Food-centered communities start reckoning with what GLP-1s do to shared meals

A widely read essay in Hadassah Magazine is asking a question many food-centered communities are quietly facing: what happens to rituals built around eating when millions of people lose their appetite for it? The piece, part of a broader wave of late-summer commentary, treats appetite suppression from GLP-1 drugs as a social and cultural shift, not just a private medical choice ^[1].

The essay centers on Beth, a 46-year-old New York City mother who said she got through Yom Kippur services last fall without thinking about food for the first time in decades, after six months on a weekly GLP-1 injection. She had dropped from a dress size 12 to a 6 and said she no longer experienced the "food noise" that once dominated her thinking about eating ^[1]. Beth also said the drugs seem to be everywhere in her social circle: "Everyone I know is on Ozempic" ^[1].

The numbers back up that impression. A July Gallup poll cited in the piece found that national use of GLP-1 drugs quadrupled between 2024 and 2026, from 3 percent of Americans to more than 11 percent ^[1]. A separate 2025 Gallup poll found women use the drugs more than men and that the medications appear more effective for women, with most users falling between ages 50 and 64 ^[1]. The same July Gallup report noted the US adult obesity rate has dropped from a peak of 39.9 percent in 2022 to 36.4 percent so far in 2026, a decline Gallup describes as tracking inversely with rising GLP-1 use ^[1].

The essay names familiar brands including Mounjaro and Zepbound, which contain tirzepatide, and Wegovy, a version of Ozempic built on semaglutide and developed specifically for weight loss ^[1]. It also notes that lower-cost compounded versions of these drugs, made by licensed pharmacies with the same active ingredients, are not FDA-approved, and that recent FDA restrictions on certain active ingredients could limit pharmacies' ability to keep producing them ^[1].

Why it matters for patients

For people managing type 2 diabetes or obesity, the essay frames appetite loss as one of the drugs' most disruptive side effects on daily life, not just body weight. Dr. Jody Dushay, an endocrinologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center who ran the first GLP-1 weight-loss study as a Harvard fellow, said the complications extend into how patients participate in communal and religious life. "Particularly for Jews," she said, "removing your ability to participate [fully] in those holidays and events can be very problematic" ^[1]. She added that expectations set by media coverage can lead to frustration when results vary, since researchers still lack good predictors of who will respond to the drugs and by how much ^[1].

Not everyone benefits equally. The essay cites scientific estimates that roughly 10 percent of patients simply do not respond to GLP-1s ^[1]. Side effects tend to be digestive, including nausea, diarrhea, constipation and vomiting, and physicians quoted in the piece recommend patients maintain high protein intake and do strength training, since muscle mass can decline along with fat ^[1]. Cost remains a barrier too: list prices for some GLP-1s exceed $1,000 a month, and while most insurance covers the drugs for diabetes, many plans do not cover them for weight loss alone, though exceptions sometimes apply for conditions like sleep apnea or hypertension ^[1].

Dr. Daniel Drucker, a University of Toronto endocrinologist who has studied GLP-1 hormones for more than 40 years, said large trials show patients on the drugs have fewer heart attacks, fewer strokes and lower death rates, with rare offsetting harms ^[1]. But he cautioned the drugs have not shown benefits for every condition, pointing to disappointing results so far in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease ^[1].

What happens next

The essay notes Eli Lilly this year announced trial results for a newer weight-loss drug class showing about 30 percent body weight loss over 80 weeks, roughly double current GLP-1 results and comparable to bariatric surgery outcomes ^[1]. As new formats, including a daily pill, and expanded Medicare coverage move forward, the piece expects usage to keep climbing, while some practitioners voice concern the trend could reinforce thinness as the only acceptable body standard ^[1].