughly 11% in late 2023 to more than 16% by mid-2024. People taking the drugs for weight loss tend to be younger and wealthier; those taking them for diabetes tend to be older, with incomes closer to the population overall ^[1]. About one in three users quit during the period studied ^[1].

The authors caution that they cannot fully separate the drugs' biological effects from other changes users may make at the same time. Clinical trial evidence, plus the fact that spending snapped back after people stopped, points toward appetite suppression as a likely driver ^[1].

Why it matters for patients

The figures are averages across households, not a forecast for any one person. The study recorded what households bought, not what anyone ate, and it did not track health outcomes such as weight or blood sugar. Whether buying fewer snacks translated into better health has not been reported ^[1].

The reversion after discontinuation is a practical detail. People who stop the medication and find their food spending back at prior levels are showing the same pattern the researchers found across the panel, and about one-third of users stopped at some point, one of the few measures available of how long people stay on these drugs outside clinical trials ^[1].

Changes may also reach the shelf. Food manufacturers, restaurants and retailers face possible long-term shifts in demand, particularly for snack foods and fast food, which the paper says could affect package sizes, product formulations and marketing. No company has publicly said what it plans to do ^[1].

What happens next

The study appeared in the Journal of Marketing Research on Dec. 18, 2025. No follow-up research on how GLP-1 use reshapes food demand has been announced ^[1].

The authors note that even modest household-level changes can add up at current adoption rates, which they say makes these demand shifts worth tracking for food markets and consumer spending ^[1].