As some describe it, this is where the world is headed thanks to the discovery of weight-loss drugs. In just three years since the U.S. Federal Drug Administration approved these drugs, their use has exploded. Novo Nordisk, maker of Ozempic and Wegovy, has become Europe’s most valuable company. Eli Lilly, maker of Mounjaro, was one of America’s top performers last year. And celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Kelly Clarkson have emerged, almost overnight, slimmer.
, about 9 percent of Americans will be taking brand-name versions of diet pills. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Demand for these drugs continues to grow. On the New York subway, Ro, a health startup, advises passengers to “skip the shortages” and get cheaper versions for just $99 a month. Instagram is plastered whatsapp number list with ads from companies like hers and eden, which appeal to young people with lowercase brand names and soothing color schemes. In September, socialite Kourtney Kardashian began selling a capsule through her supplement company lemme, which also sells vaginal probiotic gummies and cellulite pills.
The most important consequence of the discovery of these drugs is well known: they will improve the health and lives of most of those who have access to them. But the understandable joy in the health benefits has been tempered, in some quarters, by fears that the drugs will encourage society’s worst aesthetic impulses: that they will raise an even more fervent expectation that everyone conform to contemporary beauty standards, a tendency that can bring with it a health burden in the form of mental health conditions and eating disorders.