Glucagon-like peptide-1 agonism - GLP-1, common in obesity medicines - is not essential to weight management, according to preclinical research led by Richard DiMarchi and Matthias Tschöp, with funding from their startup company Bluewater Biosciences.
Except you are ignoring the concept of tapering.
If you cold turkey alcohol or benzos you will have seizures and do permanent damage to your body. You’re supposed to be weaned off.
In a similar way, you can wean yourself off of excess calories by reducing portion size.
Obviously the end result isn’t a complete stop but it could be a complete cessation of certain foods. Just like how heroin addicts are given suboxone/methadone for their cravings.
Except with alcohol and benzos you don’t have to consume a perfect, healthy portion of alcohol and benzos for the rest of your life to stay alive.
You’re missing the point. No one would suggest to an alcoholic that they just get better at consuming the right portion size of alcohol, because that’s not how addiction works.
As tmyakal said echoed, and I said originally, the better comparison is suboxone/methadone, its about weaning off the harmful food into healthier ones with medical help.
I wasn’t trying to snark, and I understood the point, I was primarily trying to point out how harmful it is to ‘stop cold turkey’ with drugs, and how the relationship with addiction is still similar.
You can wean off of Xanax onto Valium and then reduce dose/dosing frequency until cessation.
You can wean off Heroin onto suboxone/methadone in the same way.
You can wean down from 20mg nicotine to 12, 6 and 3, before switching consumption methods and then finally quitting.
In the same way you can wean down from mcdonalds and taco bell, to home made meals with controlled portions, you can try foods that have high volume. You can stop drinking your calories and consuming sugar. Over time those meals that make you fat will become disgusting and your habit and addiction will falter.
Obviously you can’t stop eating completely, and just like alcohol addiction the triggers are ever present in society. But the idea that you can’t approach it in the same way is faulty.
And once weaned off of whatever the addict is addicted to, then what?
Is it OK for a crack addict to have a reasonable portion of crack? Or an alcoholic to have a reasonable portion pf alcohol? Or an ex-smoker to have a reasonable number of cigarettes?
No it’s not OK. No one would ever suggest that. And if you think that a food addict is only addicted to sodas and Ruffles, you’re mistaken and have never seen me at a sushi bar.
I mean, methadone is a portion-controlled opioid used to treat heroin addiction. It’s traditionally meant to be weaned off of, but there are plenty of people that use it their whole life.
It’s the equivalent of sitting down with a dietician, making a meal plan, and holding yourself accountable to it. Addiction only ends when the user is willing to commit to the action.
To come full circle, that’s what GLP-1 drugs are. A medical intervention for an addiction. Same as methadone. It’s not a coincidence that GLP-1 drugs also curb cravings for other addictive behaviors.
And that’s why the snark of the “Did you know you can just eat less to lose weight?” falls flat, because it’s completely uninformed.