Comment by somewhereoutth
Comment by somewhereoutth 16 hours ago
You may be wrong in the specifics of the mechanism of calorie reduction (reducing appetite vs reducing calorific absorption), but not in the general philosophy.
The obesity crisis (specifically in the US, but elsewhere too) has been caused by bad food essentially - food that is not only nutrient deficient, but also engineered to be as cheap as possible and addictive as possible to get you to buy more of it.
As ever, the US is attempting to fix the symptoms, as opposed to the underlying cause, following the general idea of 'if everyone does what they like, things will turn out ok (somehow)'.
Probably negative health implications of these drugs will surface as people become habituated, and we can continue to shake our heads and wonder how it all went so wrong over there.
It's unclear what the exact cause of the obesity epidemic is. Ultra processed foods are one theory, but not the only one. The US has been down the path before of making public policy from unsettled science, and it led to probably worse food.