GLP-1 Digest Podcast

What happens to the food industry when millions of people start eating less?In this episode, I speak with Henry Dimbleby about the second- and third-order consequences of GLP-1s for food and beverage. Henry co-founded Leon, led the UK’s National Food Strategy, and is the author of Ravenous, one of the best books on how the modern food system learned to sell into human appetite.We discuss evolved appetite, why health education does not always change behaviour, what happens when food volumes fall, why “value per bite” matters, and why corner shops, snacks, confectionery, alcohol, and impulse purchases may be the first casualties. Chapters:00:00 Why GLP-1s matter for the food industry05:35 Health intent, appetite and behaviour change08:58 Where the money may be made around GLP-1s11:23 Why Big Food may be missing the meteor14:56 A volume-down world and value per bite23:10 Can food companies engineer around appetite suppression?33:45 Restaurants, corner shops and the high street43:16 The unexpected second-order effectsSubscribe to GLP-1 Digest:https://www.glp1digest.com

Lord James Bethell is a former UK Health Minister who served as Minister for Life Sciences during Covid. He chairs Business for Health, sat on the IPPR Commission that called the UK "the sick man of Europe," and advises the private health sector through his role at Oviva. In this conversation, we discuss the widening gap between what the NHS aspires to deliver on GLP-1s and what it actually can — and why the private market is filling the hole at unprecedented scale. TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Healthy life expectancy hits record low 1:03 "Your generation is going to have to pay off the national debt" 3:47 Can big interventions make quick differences? 4:57 "20–30% of the House of Lords are on GLP-1s" 8:17 The private market is filling the gap — so why the stigma? 8:42 "We've socialised acute care but privatised prevention" 10:03 Digital platforms are working — and rebooting expectations 11:35 The halo effect: GLP-1s as a gateway to gyms, CGMs, wearables 12:12 "Don't believe the patient" — the culture of the NHS 15:44 What's actually blocking preventative healthcare? 16:38 40 million chronic disease patients. 23,000 GPs. 18:32 The auto-enrolment analogy: friction, not apathy 21:13 The split society: rich health vs poor health 23:16 "This is about Blackpool, not Buckinghamshire" 24:56 "We can't jog ourselves out of this problem" 27:07 Schools, smartphones, KFC, and childhood obesity 31:34 "Declining health outcomes are costing us an absolute fortune" 35:19 "We've infantilised our people so much they can't take their statins" 36:49 Being Health Minister during Covid: "permission and mission"

Dr. Beverly Tchang is a triple board-certified obesity medicine specialist, endocrinologist, and Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at Weill Cornell. She also advises Ro.We discuss the commercial and clinical questions shaping the future of GLP-1s. Time stamps: 0:00 REDEFINE-4: CagriSema vs tirzepatide 7:35 Why the open-label design matters 8:59 Where Novo Nordisk's pipeline goes next 11:52 The real competitor isn't Lilly — it's supplements 12:48 Will GLP-1 adherence mirror statins? 15:49 Retention: a human behavior problem? 18:22 Why oral GLP-1s are storming the market. 22:26 What actually increases long-term adherence 26:52 Maintenance patients don't want to feel like patients 31:41 Insurance vs cash-pay: who should foot the bill? 36:25 Could life insurers play a role? 38:11 "Primordial care" — where health starts before healthcare 40:36 The case for compounding 46:26 Will compounding ever go away? 48:18 Can oral semaglutide and orforglipron be compounded? 50:40 Microdosing: what it means and who's doing it 55:22 Taking statins at 35 — and the prevention parallel 56:56 "Why wait for someone to gain more weight?" 59:35 Menopause weight loss: marketing or medicine?1:02:22 Does HRT boost GLP-1 weight loss? 1:07:13 The case for over-the-counter GLP-1s 1:10:22 Population-level impact of OTC access 1:12:32 Fly on the wall: the discovery of leptin in 1994

In this debut episode, Ashwin Sharma sits down with Professor Alex Miras, one of the world's leading obesity medicine specialists, to discuss the economics of GLP-1 medications.They cover: 1. Why the drug does the heavy lifting (not willpower)2. Why price is the only barrier that matters3. Why the muscle loss panic is probably a measurement problem4. The oral GLP-1 revolution and what it means for patients5. Food noise - the huge mistake clinicians are makingProf. Miras brings 15+ years of clinical and research experience from Imperial College London and King's College Hospital.Subscribe to the GLP-1 Digest newsletter for weekly analysis: www.glp1digest.com Watch the full video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/PF7fF8vclic