Published by The Drift
Words by Vivian Hu
Illustration by Kristen Huang
Today’s story is a quick shot of opinionated criticism from The Drift. Their latest issue contains a collection of short essays about food and power, and this piece stood out with its reconsideration of the so-called weight loss revolution. (If you like this one, check out the other essays in the collection to see the many different ways the writers interpret the theme.)
In a March 2024 special titled “Shame, Blame, and the Weight Loss Revolution,” Oprah Winfrey aired what was essentially an infomercial for a new class of drugs that promised to revolutionize the way we thought about obesity. The hour-long segment promoted Ozempic, Mounjaro, and Wegovy, which target GLP-1 (and, in Mounjaro’s case, GIP) receptors to make people feel fuller and slow the rate at which their stomachs empty. On the show, patients noted that the medications silenced their cravings for the first time. “It felt like I was freed,” one said. Winfrey agreed: “All these years, I thought all of the people who never had to diet were just using their willpower, and they were for some reason stronger than me,” she said. “And now I realize: y’all weren’t even thinking about the food! It’s not that you had the willpower; you weren’t obsessing about it!”